Searching on the forums...

[micksasse]

OK, now this is a really stupid thing to admit to... but I can't get my head around the search engine in these forums.

Could someone (Matt?) please let me know how I search for a phrase with more than one word. An example: I'm looking for posts/threads about the MSTS "short mile" phenomenon which has been discussed a while ago. I've tried both radio buttons, "Search for any terms or use query as entered" and "Search for all terms", but in both cases they bring back posts which include the word "short" and "mile", but not necessary as the phrase "short mile" - so in that example I get more results than I can handle.

I've tried putting quotation marks around the phrase, Google-style, but that doesn't seem to work.

How should I be doing this?

Thanks very much. Yes, I know, very embarrassing...

mick

[evansoliver]

tried searching in just the forum the thread is likely to be in?

[dorlan]

OK, now this is a really stupid thing to admit to... but I can't get my head around the search engine in these forums....

The instructions for Searching the Forums can be found in the UKTS Forum Rules section.

The bit you need is...

If you type in more than one word then you should be careful to choose whether you want the 'any' or the 'all' selector picked - it defaults to 'search for ANY terms or use query as entered'. This will look for what you have typed, but will also find everything that matches even one of the words - so you can imagine typing in a sentence such as "install cabview" will by default report on everything that has 'install' and 'cabview', which will be a big list!

Ian J

[micksasse]

Thanks Ian - that's what I had thought would have been the case (sorry, am refraining to comment about my inability to search the forums being reflected in my inability to search the forums for help in searching the forums........!). However it still doesn't seem to work as I would expect: searching "short mile" and selecting "ALL" terms brings up results you wouldn't expect, such as this one:

http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... short+mile

Any further thoughts, anyone?

Thanks a lot!

mick

[NeutronIC]

I changed your query to "length of a mile in MSTS" and set it to search for all words. I also changed it to show POSTS not topics, as I find that this usually helps me get to the results i'm after, quite often the topics shown are not relevant, but one of the posts in the middle is, so it's bloomin' awkward to find what you're looking for in topics mode.

One of the results on the second page that came up was:

http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... msts#28018

I guess this is probably the one you are looking for, it discusses various tests back in 2002 with checking the length of a mile, speed-run tests up Rob's ECML route (which is the basis for the EB ECE product) and the results etc.

If one search doesn't come up, the only thing you can do is try a different take on it, what are all the possible ways that someone might express the problem? Alternatively, what are the ways that someone might *comment* on the problem - you're looking for a thread after all, anything that gets you close is good enough, so imagine the discussion and how it might progress and then use search phrases that might cause one or more of those to get you close... it's like casting a net really.

Matt.

[micksasse]

Thanks Matt - funny little search engine, though

[NeutronIC]

Yes it's very simplistic as search engines go.

I'm trialling a new search engine called Lucene for the new site and if it works ok then i'll try writing a search plug-in for the forums that uses it, we'll see if it makes any improvement anyway. First job is the to get the site online first though

Matt.

[micksasse]

Splendid, dear boy - look forward to it!