Pond Boss Forums INTRO Common Pond Q&A (archives) Forum Search Tips

How do we find things in all the thousands of posts in the forum?

The bigger the forum becomes, the more info (vaulable and otherwise) exists in it's myriad of threads. But it also becomes harder to find anything specific. I want to collect the search-and-find methods members have found useful in retrieving information from the forum, then move these tidbits into an archive thread.

Please add any search suggestions you have below. After a collection period, I will glean the wheat from the inevitable off-thread chaff and archive the results.

Theo's Search Tips: (value debatable)

1) If you know a member who posted in the thread you are looking for, it may be faster to go through the list of his/her posts than to use "search" to look for the info. This can be expecially time-saving if you know the member who started the thread - you can just look at the threads they've started (a much smaller list).

2) Including a pertinant forum member name in the appropriate search block can be a good tool for winnowing down the number of hits. If you know JoeShmoe87 posted on subjects like what you are looking for, try adding Joe's name in the search parameters.

3) Getting an astronomical number of hits when searching is all the forum categories? Narrow the field by searching likely categories one at a time. (Don't look for aeration info in the dam construction area.)

4) Don't forget the time parameters for searching. If you know what you are looking for was discussed in the last month or so, only search in the last two months. If it's been a while since you saw it here, try searching in blocks of time starting maybe 6 months back.

Ask the librarian !! -

Key word
person
time
person's post section - both made and started
Archives links (if they work)
Who was involved in thread - if you recall B Lusk and Sunil were involved search Bob Lusk for "Sunil".

Have a good memory to start with. More exotic ways later.

Under search - advanced :
Use +keyword for required keywords.
Use -keyword to exclude posts with a keyword.
Use quotes around a phrase to search for a phrase.
Use a * at the end of the word to match partial words.

The search phrase must be at least 4 characters long.

If you search for "LMB" with a date range of newer than 5 years and and 999 results to show per page you will find zero results.

If you do the same search on the word "Bass" you will receive 200 results. 200 is that maximum number of results that a search will return.

Added from another topic:
In the Search feature what goes in the blank labeled: Display Name Search ? Also I can't seem to get the Search to go back further than August 2007 even though I use Newer than 4 years.
Answers:
1 the person's name i.e. ewest or Sunil goes in the box of Display Name Search.

2 In the Date Range of Newer than, do or use newer than 5 years (max search) or another time period that you know applies to your search information.

Also, make sure "All Forums" is the highlighted category, or your Search will be limited to the category currently highlighted. If you only highlight one category and then do the Search this will provide fewer topics to read and it could save you some time.

Note that frequently on this forum some topics or key words are used and discussed in two or more categories.

Here is another neat search feature provided by AaronM.

Go to Google and type in

"search words" site:pondboss.com
example:
"duckweed" site:pondboss.com


This will execute a search for the term RAS and limit it to the pond boss site. It works great.