How do you format your topic for "Search"?

Tom Campbell · From: Houston, Texas, USA

No matter how I format my search request, I never get the topic I want...I get mostly unrelated topics and even those aren't related to each other. Do any of you out there experience the same thing? If you do find what you requested, please share your secret.
Thanks for any input.

Brian Kurlychek · From: Maine, USA

The site's search is horrible. It returns stuff that have nothing to do with what you are seeking.

I have given up on it.

I now use google.

Just go to google.com , Choose Advanced Search. Type in the search word or words and then look about half-way down the page. It will say search within site or domain. Now type in steelguitarforum.com

You will not only get better search results, but you will be able to search the archives as well.

For example if you search the term Chord Chart

Steel Guitar forums first five search results:

Uses of Franklin Pedal Change
StroboFlip vs Turbo Tuner
E9 Meantone, JI, ET, a book I read about temperament
Summertime MP3 Extended Leavitt Tuning
Music Isaac Hayes dead at 65 (?????)

Google's first five search results:

LCD Chord Charts
Tabbing / Translating Steel
We Could / Tab
BE Chord Chart
Approach to Inversions

You can get much more sophisticated searching with google by using boolean and advanced search operators. But even the most primitave google search will give you better results.
_________________
We live to play another day.

Ben Jones · From: Seattle, Washington, USA

Ive found it difficult as well.
when I first came here it would give you the results in reverse chronological order...not sure if thats still the case but caused me alot of consfusion at first "wow, Jerry Garcia hasnt been mentioned on this site since 1999, I should start a thread on him!"
It DOES return alot of seemingly unrelated hits too.
It seems like when you ask it to search for ALL the words you've entered, it still shows partial matches

Stu Schulman · From: Ulster Park New Yawk (deceased)

Thank you guys...I thought that it was because I'm an idiot! Whoa!

_________________
Steeltronics Z-pickup,Desert Rose S-10 4+5,Desert Rose Keyless S-10 3+5... Mullen G2 S-10 3+5,Telonics 206 pickups,Telonics volume pedal.,Blanton SD -10,Emmons GS_10...Zirctone bar,Bill Groner Bar...any amp that isn't broken.Steel Seat.Com seats...Licking paint chips off of Chinese Toys since 1952.

Stan Paxton · Posted 12 Aug 2008 4:21 pm

Well, it seemed everbody else was getting the results they wanted, but me; I was beginning to wonder about me. I feel lots better now. Cool

_________________
Mullen Lacquer SD 10, 3 & 5; Mullen Mica S 10 1/2 pad, 3 & 5; BJS Bars; LTD400, Nashville 112, DD-3, RV-3, Hilton VP . -- Gold Tone PBS sq neck; Wechter Scheerhorn sq neck. -- "Experience is the thing you have left when everything else is gone." -anon.-

Tom Campbell · From: Houston, Texas, USA

Hey Brian

Thanks for the google tip!
TC

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

There was a recent thread on this here: http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=133938

The main problem is that the forum search defaults to the OR operator for multiple words, which means it looks for thread with either chord, chart, or both. If you search for chord AND chart, at least both words have to be in the thread. There are more details in that thread.

But as I mentioned there, even that is not ideal, since there is no way to search for the exact term "chord chart", as in google. Of course, google is a much more sophisticated search engine.

In google, you can do forum searches directly from the main page search bar by simply typing the search term (using your chord chart example):

chord chart site:bb.steelguitarforum.com

This will give you the same results as Brian's method using the advanced search page.

You can use quotes to search for an exact phrase. I sometimes find this very useful when I know just exactly what to search for. For example:

"chord chart" site:bb.steelguitarforum.com

Note that when you use the advanced search page, if you follow Brian's instructions, it forumulates the standard search key in the top text box.

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

If you click where it says "Display Results As Posts" instead of "Display Results As Topics", it'll save you a TON of time. "Display Results As Topics" means you might have to search through an entire thread to find the post you're interested in.

I use the "Topics" search for only very general stuff.

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