Guide to Searching the Forums
In this guide I will explain the types of searches you can do to help you find what you are looking for.
1. Basic Search
This is is the little box in the top right. Type the words you want and hit the magnifying glass.
Lets try searching for 'wizard tower'
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Here's what we get:
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Not really the results I was hoping for, some of these threads might mention wizard towers but none seem to be their focus. As you can see the threads are from several sub-forums, potentially even Hay Day ones, and it's sorting by thread date rather than relevance.
Basic Search Summary:
It's quick and useful for newer threads. It's not good if you're looking for older threads or specific sub forums
2. Advanced Search
When you click on Advanced Search, below the Quick Search box you get many more options for narrowing your search. In addidtion to the keyword you can specify a user, date range, whether it searches the title or the whole thread, and the sorting order.
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If I just type in 'wizard tower' again this is what I get.
http://i1349.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7255c7a7.jpg
These results look like they have a lot more to do with wizard towers, they are sorted by relevance so the ones that mention 'wizard tower' the most will be at the top, regardless of their age or sub-forum.
Now I'm looking for the Wall Breaker Q and A thread, I remember Marika started it so I'm going add her in the user box; I don't even have to type the whole thing as is gives me choices as I type it in.
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And here's the result:
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Look at that, exactly what I wanted as the first result.
Advanced Search Summary
With all the options to narrow your search you can expect more relevant results, although it will search all sub-forums including Hay Day.
3. Single Content Type Search
When you're in Advanced Search you can click the Single Content Type Tab to narrow your search even more. It includes the same options you had with the other tab and lets you specify sub-forums and even the number of replies.
I'm going to look for some threads to do with the upgrade time bug. I'm just going to use 'time' for my search term but I only want threads from the Bugs forums and only ones that were fairly active.
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Here's the results:
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A few that, obviously, I didn't want but a few that I was looking for.
Single Content Summary
Narrows your search even more by adding options for sub-forums and number of replies.
4. Searching within a thread
When you have a thread open you can also search just that thread.
I'm going to look for that post the mentions something about prioritizing active and inactive players in matchmaking. I used 'matchmaking' as my search term, I'm pretty sure it was from Rauta but I'm not sure if it was in Announcements or General, and I just want to see very active threads.
Here's the results after setting those options:
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Let's try the Matchmaking Bug! one.
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There's 77 posts to go though, I don't want to scroll through every page so I'm going to use Search Thread. I'll use 'active' as my search term and then press Search.
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And here's the result:
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Right in the middle is the post from Rauta I was looking for.
Searching Within a Thread Summary
Use this to quickly scan through a thread for a specific post.
4. Advanced Searching Within a Thread
Again, to narrow a search more you can use Advanced Search.
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As you can see this looks the same as the other Advanced Search except that its going to only search the thread I was on. In this case I'm going to use the same Matchmaking Bug! thread. My search term is still going to be 'active' and I said That I thought Rauta posted it so I'm going to put him in as the user.
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And here's the result:
http://i1349.photobucket.com/albums/...ps02dd3731.jpg
Only one result and exactly what I was looking for.
Advanced Search Within a Thread Summary
As with Advanced Search, this adds more options to more quickly find the post you are looking for.
Other Search Tips
This guide didn't generate any questions; that's a testament to how thorough it is right? ;) If anyone does have any questions I will do my best to answer but for now these will just be general tips for refining and in some cases expanding your searches.
- Increase the age of results by increasing the 'Default Thread Age Cut Off' Go to Settings, then General Settings on the left, then in the 'Thread Display Options' section.
- Search ignores words that are common, too long, or too short. If you are getting poor results check the Keywords at the top to see if the engine omitted anything.
- Use quotes to search for exact phrases, for example "wizard tower" instead of wizard tower. This will also let you include common or short words that it would have ignored if they were alone, for example dtp group returns garbage but "dtp group" returns what you are looking for.
- In Single Content Search you can select 'Show results as: Posts" rather than Threads, although I wouldn't recommend it with out first narrowing your search with some of the other options I previously demonstrated.
- Not search per say but when you a viewing the threads in a sub forum and you click on the number of replies you get a list of everyone that replied to that thread, if you click on the number beside their name you get a list of all of the person's posts in that thread.
