Guide how to search the forum

[methosivanhoe]

A lot of the members here will admit to seeing at least one, maybe more posts regarding searching for models or videos or whatever on this forum... Thankfully a lot of the members here are more than willing to take the time to answer questions and help people find the correct threads.

What I have noticed however is a bit of confusion around how to actually search through the site for a specific thread or post, so I decided to do this guide to help people, specifically new members, find the threads and posts that they are after, and include a few tricks and tips that might even help veteran members.

Now, the Vbulletin search engine on the forum isn't the best in the world, that's widely accepted by Vbulletin users, but it can be a useful tool if used correctly...

So if you click on 'Search' at the top menu (3rd from the right) you'll see it's actually a pull down menu and not just a standard button like most of the others. Now, you have a standard search box there, you can use that for simple searches like Swimsuit, Redhead, Lingerie or whatever... But I'd reccomend going down to 'Advanced Search' instead and clicking that.

Once you click on Advanced Search, you'll be taken to a new screen, now this may look a bit confusing at first so I'll guide you through it...

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p171/methosivanhoe/searchy.png

So, you have your standard Keyword search, you can use this without the other options if you want, to search through the entire site for any posts or threads with that specific word included. Now, if you pulldown the menu underneith the Keyword's box, you will see that you can search for thread titles as well here... That can help narrow down the search when looking for a specific thread name like Pamela Anderson so it will only bring up threads with Pamela Anderson in the title, rather that any threads that include Pamela Anderson in the entire thread.

To the right of that we have the "Search by User Name" area... Pretty useful if you're looking through for all posts by a specific user. Another way to do this is just to find a post by that user, click on their name above their avatar, and click "View all posts by this user"... However if you pull down the menu box under the User Name: search box, you can see that again you can limit this to threads started by this user. Very useful when searching for threads started by any specific user on the site.

Now underneath you have the main Search Options. Here you can specify parameters within your search. You don't have to use these if you don't want to, but they can be very useful in filtering through some of the threads on the site that have been closed or linked with other threads.

And to the right at the bottom you have the "Search in Forum(s)" box... Now this is perhaps the most valuable tool in the search engine on Vbulletin. Using this you can narrow down your search parameters so a specific forum or group of forums. You just click the forum(s) you want to search through, hold down Ctrl to select multiple forums, and that way you can exclude specific forums like "Test Forum", "Guides/How To's", "Model ID Request" or "Funnies". This can be very useful when searching through for a specific model / name as sometimes other requests or general discussion can cloud the search engine from finding what you are specifically hunting for.

So that's the 'Advanced Search' guide through with, hopefully that should have helped you narrow down your searches somewhat, and make searching through the forum a bit easier.

Now there are a few other hints and tips to using the Vbulletin search engine that I can share with you, though these tend to be a bit advanced...

One thing that I don't think many people are aware of, is that the Vbulletin search engine, like most large search engines (Google, Yahoo and others) actually allows you to use boolean operators to search more effectively...

Here are a few boolean operators that I do use regularly while searching this site...

To search for expressions which include spaces, use the hash symbol (do not use quotes)

For example, using the term red#head will return matches for both 'red head' and 'redhead'

The asterisk wildcard also works, for example com*uter will return matches to both 'computer' and 'commuter'

It can also be combined with the boolean operators: com*uter and not computer will have the same effect as just searching for commuter

A useful trick for searches shorter than the 4-letter limit: append an asterisk
eg. Tho* (but beware this will also return any words beginning with Tho)

Now, one more trick you can use is actually to not use the Vbulletin search engine at all... Now I know what you're thinking, "why avoid using the site / forum search tool altogether right?" well simple, a lot of people actually prefer using Google to search through sites instead of the built in search engine... especially for images or specific phrases.

So if you go to Google, you can click on the search engine and use these paremeters to specify you only want to search through this specific site...

site:vintage-erotica-forum.com

So after the website address (after .com ) you can put in the term that you are actively searching for, then Google will only search through this specific website for the term used... This can be useful as Google will often come back with different results than the Vbulletin search engine... not entirely sure why, possibly just the difference between the Google search spider and the Vbulletin search code...

Anyway, I hope these tips and tricks will help you all through the muddle that is the Vbulletin search engine, it can be a mess sometimes, but it is a valuable tool in searching through this forum...

M

[Lemo]

Sorry if it was covered aready, but expect that models name can be written wrong. Example - in themed thread, say, "Girls in cars" some model can be named Jenny Smith and when you try to search for her thread you wil fail, because it's Jennie Smith.
Also some models are hard to search because their names contains non English-specific letters similair to Russian "ё".

[effCup]

the Vbulletin search engine, like most large search engines (Google, Yahoo and others) actually allows you to use boolean operators to search more effectively...

(...)

For example, using the term red#head will return matches for both 'red head' and 'redhead'

The asterisk wildcard also works, for example com*uter will return matches to both 'computer' and 'commuter'

It can also be combined with the boolean operators: com*uter and not computer will have the same effect as just searching for commuter

A useful trick for searches shorter than the 4-letter limit: append an asterisk
eg. Tho* (but beware this will also return any words beginning with Tho)


A very useful/instructive post. Sorry, I don't wish to sound picky, just clarifying: the characters you show are not boolean operators but wildcards. Boolean operators are things like & or && or ! or AND or NOT or OR, etc. Wildcards act as substitutes or patterns for characters or strings, etc., as you show above.

Later edit:

It can also be combined with the boolean operators: com*uter and not computer will have the same effect as just searching for commuter


Sorry, I missed it earlier, but there you *are* using boolean operators.

[benedict]

How to search for a string (actor, movie title) or for a combination of strings?

For example: How to search (only) for Alexandra Nice, and that the result does not
indicate any other Alexandras or Nices (Alexandra Quinn, Nancy Nice), but only the
above mentioned?

Combination: Searching for all threads which indicate Alexandra Nice and Alexa Parks
in the same one and nothing else.

Thanks in advance!

[hos]

How to search for a string (actor, movie title) or for a combination of strings?


the trick is this:

"advanced search":
http://thumbnails6.imagebam.com/18689/94ba28186881218.jpg (http://www.imagebam.com/image/94ba28186881218)

result:
http://thumbnails18.imagebam.com/18689/da6b6f186881215.jpg (http://www.imagebam.com/image/da6b6f186881215)

[effCup]

It can also be combined with the boolean operators: com*uter and not computer will have the same effect as just searching for commuter

Have you actually tested this with meaningful strings? Can you show an example?

I did a search just now for "Jennifer Brown" (no quotes) & got 65 results, i.e. matches for either "Jennifer" or "Brown", or both.

I then did a search for "Jennifer and Brown" (no quotes), i.e. trying to limit the matches to only those that have both, but I still got 65 results... & they look like all the same ones as before... and almost all of them only have one or other of "Jennifer" or "Brown", but not both.

So I'm now beginning to doubt whether the Vbulletin search engine actually does handle boolean operators. Where's the evidence?

P.S. The following google search: site:vintage-erotica-forum.com "jennifer brown"
renders just four matches, which do each contain both terms.

[hos]

vbulletin search (the version we have installed here) doesn't take advantage of "and" / "or" / "xor" / "not" as boolean operators inside a search term, it rather interpretes these words as simple search keywords and this way it excludes them from the search cause they are "too common" (they wouldn't bring a more concrete result, quite the contrary). also the symbolic boolean operators "&" / "|" / "^" / "!" don't work here.

instead, you can use:

"+" to assign that a keyword must be part in each result set

example "+alexandra +nice" returns results having both words in.

"-" to assign that the keyword is not part of the result

example "alexandra -nice" returns all results for alexandra without those having "nice" included.


afaik you can combine as much words as you like, with both operators. and also, i think that the "+" operator is the default operator for any searchword you add to your term. that you get huge resultsets in return is rather based on searches you fire on all posts (default search) instead of limiting the search to thread titles (or other limit-options in the advanced search form).


if you want to use boolean operators for a specific search, this is a good hint:

P.S. The following google search: site:vintage-erotica-forum.com "jennifer brown" renders just four matches, which do each contain both terms.

with google search you have much more control to receive an expected result but i wouldn't be sure that it delivers each result possible.

[effCup]

instead, you can use:

"+" to assign that a keyword must be part in each result set

example "+alexandra +nice" returns results having both words in.

"-" to assign that the keyword is not part of the result

example "alexandra -nice" returns all results for alexandra without those having "nice" included.

You're right "+Jennifer +Brown" (no quotes) returns 68 matches--it's now finding the added matches I've made in this thread--so it's acting the same as a search for "Jennifer Brown" (no quotes).

"Jennifer -Brown" (no quotes) finds 500 matches, so clearly I was wrong earlier about the 68 not all containing both "Jennifer" and "Brown". My bad.

The post here (https://www.vbulletin.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-134598.html) suggests AND and OR are usable boolean operators for vBulletin 3.0. "Jennifer AND Brown" is the same as "Jennifer Brown", while "Jennifer OR Brown" returned 500 matches. But then so too did "Jennifer NOT Brown" which seems unlikely... unless it's just that vBulletin truncates more than 500 matches to that limit?

The post here (http://ubuntuforums.org/faq.php?faq=vb_faq) suggests that double-quoted strings match exact phrases/full strings, but testing "Jennifer Brown" (*with* quotes) also gave 68, i.e. it's behaving the same as "Jennifer Brown" *without* quotes, and is definitely claiming matches that do *not* contain that exact phrase/full string, so I think it is wrong... or else Firefox's in-page text search is lying to me.:eek:

Both posts might be right for versions of vBulletin other than 3.8.7, I dunno.

You're also right, I'm using a wide-open global search for this test. It's much better to narrow it down if you can/think you know where something's been put/posted, but I didn't know where Jennifer Brown might be--she's in a thread about what people are listening to?:confused:

Also, as Lemo suggested earlier, there's also spelling differences, etc., e.g. poss. Jen|Jenny|Jennie|Jeannie|Jennifer Brown|Browne, etc?

Got the Gen?

[hos]

she's in a thread about what people are listening to?

there is a singer having this name :). check youtube.. but beware of crap music :D

(btw.. the singer is this woman you've pointed on (http://vintage-erotica-forum.com/showpost.php?p=1569038&postcount=8469) in your newer thread about Jennifer Brown)

[electile disfunction]

Is there a way to search VEF where words do NOT get deleted from a search? :thumbsup:

For example, if I was to search for a movie title like, "From Here and Between" all I get is the response:
1. Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms.
The following words are either very common, too long, or too short and were not included in your search: from, here, between :confused:

Search doesn't even recognize "and" & most of the time short proper nouns like "Ann", "Anna", "Meg", "Tia", etc. are just dismissed outright.

Any help? (BTW: Google no longer seems to search for "phrases in quotation marks" any more, either. :mad:)

Mayday!
e.d. :o

[hos]

sorry, i guess (and hope) that this won't happen. it's possible to do it (technical side of the story) but it doesn't make much sense cause search index would blow up and so the search performance would decrease dramatically (usability side of the story).

in such a case i recommend to sort the movie forum by title:

1. just click "thread" in the table-header of the classic movie forum
http://img162.imagevenue.com/loc399/th_734974321_Unbenannt_123_399lo.JPG (http://img162.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=734974321_Unbenannt_123_399lo.JPG)

2. then find the location of the movie thread with the "go to page" dropdown:
http://img108.imagevenue.com/loc12/th_735124478_Unbenannt2_123_12lo.JPG (http://img108.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=735124478_Unbenannt2_123_12lo.JPG)

here you can enter the page number you think is close to the location of the first letter of your movie. as long as you are inside that subforum, the sorting by thread title stays active so it's quite easy to check if the movie you're looking for is available (sorting of threads works in all subforums, so of course you can use this hint to search model threads, too)

if your search fails, you can also try to check for movie scenes in those threads we have of the casted models.

[electile disfunction]

sorry, i guess (and hope) that this won't happen. it's possible to do it (technical side of the story) but it doesn't make much sense cause search index would blow up and so the search performance would decrease dramatically (usability side of the story).

in such a case i recommend to sort the movie forum by title:
...

if your search fails, you can also try to check for movie scenes in those threads we have of the casted models.

Thank you hos, this solves a small issue. :thumbsup:

There remain the biggest problems--individual words are rejected but no method of a phrase search has replaced those deletions. :confused:
Such as:

i) How do we search for models with short names? Publications have short names, too ... i-D, S, Max, FHM, etc. These are rejected outright.

ii) How do we look for model or movie names in any huge thread (for example Christy Canyon)? Searching post-by-post is ridiculous, especially if there is more than one big star in a picture or photoshoot, then one has multiple, huge threads to search post-by-post.

iii) Models, photos, scans, movie references, and movie clips can be anywhere in VEF--not just in the 'Movie' forums. What about searching the magazine scans forums, the discussion forums, all of the classic and modern forums?

Are there more ideas?
e.d. :o

[hos]

sometimes search is work. even the best search engine won't prevent you from that - f.e. if the searched item doesn't exist in the searched location.

if search and sorting options won't help, there's still the chance to ask the community for an item within the different request sections this forum offers.

but honestly - if i am really obsessed to get an item i don't have any problems to even check a huge model thread like the one of Christy Canyon. it's big and it's a bit of work for me but still it's not an impossible task like searching a specific image within the Milf & Mature Ladies thread, which offers over 15.000 posts to check.

and sometimes a wish stays unfulfilled and you have wait until next christmas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HQdl4ai3tk

oh.. btw.. sometimes - even in internet time - you have the option to buy things. ;)

[electile disfunction]

So, my original question remains:

How can someone efficiently search VEF (for basic things like threads and names) when the available computer search engines reject "short" and/or "common" words? :confused:

e.d. :)

[rotobott]

So, my original question remains:

How can someone efficiently search VEF (for basic things like threads and names) when the available computer search engines reject "short" and/or "common" words? :confused:

e.d. :)

You can usually find stuff by using a combination of names, but at the end of the day there is a lot of stuff posted with little or no info given, so if you want a film should be easy, a particular scene maybe possible, a particular photo, forget about it, you will have to do the leg work.

[buttsie]

Its largely down to luck of the draw of what people have decided to include in their post or thread

Even where people have included information if they use any non-alpha / numeric symbol
that doesnt leave a space between itself and the letters or words the search engine wont find it.

Classic case - search for titles starting with Siv

Siv Lindberg - this one shows up
http://vintage-erotica-forum.com/showthread.php?t=175089&highlight=siv

Siv - Rare 70'ies P@ge 3 Girl - this one doesnt presumably because of the symbols touching the letters & numbers - space either side of them makes all the difference

http://www.vintage-erotica-forum.com/showpost.php?p=762721&postcount=42

I only found this out when my entire ID thread refused to return searches because I had
brackets () or / to show different spellings touching the names

Then you have threads like Sara St.James which do turn up if you get it exactly right
so the v-bulletin search engine is a law unto itself

Apart from searching the most likely sections individually,using search entire threads
followed by search this thread theres not a lot of short cuts that can find things which are nobbled

[Immy]

When including aka's or alternate spellings in a thread title, don't separate them like this:

Cindy Milo/Mylo

...try this:

Cindy Milo|Mylo

...that way either spelling will show up in a search. Using her whole name or just Milo in a search doesn't bring up her thread at all since it treats Milo/Mylo as one word. BTW, Cindy's thread has the incorrect form.

Suggestion :)

In the Search Options of the Advance Search area, could the default setting for the "Find Posts from" choice be changed to "Any Date" instead of the current "A Year Ago"? It would save me having to click it each time. Thanks!

[MrInBetween]

I post this technique for the benefit of any other member who may have overlooked it. I was actually thinking of making a post asking if there was some obscure technical trick to perform it, when I realised that the answer was in plain sight.

A really long thread, such as What Do You Listen To At This Moment? is almost impossible to read through end to end. But say you find a member whose musical tastes you seem to share, and you'd like to see what else he's listened to in the past (or any other similar search problem). When you look on the Search Forums screen, you can search for posts by a member in a forum or sub-forum, but not down to individual thread level. And when you click on Find More Posts By... above their avatar, you can only see all their posts. But if you go to Search This Thread, just above the first post on the page, and then click Advanced Search, you'll be taken to a screen with the option Search By User Name, that will return results from just the current thread.

I think I might have looked at that Advanced option before, but with my preset heavy zoom and my Netbook-shaped screen that cuts off the bottom half of the picture, it looked to me like I'd been taken to the Search Forums screen and out of the Search Thread one.

[MrInBetween]

(BTW: Google no longer seems to search for "phrases in quotation marks" any more, either. :mad:)
It does still do that. I've just used it to search for "phrases in quotation marks" and yours is the only post in VEF containing that phrase. What Google doesn't do any more is use the +operator to force searching for an exact word - you have to put that word in quotes to force it. There's an explanation here (http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators.html) of how the operators function now.

Another thing Google doesn't do of course is search parts of the forum that are only accessible to members.

On another note, down the bottom of the screen is a link marked Archive.

http://ist1-2.filesor.com/pimpandhost.com/1/_/_/_/1/1/a/I/p/1aIpn/Archive_0.jpg (http://pimpandhost.com/image/17330325-original.html)

This takes you to a text only version of the forum (and one slightly behind the times). Longer threads are compressed onto a smaller number of pages, and the same is true of the forums: at this moment, Modern Movies has 4916 posts, displayed over 85 pages in the full version of the forum - but only 7 in the archive. So if you aren't sure how something is expressed, instead of searching for it, you could browse for it very much more quickly. Alternately, given you can get a much greater proportion of a thread or forum listing on a single page, you could just use your browser's text search facility.

[hos]

A really long thread, such as What Do You Listen To At This Moment? is almost impossible to read through end to end. But say you find a member whose musical tastes you seem to share, and you'd like to see what else he's listened to in the past (or any other similar search problem). When you look on the Search Forums screen, you can search for posts by a member in a forum or sub-forum, but not down to individual thread level. And when you click on Find More Posts By... above their avatar, you can only see all their posts. But if you go to Search This Thread, just above the first post on the page, and then click Advanced Search, you'll be taken to a screen with the option Search By User Name, that will return results from just the current thread.

a different way is to call the forum page where the thread is located and then click the link behind "replies". you also find this link within your subscriptions (if you're subscribed to that thread, sure). it opens a small window which lists the amount of posts to a thread, grouped by member name (so the one with the most posts to this thread is on top of this lists). In that window, simply click on the amount of posts of the user you like to follow.

[electile disfunction]

I think I found part of a solution to the "search term being too short" problem at VEF--but I can't seem to recreate the problem today. :confused:

I will tell everyone anyway in case it helps someone in the future or is a work-around that someone might wish to program into a search engine. :thumbsup:

When I need to seach for a person or title that has a short name, it seems that if I 'add' something (with a "+" sign) to the search term then the search engine does not reject the term even if it still remains too short.

Examples: Pretend I need to find a model named "Iam Pi" or a movie named "Bob" which are too short for the search engine.

(Up until a short time ago) "Iam", "Pi", "Iam Pi", and "Bob" would normally be rejected by the search engine, however if I used a '+' phrase like "Iam+Pi" or "Bob+clip"--without the quotes--then the search engine would return correct results. :eek:

I hope that helps people in some way,
e.d. :)