Guide how to search the forum

methosivanhoe · July 23rd, 2011, 10:32 PM

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...

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...

Code:

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 · November 23rd, 2011, 05:44 PM

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** · February 17th, 2012, 07:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by methosivanhoe

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:

Quote:

Originally Posted by methosivanhoe

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 · April 4th, 2012, 06:26 PM

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** · April 25th, 2012, 10:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by benedict

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

the trick is this:

"advanced search":

result:

**effCup** · April 26th, 2012, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by methosivanhoe

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** · April 26th, 2012, 02:17 PM

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:

Quote:

Originally Posted by effCup

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** · April 26th, 2012, 03:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hos

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 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 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.

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?

**hos** · April 26th, 2012, 07:56 PM

Quote:

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

(btw.. the singer is this woman you've pointed on in your newer thread about Jennifer Brown)

**electile disfunction** · June 15th, 2012, 01:56 AM

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

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

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.

)

Mayday!
e.d.

July 23rd, 2011, 10:32 PM	#1
methosivanhoe Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Gallifrey, constellation of Kasterborous Posts: 204 Thanks: 92 Thanked 2,622 Times in 205 Posts	Guide how to search the forum 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... 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 comuter will return matches to both 'computer' and 'commuter*' It can also be combined with the boolean operators: comuter 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... Code: 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 __________________ To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Last edited by Jazz67; June 21st, 2022 at 06:56 AM.. Reason: Repaired missing Adv Search image

April 4th, 2012, 06:26 PM	#4
benedict Member Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 36 Thanks: 35 Thanked 598 Times in 33 Posts	Advanced Search 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! Last edited by benedict; April 5th, 2012 at 01:45 PM..

June 15th, 2012, 01:56 AM	#10
electile disfunction Vintage Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Somewhere flat, that's either hot, cold, or windy ... Canada? Posts: 1,966 Thanks: 42,100 Thanked 21,351 Times in 1,903 Posts	Search words deleted Is there a way to search VEF where words do NOT get deleted from a search? 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 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. ) Mayday! e.d.

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November 23rd, 2011, 05:44 PM	#2
Lemo Blocked! Join Date: Jan 2010 Posts: 587 Thanks: 48,073 Thanked 7,101 Times in 627 Posts	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".