Please note: the site administrator may require users to be logged in to use the search feature or may impose certain limits on the search ability.
Searching for Posts
You can search for a post simply by clicking on the Search tab in the navigation bar at the top of each page. You may search specific forums for keywords or posts by a certain user and may also specify a date range for the search.
If you want to search in just a few of the forums, PC users can choose the specific ones they want by pressing the 'Ctrl' key on their keyboard as they click on each one they want.
If you want to search in just a few of the forums, PC users can choose the specific ones they want by holding down the 'Ctrl' key on their keyboard as they click on each one they want. Apple users can do the same by using the 'Apple'/'Command' key + clicking on the forums they want to search in.
Clicking on the Search tab causes a drop-down menu to appear with the following choices:
- Advanced Search (Allows you to search specific forums for keywords or posts by a certain user)
- Active Topics (Displays the most active topics on the forum for the date range specified: 1 Day, 2 Days, 7 Days, or 14 Days. Click on the links given to go to the specific topic, forum, or the profile of the user making the post.)
- Recent Posts (Displays the most recent posts and active topics for the date range specified. As in the Active Topics search feature, you will find clickable links for the topic, forum, or poster name.)
- Use the Quick Search feature to enter a keyword to search for a particular post in the messageboard. If you just want to search for a post in the forum you're currently in, put a check mark next to Search only this forum. Clicking on the Search button located below that will begin the search.
Basic Search Tips
- Entering a single keyword will search for that word.
- Entering two or more words will search for each word as if there were an OR operator between them. For example, entering peanut butter will search for posts that contain peanut AND butter. (Posts WILL NOT necessarily contain both words.)
- Entering two or more words with PLUS SIGNS will search with an AND operator on each word. Entering +peanut+butter will search for posts that contain peanut AND butter, but they do NOT have to appear together.
- Entering two or more words in QUOTE MARKS will search for the phrase. Entering "peanut butter" will search for the PHRASE peanut butter and will not return a post in the results if it contains only one of the words. (Words searched in quotes must appear together in the post.)
- The asterisk * is a wildcard. Searching for apple* would return post results containing apple, apples, applesauce, or applet.
- FusionBB doesn't allow for searches involving words that are three letters or less in length. If you need to search for a word that is only three letters long, simply use a wildcard. (For example, to search a site for RSS, put RSS* into the search term box.)
Advanced Search Tips
- Entering "peanut butter"+jelly-dance would return posts containing the PHRASE peanut butter and containing the word jelly but NOT containing the word dance.
- Using < and > controls a words relevance value that is assigned to each result. The > operator INCREASES the relevance and the < operator DECREASES it.
- Parenthesis ( ) are used to group words into sub-expressions. Parenthesized groups can be nested.
- A leading tilde ~ acts as a negation operator, causing the words contribution to the row relevance to be negative. It's useful for marking noise words, meaning posts which contain that word would be lower in relevance but wouldn't be excluded from the search as it would have been if you had used the minus sign.
You can mix and match search operators. For example:
- Entering "peanut butter"-jelly would return all posts contianing the PHRASE peanut butter and NOT containing the word jelly.
- Entering +peanut butter would return all posts containing the word peanut but would rank the result higher if the post also contained the word butter.
- Entering +apple+(>turnover) would find posts that contain the words apple AND turnover OR apple AND strudel (in any order), but rank apple turnover higher than apple strudel.
