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how to stop search ignoring terms? Looking for a topic

Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2023 8:21 am
by DRQ
Hi,
I thought there used to be a forum / topic along the lines of "reasons why people stop folding" but I can't find it. So I tried searching for it using that term. The search returned one hit (not what was wanted) but:
ignored: why folding
I even tried the advanced search and putting '+' in front if each word as per "Place + in front of a word which must be found". Still it ignores some of the terms.
I appreciate those are common terms but they are significant in my search. OK, I can spend time making various attempts with different terms but when I'm feeling quite frustrated with folding (hence looking for that topic) I don't really want to.
Surely there's a way of saying that you actually want to find those terms?
If anyone can point me toward a way of searching that will actually look for the terms I'm searching for then I'd appreciate it, or point me to the topic itself.

Re: how to stop search ignoring terms? Looking for a topic

Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2023 12:14 pm
by bikeaddict
Any words being ignored by the site search here may be limitations of the database (likely MySQL or MaraiaDB) default stopwords list on the full-text index of the table that stores the content.

There is this very old thread found by using a site:foldingforum.org filter to limit Google search to this forum.

Answers to: Reasons for not using F@H.
viewtopic.php?t=1164

Re: how to stop search ignoring terms? Looking for a topic

Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2023 3:53 pm
by Lazvon
Often three character words are ignored by forum searches because they show up in so many posts.

Re: how to stop search ignoring terms? Looking for a topic

Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2023 7:00 pm
by DRQ
bikeaddict wrote: Sat Dec 16, 2023 12:14 pm Any words being ignored by the site search here may be limitations of the database (likely MySQL or MaraiaDB) default stopwords list on the full-text index of the table that stores the content.

There is this very old thread found by using a site:foldingforum.org filter to limit Google search to this forum.

Answers to: Reasons for not using F@H.
viewtopic.php?t=1164
Thanks for the search tip (use Google) and the link to the thread.

I'll have to improve my Google searching skills to get up to your standard.

I thought there was a ongoing thread on the topic, to collect feedback from users. That thread was active for quite a long time and I think it was the one I was thinking of. I didn't realise that it had fallen into disuse.

Re: how to stop search ignoring terms? Looking for a topic

Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2023 7:03 pm
by DRQ
Thanks to those who replied. I appreciate that the issue may be a limitation in the system underpinning the forum. I can see the worth of ignoring terms in the basic search but when you really want to search using those terms I would like to think it'd be possible, without resorting to the use of an external search engine.

Thanks again.

Re: how to stop search ignoring terms? Looking for a topic

Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2023 9:22 pm
by Joe_H
Yes, the basic search provided with the phpBB code is limited. On the previous host running an older version of the phpBB software a prior admin had added Google search as an option, but that did not carry over to the current host and version of the software. Currently I have most of the admin access levels, but that does not extend to the level of installing many of the available add-ons for phpBB. Perhaps in time an improved search will be added, but there are some other forum issues higher on my priority list.