About the forum search function and its uselessness

[LEGENOARYNINLIA]

So, it appears that if you need to look for something all search terms under 4 characters are ignored. Is this something that can be somehow changed?

If not, maybe the Hardware section would be more useful for old and new users alike if threads about things like PVM, BVM, JVC, VGA, etc were stickied.

[xAzurexEonx]

Sadly I do believe this is a flaw of all search engines on every forum site that I ever used. Luckily you can use google to work around this JVC + shmups or some combo, although you'd now get every mention possibly from the same thread.

Stickied would definitely help since it has always been a chore to find buried info, for new users especially.

[Turrican]

I wish there was a search option for thread's authors. Is there?

Like, see al threads started by....?

[FinalBaton]

yep for 3 caracters item I have to use google and type, for example :

Ys site:shmups.system11.org
BVM site:shmups.system11.org

etc, etc

[neorichieb1971]

I wish there was a search option for thread's authors. Is there?

Like, see al threads started by....?

Its the 2nd or 3rd tab in the search screen.

I wouldn't say the search is useless, but it filters too much most of the time. Instead of filtering by thread it filters by post. Which means you get quite a few hits all from the same thread, which is annoying.

[Ghegs]

I wish there was a search option for thread's authors. Is there?

Like, see al threads started by....?

The author search is pretty blatantly there, like neorichieb1971 said. Then you just tick "First post of topics only" on the right and presto, you get all the threads started by that person you're looking for.

I wouldn't say the search is useless, but it filters too much most of the time. Instead of filtering by thread it filters by post. Which means you get quite a few hits all from the same thread, which is annoying.

Display results as: Topics.

[mamboFoxtrot]

What I find weird is that I can find the Fighting Game Hype Thread if I search topic titles for "Fighting", but not if I search for "Fighting Game" or "Hype" or basically any of the words in that thread's title other than just "Fighting" on its own. Thing is, "fighting game" will still bring up all the other topics with "fighting game" in the title, just not the "Hype" thread specifically. Not sure if that's a bug or if I just really don't know how the search function works specifically.

[Turrican]

Thanks Ghegs, everyone, works like a charm. Just leave the search string empty and you can find everyone's main contributions arranged in chronological order. Neat!

[Ghegs]

What I find weird is that I can find the Fighting Game Hype Thread if I search topic titles for "Fighting", but not if I search for "Fighting Game" or "Hype" or basically any of the words in that thread's title other than just "Fighting" on its own. Thing is, "fighting game" will still bring up all the other topics with "fighting game" in the title, just not the "Hype" thread specifically. Not sure if that's a bug or if I just really don't know how the search function works specifically.

That's because the thread's original name was "The Fighting Games news thread" (you can still see it in KAI's post) and apparently the database hasn't indexed the thread for searching under it's current name. It could probably be told to do that.

[mamboFoxtrot]

Ah, sure enough, searching "Fighting Games" brings it up.
What's funny is that at one point I was going to tell someone posting news in that thread that we have a "fighting game news" thread, but then I couldn't find it, so I didn't say anything. I guess I should've just double-checked the opening post