Please help me with the SHMUPS Forum Search!

[dhowerter]

NOTE: I'm posting this in Off-Topic since the Shmups forum doesn't seem to have a "Help" Forum.


Hi all I need a bit of help.

I'm having a bit of problem with the shmups forum search tool (link at the top of the page usually).

For example, when I type a specific game name into the "Search for keywords" blank and whether I use the "Search for any terms or use query as entered" option OR the "Search for all terms" option under that blank, I always get way more topics in the search results than I want.

(The "Search topic title and message text" option was ON during this search.)



Basically, I would like to be able to search the shmups forum for a specific game name (for example Ikaruga) and have it list in the search results ONLY any topics with Ikaruga in the TITLE OF THE THREAD, but NOT in the message text of the thread.

There is an option to search BOTH (I mentioned it above) AND a option to search JUST the message text, but no option to search ONLY the TITLES of the threads.



So IS there any way to search for a specific keyword (name of game) and have the search results ONLY list the topics where the keyword is in the TITLES of the threads and NOT in the message text?

(maybe an option I've missed somewhere, or maybe you could use specific operators in the search blank or something else?)


I've been experimenting with this search engine for a couple hours now and no luck doing the above -_-

Any ideas are welcome. ^_^

edit: I changed several instances of the word "post" to "thread" lol Sorry about any confusion

.

[Lloyd Mangram]

Yeah, the search is a bit restricted in its options.

For what you want to do, you're actually better off turning to google and doing a search using the following:

ikaruga site:shmups.system11.org

...even though this will search the forums for any instances of the term 'ikaruga', the way google sorts the results means you should get a bunch of threads with Ikaruga in the thread titles before it starts returning actual posts that mention Ikaruga.

eg: Click to see the search results

Of course the term Ikaruga would most likely also appear within those threads that have Ikaruga in the title. I don't know how literally I should take you when you say you want "ONLY any topics with Ikaruga in the TITLE OF THE THREAD, but NOT in the message text of the thread"... I mean, that would be a pretty rare thread, wouldn't it?


edit: I just realised that you can do a google search restricted only to thread titles by using this search string:

allintitle: ikaruga site:shmups.system11.org

Which returns this: click to see

The allintitle: search command restricts the search to a webpage's title, but as each thread uses its thread title as the page title, it works well in this search.

...but those threads will still most likely have the term Ikaruga in them somewhere. If you strictly want Ikaruga to appear in the thread title but NOT in the thread itself, you're probably out of luck.

[Elixir]

Yeah, the search engine is crap. I don't think anything can be done unless the forum upgrades from this archaic design. It's really difficult to search for pc engine games on this site.

^_~

[lewisit]

allintitle: [keyword] site:shmups.system11.org

thanx for this hint!
now i can finally read some old topics i lost here somewhere

[TLB]

Yeah, the search engine is crap. I don't think anything can be done unless the forum upgrades from this archaic design. It's really difficult to search for pc engine games on this site.

^_~

What a shame. Good thing we have this sweet new trick.

^_~

[TLB]

Yeah, the search engine is crap. I don't think anything can be done unless the forum upgrades from this archaic design. It's really difficult to search for pc engine games on this site.

^_~

What a shame. Good thing we have this sweet new trick.

^_~

[dhowerter]

Yeah, the search is a bit restricted in its options.


...but those threads will still most likely have the term Ikaruga in them somewhere. If you strictly want Ikaruga to appear in the thread title but NOT in the thread itself, you're probably out of luck.

Thanks for the reply! (and all the info, tho I'm wondering why don't they just fix the search engine here

1 question:

1. Do I have to use "http://www.google.com.au" like you did? (shmups forum is located in austraila??) or will normal google.com be ok to search the shmups forum in the way you indicated?



Oh and btw, I didn't mean a thread that has Ikaruga in the TITLE and NOT in any of the message text, just that I only want the search to list RESULTS that only have Ikaruga in the thread title

SO , ya know, I would NOT get a thread about Gunbird (ikaruga would NOT be in the thread title) where someone happens to mention Ikaruga in the message text somewhere

.

[Lloyd Mangram]

Thanks for the reply! (and all the info, tho I'm wondering why don't they just fix the search engine here

I think it might just be a restriction of the phpBB software this forum uses. A few other forums I visit use the same software and have the same iffy search limitations.

1. Do I have to use "http://www.google.com.au" like you did? (shmups forum is located in austraila??) or will normal google.com be ok to search the shmups forum in the way you indicated?

Normal google is fine. In my case it just defaulted to google.com.au cos I'm in Australia.