How to search the Ifish archives

[ampersat]

Here are some tips to help you search Ifish more effectively. There is literally a ton of information to be found on Ifish but it helps to know how to search for what you really want to know. Open a new browser window and follow along, won't you?

First, let's cover the archives. Current Ifish history only goes back about a year. Each year, Jennie (and the UBB consultant, I think) get together and archive off a year's worth of information to another part of the board. This helps the board run faster and lowers costs for Ifish. If you're searching for information on a location or technique, you will find some great information in the archives from years past. In the Forums to Search box on the left side of the page, scroll down to the bottom of the list and there you will find the archives.

Now that you've found the archives, scroll back up to the top of the list. If the information you're looking for is recent, you would be ok to select "Ifish Community", enter a search term and let 'er rip. But say you're looking to find out about how to fish prawns. You'll benefit greatly by including the archives in your search. But how? With the Ctrl key, of course. Yes those funny little keys at the lower corners of almost every keyboard have a use (sorry Mac folks, I don't know what the equivalent key is for you). Their purpose in life on the keyboard is to help you select individual items in a list (this is true of the majority of Windows applications, not just on Ifish). So, select 'Ifish Community' by clicking on it, then hold down the Ctrl key, grab the scroll bar on the right, go to the bottom of the list and select those archives by clicking on them (you are still holding the Ctrl key, right?). If you accidently click on a forum you didn't want to include, just hold down that Ctrl key and click on the item again; now it's no longer selected and will not be included in your search.

Now you know where the archives can be found and how to include them in your search. But you select your forums, enter your search terms and you're only getting recent info. Why is that? Because over on the right side of the search page is a field named "Date Range". No, it doesn't tell you how far you'll go on a date, it sets the date limits by which your search is executed. Say you wanted to know about prawn spinners. You execute a search without specifying a date range. You'll get a few hits that are recent but they may not cover what you're trying to find out. If you extend the date range, say to three years instead of three months, you greatly increase the odds that you'll find what you're looking for.

So, what's next? The search terms themselves. This next part is REALLY important so listen up:
<font color="red">The default "operator" assigned to search terms in the Ifish search function is or. If you enter the search terms prawn and spinner, your set of results will include all those posts that have either prawn or spinner in them.</font> By the way, the default operator on most search engines is and; if you enter two terms, your search results will include only those pages that have both terms.
Here's a quick primer on the other operators and what they do.
" " = group these terms. Say you're looking for info on prawn spinners. By searching it as "prawn spinner", you limit your search results to only those posts that have that exact phrase in them.
+ = the search term is required to be found in the results. This can be used on multiple terms in the search. If you search for prawn spinners using +prawn +spinner, you'll get results for posts with both prawn and spinner in them but not be next to or have anything to do with each other. Say you're looking for a good place to fish for springers with prawns on the Willamette. If you enter +prawns +springer +Willamette, you'll have a much better chance of finding what you're looking for.
- = the minus key, excludes terms from the results of your search. This can also be used on multiple terms in the search. If you're getting a lot of hits about places or techniques that you don't want, judicious use of the "-" to remove those references can help you narrow in on your results.

You can even limit your search to posts made by certain members. If you enter their moniker, or Ifish name, in the box under Username search, your results will only include posts made by those members.

One last note: judicious use of the search function can actually lower the cost to Ifish. By extending the date range and including additional forums, you're increasing the load on the server because of the shear volume of information that must be searched through and thus the load on the server hosting Ifish, which eventually has to be paid in cash. By using the search operators to focus in on what you want to know, you're lowering the load on the server because you're telling the server exactly what you want it to find for you.

And that pretty well covers it for searching Ifish. I hope you find these search tips helpful.

[Amahnee]

Thanks Amp!

[Dragfreedrift]

thanks Amp! excellent advice....there is truly a wealth of info. to be found.

DFD

[Jennie@ifish]

The new and improved Search Feature in UBB.Threads 6.4 is very powerful, however if you're not familiar with how to use it properly, it may not yield the results you are looking for.

To Perform a Search:
<ul type="square"> [*] Go to the Search Page
[*] Select the Category, Forum or Forums that you would like to search from the left.
- Selecting a Category will search all forums in that category.
- Selecting one forum will search in just that forum
- Selecting multiple forums will search only withing those selected forums
[*] On the right, to search a keyword enter it into the box. You can click "Advanced Search Tips" for more help.
- Entering a single keyword will search for that word.

- Entering 2 or more words will search for each word, as if there were an OR operator. So entering peanut butter will search for posts containing peanut OR butter

- Entering 2 or more words WITH PLUS SIGNS will search with an AND operator. So entering +peanut +butter will search for posts that contain peanut AND butter but they do NOT have to be together.

- Entering 2 or more words IN QUOTE MARKS will search for the phrase. So entering "peanut butter" will search for posts that contain the PHRASE peanut butter and will not return the post if it contains only one of the words.

- Entering 2 or more words with A MINUS sign will exclude words from the search. So entering +peanut -butter will search for posts which have the word peanut in them and DO NOT have the word butter.

- You can mix and match search operators. For example, entering "peanut butter" -jelly would return posts containing the PHRASE peanut butter and NOT containing the word jelly.

- Entering "peanut butter" +jelly -dance would return posts containing the PHRASE peanut butter and containing the word jelly but NOT containing the word dance.
[*] Below that, you can choose whether you are searching the subject AND body of the posts, or just the subject.
[*] Under the Username search section, you can enter a username here. This can be done with or without keywords. So entering "peanut butter" +jelly + dance in the keywords and the username of navaho would return posts containing the PHRASE peanut butter AND the word jelly AND the word dance posted by the user navaho.
[*] Next select a date range. There's an option to search all posts, or search for posts newer or older than a certain criteria. Narrowing down the search time will increase the speed of the results.
[*] Next you can choose how many results per page you wish to view.
[*] As well as choose to view a profile of the body. If selected this will show you the first few words in the body of each post.
[*] When you are finished, click "Submit". [/list]How to courtesy of www.ThreadsDev.com

[Jennie@ifish]

Oh yes... and DO NOT hit the back button to return to another search result, if you didn't find what you needed with one link.
There is a new "Search results" link that will return you. It is located on the top right and lower left of each result page.

Jen