Forum search engine wanting. Help needed finding things.

[Beef Oven!]

It's churlish to complain, I know - given the amazing (free) facility this forum is for music-lovers, but the search engine is very poor.

So many times I have a reason to go back to an interesting discussion, or find hitherto posted nuggets, only to be thwarted by the inability of the search engine.

1) Can anything be done to improve this by the forum provider?

2) Are there any 'search-techniques' that I need to be savvy with? (e.g. ahinton, you found for me your excellent rationale of the ordering of the Mahler 6 inner movements. Not sure how you found it).

3) Can anyone link me to the very interesting discussion (especially involving Bryn & JLW) regarding the Végh Quartet recordings of the Béla Bartók string quartets? I've typed into the search box everything including 'goulash' but cannot find it.

[Bryn]

Try http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...266#post624266

Which I found by searching for "praga digitals"

[french frank]

It's not very good, but I typed Végh in the search box which brings up a number of thread titles. Then it may rely on a bit of memory jogging to spot the likely thread. Fifth one down is What download have you bought?

If you then click on that thread title, and 'Search thread' (top right above the posts) it narrows it down to 15 posts - one by JLW, one by Bryn. The word Végh is highlighted in each post.

Depends how much you want to find something

[Bryn]

I chose not to search for "Végh" as I thought it would generate for too many wild goose chase results. Hence the search for "praga digitals", which I rightly thought would be far closer to uniqueness. The general rule with search engines is to think of search terms likely to be restricted to what one is searching for. "praga digitals végh" would have been even better.

[french frank]

I chose not to search for "Végh" as I thought it would generate for too many wild goose chase results. Hence the search for "praga digitals", which I rightly thought would be far closer to uniqueness. The general rule with search engines is to think of search terms likely to be restricted to what one is searching for. "praga digitals végh" would have been even better.

You have to know already (or remember) that that was a relevant term! Although the vBulletin search is recognised as being less than satisfactory, a great deal of internet searching relies on a certain amount of ingenuity in using the information that you have. I chose the most basic: start on the Homepage with a simple search on Végh. Then it's a matter of whittling things down …

[johnb]

Does the forum block the Google search engine?

I ask because I tried to use the Google advanced search with the forum's URL (www/for3.org/forums/) and Google threw up no results for any search terms.

[french frank]

Does the forum block the Google search engine?

I ask because I tried to use the Google advanced search with the forum's URL (www/for3.org/forums/) and Google threw up no results for any search terms.

Not in theory. At one time you could search on Google for something that had just been discussed on the forum and it would find the very reference you had started from. I occasionally see a Yahoo Slurp loitering, but I haven't seen a Google spider for ages. I don't know why

[johnb]

Very odd.