Nefarious "Search" Button -how to / help with.

Started by ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ, July 19, 2005, 12:15:41 PM

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ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ

Admin edit:

The search function is working. Read this for more info.



I'm not too sure on how to use the Search button efficiently.

I use it, but always get a lot of results that end up in me looking through thread after thread, or just a lot of unnecessary results.

How can I do an effective search?

(While I'm on it, I was trying to search for Thriller: A Cruel Picture to see what, if any discussion was about it... I seemed to remember a thread about it, and I tried thriller, thriller a cruel picture, they call her one eye, and so many other variations... does anyone know where this thread is located?)
"As a matter of fact I only work with the feeling of something magical, something seemingly significant. And to keep it magical I don't want to know the story involved, I just want the hypnotic effect of it somehow seeming significant without knowing why." - Len Lye

Ravi


modage

when i use it i always click 'search for all terms' otherwise the search 'batman movie' will bring up all threads in which 'batman' or the more commonly used 'movie' appear.  when clicking the search for all, it will only bring up the threads in which those are used conjunctively.  also: if you are looking for something specific it's usually pretty easy to narrow down which forum it might be under and that also narrows down the results a bit.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ

Thanks, mod.

Quote from: RaviThriller: A Cruel Picture

And yours is the last post.

Well, I guess I didn't miss much in the conversation.
"As a matter of fact I only work with the feeling of something magical, something seemingly significant. And to keep it magical I don't want to know the story involved, I just want the hypnotic effect of it somehow seeming significant without knowing why." - Len Lye


Pubrick

Quote from: onomatavivahttp://www.xixax.com/viewtopic.php?p=118461#118461
http://www.xixax.com/viewtopic.php?p=160630#160630
let's just repost those two here so we can redirect to this page in the future..

HOW TO SEARCH
Quote from: Pubrick
Quote from: cronopiobut it is! sometimes, at least.


is it possible to improve the Search engine?  because i've noticed that  if you put more than 1 word in it,  it only searches for the first one.

::hangs himself to death::
ok i think it's time for a little tutorial on the use of the search engine. and what better place to give it than here in this random thread where it will be totally ignored.

the first thing u must always do is remove the dot from "Search for any terms or use query as entered" and click it on the option below it "Search for all terms".

for that to be effective, second most important thing to do is, BE AS SPECIFIC AS POSSIBLE. say right now u were looking for best scenes, even if u "search for all terms" u will find that those words are used a lot in almost every thread. so u narrow it down by searching for  best scenes/sequences and u will find a few bogus threads but i guarrantee on the first page u will see the one that describes best what u were looking for.

third, if u get like 45 results, don't be afraid to scroll down and even click page two of the results page. u just hav to skim over the titles and find the one that best fits. sure enuff at least on the first page u'll get a thread that even redirects u to the one that is older and prolly on the 2nd page.

FOUR/Quatro, don't hav to master all the options and things that appear on the search screen, most are useless. these are common sense: if ur searching for an actor, to see if a thread has been made about them, on the FORUM option select IN FRONT OF CAMERA. if a director, THE DIRECTOR CHAIR. if a movie just came out on dvd look in Now Showing first, for sum crossover dvd details.

FIVE/finally, if looking for a specific quote or information. go to the Display Results As section and select POSTS. this will take u to the specific post where this info/line was mentioned. additionally, if u want to find sumthing like "What did MacGuffin think of HULK". u select POSTS and in Search for Author and type in MacGuffin,. this will give u every time MacGuffin mentioned HULK. this is great when searching for a XIXAX Kodak Moment, like search for (all terms) "pee in your mouth", Display as: Posts, and Search for Author: Kotte. and u will find the first time kotte told us his wonderful shocking story of young unrequited love.

From now on anyone who is redirected will be sent this post, as a reminder of how to use the search feature, and they can provide feedback on what failed/confused them. mostly i think it will be number 3.

This has been a Publick Service Announcement
"KNOW YOUR XIXAX"

HOW TO SEARCH pt 2.
Quote from: onomatavivaI don't know, it's generally really easy for me to find stuff.  Common sense, really, and an understanding of how the search engine works (and the search engine could be better -- sometimes it is hard for find what you're looking for, but usually you can get close enough).  I suspect P will probably come along and post his search tutorial here (in fact, here it is), but I thought I'd throw a few things up here:
  • Be specific, but not too specific.  Think of words you know would appear, but don't be too presumptuous.  My understanding of the search engine is it isn't very smart, but not totally retarded as to be useless.  It will find whole words, but never partial matches.
  • The more words, the better, up to a point.  If you're going to search for more than one word, make sure you check the second radio button that says "Search for all terms."  That's very important, essential even, for getting good results.  Random words relating to the topic help things.
  • Also try specifying what forum to look in, as well as who posted the subject.  Obviously it won't help too much if the author is MacGuffin, because he posts the most news, so it won't narrow things down too much.  But for something more specific, it helps a lot.  Like when flagpolespecial was commenting on PTA's Oscar hopes, I referred him to the PTA on Fight Club thread after for searching for mutinyco's response to PTA's reaction when losing the Oscar for Magnolia's screenplay.    I searched for something like "Magnolia Alan Ball" with author "mutinyco" and got my result.
  • Even better is you can narrow down your search even more by zeroing in on posts instead of topics by using that radio button.  Doing that for my example above shows the actual post mutinyco made, and if you change the number of characters returned to 1000 or so, you can see the whole thing.[/list:u]For your John Woo example, as P said, since the thing isn't official yet, your best course of action would be to type "John Woo" in the search box, choose "Search for all terms" and then scroll down on that page to John Woo's Director's Chair thread and post the news there.  The Grapevine is for actual films in production.  Then you'd post the title of the film and inside the thread you'd say John Woo is directing it.  There's the subtle difference between Director's Chair and The Grapevine, as I understand it.  Once a movie gets released, it obviously gets moved to Now Showing.
under the paving stones.

kotte

Is it okay to complain about the fucking Search function here?

I did a search for Spurlocks TV series 30 Days.

I tried both '30 Days' and '30 days'. I did it with both All Terms and Any Terms. I got nothing!
When I searched for 'Spurlock' I got a thread titled '30 Days'.

It sucks!!!

ono

No, it's not okay to complain.

I don't understand, exactly, what you are complaining about.  You found the thread, didn't you?  Typing in Spurlock brings up the 30 Days thread.  You can't search for numbers.  That's all you need to know.  And since Days is so generic on its own, who knows what the search engine does with that.

kotte

Quote from: onomatavivaYou can't search for numbers.

Well, I didn't know that...
and isn't that a good reason for calling it crap?

I wasn't complaining because I couldn't find what I was looking for, I'm complaining because I searched for the thread called '30 Days' with the words '30 Days' but didn't get one result...and now I'm including this 'can't handle numbers' bullshit.

Pas

Kotte  1  -   Xixax search function  0




Oh that was lame

ono

This thread hasn't been updated since the new forums were installed, so I thought I'd throw out a few pointers I've learned from when I've needed to search for something.

This new search engine sucks.  Let's get that out of the way.  Maybe it's that I'm not used to this one yet, but I've found you have to do a lot more digging to find what you want.  Given the guidelines P and I put up there, it was quite easy to rock the old one and find whatever's needed.  But this one is more temperamental.  Some tips:


  • It's best to avoid the quick search.  Usually I've found you won't get very far with it.  Click the link, use the advanced search.
  • The search engine throws in all words you put in, which makes sense, but won't help you in the long run because of its partial word match tendencies.  Omit articles such as a, an, the, etc.  Use more substantial words.
  • Choose a forum.  Click the checkbox to uncheck all forums, and then chose the one(s) your thread would be most likely to appear in.  Not normally essential with the old search engine, but that will help narrow things down.
  • Even partial matches of words will be returned.  This can be good and bad.  Sometimes you'll get extraneous results, but if you're having trouble finding something, keep in mind using the root word will give you more options.
  • You can search for numbers this time around.  Don't know if you'd need to, or if it even helps, but it helps to keep it in mind.  A search for "24" in "The Small Screen" was fairly successful, so at least this new search has that going for it.

Hope this helps.

Reinhold

was there formerly a thread for cell phones?

i seem to recall posting a picture of my i530, walrus asking for advice about which plans to get, and people posting pictures of their sexy new sony phones.

i can't locate it using the search function or by scanning the first two pages each of idle chatter and news and theory.

i've entered "cell" "phone" "cell phone" "cell phones" and "cellular" into the search box, all to no avail.
Quote from: Pas Rap on April 23, 2010, 07:29:06 AM
Obviously what you are doing right now is called (in my upcoming book of psychology at least) validation. I think it's a normal thing to do. People will reply, say anything, and then you're gonna do what you were subconsciently thinking of doing all along.

Bethie

QuoteInternal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@xixax.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.


Thanks for nothing, losers.
who likes movies anyway

Kal

Been getting that error a lot lately too... thought it was my connection, but NOT.

Reinhold

Quote from: kal on April 22, 2007, 04:20:17 AM
Been getting that error a lot lately too... thought it was my connection, but NOT.

me too. it's also been loading about a quarter of the way and then timing out.
Quote from: Pas Rap on April 23, 2010, 07:29:06 AM
Obviously what you are doing right now is called (in my upcoming book of psychology at least) validation. I think it's a normal thing to do. People will reply, say anything, and then you're gonna do what you were subconsciently thinking of doing all along.