Search Help - Finding Posts Buried in Long Threads

[Richard M.]

Often times when searching the archives using Basic methods, you get Threads that are very long and it's very time consuming and frustrating. Here I will explain easier ways to get you right to the Post you want within these long threads. If you know who the Originator of the Post is, there's a Button within the Advanced Search Function that is very useful, yet probably not widely used. This is a time saver.

Say you know some guy posted a picture of something a year or so ago in a Thread that had many posts, and it takes forever to peruse through the whole thing. You get frustrated because it's taking too long to find that one post with the pictures or info. You give up.

Try this method instead. For Example...

You are looking for info about some 1967 lower front valence cutout info. Sometimes you know the person that wrote it. You can use that feature also, although not necessary. Either way, this method could get you the information easier.

Click Search Forum, dropdown Click to Advanced Search

Click Type "Search Single Content Type"

Search Type: Posts

Keyword(s): ( 1966 OR 1967 ) front AND valence AND cutout
Note spaces after and before parentheses

User Name: Richard Mozzetta (13499) (If known. If not, leave blank. In this field, as you begin typing a name it will auto-fill and give you a dropdown selection to click on)

Click "Search All Open Forums"

Show Results As: Posts (This is the key to get you right to the particular Post in a very long Thread)

Click Search Now

This will result in more specific information and get you directly to the pertinent Posts within a long Thread.

Rich

[John W.]

Re: Search Help - Finding Posts Buried in Long THreads

Richard,

Nice tip. I will try to incorporate that into the FAQ in the next few days. Got a chapter meet this weekend. Let the summer start.

[Richard M.]

Re: Search Help - Finding Posts Buried in Long THreads

Richard,

Nice tip. I will try to incorporate that into the FAQ in the next few days. Got a chapter meet this weekend. Let the summer start.

Thanks John...

Here is another example that may be even more pertinent when Searching large Threads. It's a bit more involved but once you try these methods you will get better search results and you won't want to miss out on the Archived history here.

Example 2:

You Post a new Thread asking about 1967 front suspension axle hubs and steering parts differences to other years. A reply comes in and says to Search a thread by username "so-and-so" as he did that a year or two ago. But when doing a Search in Show Threads Only mode, you have to read the entire thread to get what you're looking for. So you do a search with that username, and get the huge thread and see hundreds of replies and photos, but what you're looking for is buried in there somewhere, and you can't find it easily.

For better results try this method...

This Thread has many photos and replies and will be used for the example.

Click Search Forum, dropdown Click to Advanced Search

Click Type "Search Single Content Type"

Search Type: Posts

Keyword(s): 1967 AND steering AND ( " arm " OR " hub " OR "relay rod" OR pitman )
Note spaces after and before parentheses. Also note that 3 letter words are excluded from the Search function(with some exceptions), but you can bypass that restriction by using quotes and a "space" before and after the word. You turned a 3 character word into a 5 character word, which the Search function will accept. The caveat is that it will look only for lower case letters in the above example.

Also note if you have a specific 2 word string you're searching, simply put quotes around the 2 words, but again, it is now case sensitive based on your lower case string inside the quotes.

A example of both of the above could be alleviated with the use of this sequence in the Search String.This gets you past the 3 character search word limitation as well as covering both letter cases.
.... ( ( " arm " OR " Arm " ) OR ( " hub " OR " Hub " ) OR "relay rod" OR pitman )

Another example shows how some common specifics often searched but disallowed: e.g. F41 suspension
Here you've specified to look for the f41 string whether or not capitals are found for the "f".
..... AND ( suspension AND ( " f41 " OR " F41 " ) )
This gets you past the 3 character search word limitation as well as covering both letter cases.

Search Entire Posts

User Name: Richard Mozzetta (13499)

If User Name is known. If not, leave blank but this can yield too many results on occasion. If selected, as you begin typing a name it will auto-fill and give you a dropdown selection to click on)

Click "Search All Open Forums"

Find Threads With At Least 100 Replies

Here is a feature that may help with those very long Threads. If you know there are a large number of replies, you can be specific and enter a number to reduce the search result to eliminate unwanted information.

Show Results As: Posts

(This is the key to get you right to the particular Post in a very long Thread)

Click Search Now

This will result in more specific information and get you directly to the pertinent Posts within a long Thread. Your Results may show several posts within the same Thread if it's discussed in more than one post within that thread. As always, there seems to be some inconsistent results as some posts may not make sense. THis is just the way the Search result occur due to the software search algorithms.

Here are the results. At the header area, it will show your Search parameters. Check to make sure you see what you wanted and check spelling.

Type: Posts; Keyword(s): 1967, steering, " arm " or " hub " or "relay rod" or pitman; User: Richard Mozzetta (13499); At Least 100 replies

When you get the Results list, Click on the Blue Links which are the Posts, not on the Thread links. This Test resulted in 14 Posts to read. All of what I searched for was in there and quickly got my answers.

Rich

[Richard M.]

Re: Search Help - Finding Posts Buried in Long Threads

It looks like my 3 character workaround doesn't work.

The Search Results summary states that it looks for a 3 character word with a space on either side, but the actual search results do not include these words.

Rich

[Richard M.]

Re: Search Help - Finding Posts Buried in Long Threads

It does for certain 3 letter words.