Is there a trick?

I got results the same as Ivy Chick's...

johnnybax, when you do the search, do you have all the search options set at their default? This would include "Search All Open Forums" and the checkbox for "Also search in Subforums"

Please post a link to your search that you think works.

For example I did a search for "Ashley Kensington" as I know she doesn't have tons of hits, yet I get many hits that include only the name Ashley. The quotes appear to have no effect I can see.

because you can use punctuation in board handles you dont put in the *, just put in Mae and it will show every handle with that combination Originally Posted by SillyGirl

That almost answers my question, but not quite.

Let's say I'm looking for everything posted ABOUT Ivy Chick rather than everything Ivy Chick has posted. I can search for "chick" but can't narrow the search by also searching for "ivy." Or can I?

"ivy chick" in the keyword field will get every thing about ivy chick, as long as both of those words are sequential in the post

ivy chick in the username field will pull all posts made BY ivy chick

ivy* in the keyword field will pull up any post with with the single word ivy mentioned (need 4 digits to search) in this case most of the posts are about her but it will pull up other ivy mentions...like poison ivy for instance

I went through this the other day. It doesnt work for me for some reason:

1. Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms.

Search Forums Search by KeywordKeyword(s): Ivy*

If I search "Ivy Chick" I get Showing results 1 to 25 of 2348
Search took 0.47 seconds. dating back to April 2009.

"ivy chick" in the keyword field will get every thing about ivy chick, as long as both of those words are sequential in the post

ivy chick in the username field will pull all posts made BY ivy chick

ivy* in the keyword field will pull up any post with with the single word ivy mentioned (need 4 digits to search) in this case most of the posts are about her but it will pull up other ivy mentions...like poison ivy for instance Originally Posted by Chica Chaser

Incorrect and/or incomplete, from what I can tell.

"ivy chick" in the keyword field will pull up any post that contains either word -- over a thousand posts when I ran it just now, board wide. Most of which had nothing to do with Ivy Chick. I'll give good odds for a bet that it would pick up a post that had those words in reverse order too.

By the same token, not only can I not search for that specific phrase (words together and in the precise order) but I can't even search for a combination of words in the same post, say by ivy + chick or ivy & chick. Both return the same results as "ivy chick," which is an "OR" search -- most of the posts only contain one of the two words.

A search for ivy* doesn't return any posts, even those that contain the single word ivy.

And the * is not a traditional wildcard in any event. It's essentially ignored by search, it appears, if added to the end. For example, a search for caitie* returns a lot of hits. But searches for cait* or caiti* don't return any hits, because there are no occurrences of the words cait or caiti, although there are of caitie. So it doesn't help with a search for a word less than four characters, and also doesn't help with uncertainty as to spelling.

In the middle of words, it is neither ignored (as if at the end of the word) nor treated as a wildcard - maybe as that specific character instead? So a search for cait*e or cait*ie doesn't return any hits either.

---------------

I suspect either: (a) the search function here doesn't allow a search for a phrase; or (b) there's a way to do it, but enclosing it in quotes isn't the way. Your guess which is as good as mine. The first is a disappointing lack of functionality, and the second doesn't help unless someone can tell us how.

I suspect either: (a) the search function here doesn't allow an "AND" search for a combination of words; or (b) there's a way to do it, but it's something other than +, &, or AND. Your guess which is as good as mine. The first is a disappointing lack of functionality, and the second doesn't help unless someone can tell us how.

I suspect either: (a) the search function here doesn't allow a wildcard; or (b) you have to use a character other than the asterisk. Your guess which is as good as mine. The first is a disappointing lack of functionality, and the second doesn't help unless someone can tell us how.

From a little investigation I did, it looks like a bug in vbulletin. A possible workaround is to use google search by entering something like this in the google search box

site:eccie.net "Ivy Chick"

Or, for a lot more search options, use google advanced search and in the last box enter eccie.net for the "Search within site or domain" (I don't think this will return anything that's not publicly accessible.)

From an old post on a vbulletin forum... it looks like search settings might vary by usergroup, which could explain why johnnybax (as administrator/mod) is getting different results than the rest of us. Nothing users can do to fix this, but the board admin might be able to change the config.

I think this is right under the optional setting for
Admin CP -> vBulletin Options -> Extraordinary Discounts
And we always thought mods got no special treatment


Enable fulltext in your:

Admin CP -> vBulletin Options -> Search Type

...then the usergroup permission will appear. Use the boolean option when searching to be to search for whole strings like this:

"blah blah blah"

Chev, I don't know then. I know what I can see on my end.

ivy* in keyword returns 56 posts for me, most related to Ivy Chick
"ivy chick" in keyword returns 110 posts where those two words are mentioned sequentially

as of his moment at least

As I posted here, it appears that search option settings in vbulletin for the admin/moderator usergroup might be different than for normal users, and that's why you are getting different results (?)

That certainly could be, although I don't see any good reason why it would be setup differently! I really have no idea

As I posted here, it appears that search option settings in vbulletin for the admin/moderator usergroup might be different than for normal users, and that's why you are getting different results (?) Originally Posted by easily_amused

If it's intentional, I don't understand it but I'll accept it.

If it's inadvertent, perhaps someone could bring this to the attention of the tech gurus?

I have brought it up in the backroom, standby

Threads merged. Same discussion

So, we DO have a solution to the selective functionality of search? I would just about be willing to barter for its implementation.