"Ignored" terms in forum search

[tomliotta]

Why are so many useful (critical?) terms ignored in forum searches? It makes it difficult to narrow down a number of sets of results.

I tried to find any threads about "root partition" but 'root' is an ignored word. The resulting list of topics was huge since partition shows up many times, and I never found a relevant topic because my available time was too short. I changed 'root' to 'rooted' and got a number of hits, but they were all about smart-phones/tablets that had been 'rooted'. I had an error about a 'root partition' and wanted to know what it meant.

Sure, a few google searches and plenty of reading finally got me to a point where I could guess how to get around the problem. But I never found any article that actually had the info I wanted. I'm sure such articles exist. And I could have simply posted a 'Newbie' question, but I couldn't believe it wouldn't simply be a duplicate of a number of other "hidden" topics.

Right now, I'm looking for any references to "system font". I'm curious about anything that might allow changing the default system font that is used for icon texts or for most of the basic apps. But 'font' is ignored, so I can't narrow the search to "system +font" to ensure that 'font' is included and that both terms must be found. Instead, I get a meaningless, huge set of results.

Maybe worst of all is that something like "12" is ignored. If I'm only interested in topics that refer to 'Mint 12 install black screen', I can't see any way to get it done. (As it was, I tried something that I never saw mentioned anywhere, and it's worked ever since. After my third install attempt and numerous reboots with slightly different changes from who knows how many topics, none of which had anything to do with the final thing I tried, suddenly it worked. Did I just not scroll through enough topics? I looked at a lot of them.)

So, why so many ignored words? That makes sense when a search is for 'any term in the list', but not when it's for 'all terms in the list', and especially for a term marked as 'required'.

Tom

[vidtek]

Why are so many useful (critical?) terms ignored in forum searches? It makes it difficult to narrow down a number of sets of results.

I tried to find any threads about "root partition" but 'root' is an ignored word. The resulting list of topics was huge since partition shows up many times, and I never found a relevant topic because my available time was too short. I changed 'root' to 'rooted' and got a number of hits, but they were all about smart-phones/tablets that had been 'rooted'. I had an error about a 'root partition' and wanted to know what it meant.

Sure, a few google searches and plenty of reading finally got me to a point where I could guess how to get around the problem. But I never found any article that actually had the info I wanted. I'm sure such articles exist. And I could have simply posted a 'Newbie' question, but I couldn't believe it wouldn't simply be a duplicate of a number of other "hidden" topics.

Right now, I'm looking for any references to "system font". I'm curious about anything that might allow changing the default system font that is used for icon texts or for most of the basic apps. But 'font' is ignored, so I can't narrow the search to "system +font" to ensure that 'font' is included and that both terms must be found. Instead, I get a meaningless, huge set of results.

Maybe worst of all is that something like "12" is ignored. If I'm only interested in topics that refer to 'Mint 12 install black screen', I can't see any way to get it done. (As it was, I tried something that I never saw mentioned anywhere, and it's worked ever since. After my third install attempt and numerous reboots with slightly different changes from who knows how many topics, none of which had anything to do with the final thing I tried, suddenly it worked. Did I just not scroll through enough topics? I looked at a lot of them.)

So, why so many ignored words? That makes sense when a search is for 'any term in the list', but not when it's for 'all terms in the list', and especially for a term marked as 'required'.

Tom

Hi Tom-
Couln't agree more-I've been frustrated by this myself on numerous occasions, it would be nice to get a sensible answer from a moderator.
Tony

[tomliotta]

BTW, I did just find a related forum topic for my "system +font" issue through a google search. Though it didn't address my desktop type, it gave me enough ideas to look in a few different places; and I found where the setting was. It wasn't an answer exactly, but it was here in this forum and I worked out my answer from it.

Would've been a lot quicker just to find it directly.

Tom

[Habitual]

I've always just used a popular search engine that supports the "site:" keyword

eg: gurgle/startpage

Code: Select all

phrase site:forums.linuxmint.com

just seems faster to me.

[DrHu]

Like last post, I tend to use the internet as a search tool to find more complex selections
So, I might search via
Linux + Mint + scanner + brother + dcp-197C

• I don't expect the same options within these forums
  --they have to manage/limit the data somehow..

If it only a single keyword, I can use these forums
scanner (search word)
--but in that case I will get too many hits or none at all if no-one used the term scanner

[austin.texas]

If you are using the Google Chrome browser, there is a "Search the current site" extension you can add to your toolbar.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta ... fombdekjcp

Or you can simply use Google search and add the site:forums.linuxmint.com as Habitual suggested.

[tomliotta]

I'm well aware that other search engines can get the job done, but that doesn't answer the question of why it can't be done within the site itself. The site's search is regularly ineffective, so the question could be more general about why a search feature is even presented.

Since I most often have to use an external search and qualify it back to this site, it seems that local site search should simply be taken off the page. Or perhaps it could just auto-redirect to an external engine.

Overall, it's simply not clear why so many needed terms are ignored. Ignored words like "the", "linux" and "mint" seem reasonable since they either add nothing or are implicit in the site. But "root", "font" and "12" do not. I'm looking for some sense about the forum itself.

Tom

[oldgranola]

I have the same concern. Very frustrating since anything relevant will have oft used terms and short acronyms. Pretty stupid to have to go outside to google etc. But it looks like its a problem with the forum program which wasnt made here..

[Tom P]

add me to the list. The search option is near useless.

[Pierre]

the Forum search is not 'broken' as such,
but, rather, it is has a limited 'search engine'.

Code: Select all

phrase site:forums.linuxmint.com

use that instead.

[tomliotta]

Aaarrgghh! I just now wanted to see if there were any previous posts recommending a particular VNC server function for LM. The initial obvious search terms were [ vnc server ]. The list that came back showed a couple thousand hits, but a quick scroll down showed that only "server" was highlighted in the previews.

I assumed that "server" was swamping any "vnc" hits, so I changed the search to be just [ vnc ] and got zero hits. Why? Because vnc is an ignored word!

Seriously? "Server" is allowed but "vnc" is not???

Aaarrgghh! Sigh.

[Habitual]

Aaarrgghh! I just now wanted to see if there were any previous posts recommending a particular VNC server function for LM. The initial obvious search terms were [ vnc server ]. The list that came back showed a couple thousand hits, but a quick scroll down showed that only "server" was highlighted in the previews.

I assumed that "server" was swamping any "vnc" hits, so I changed the search to be just [ vnc ] and got zero hits. Why? Because vnc is an ignored word!

Seriously? "Server" is allowed but "vnc" is not???

Aaarrgghh! Sigh.

This bothered me for about "a minute" when it first happened to me, but I was a GoogleDork before the word was coined, so I've used google.fu like so ever since... to get over it.
vnc
vnc server
Adapt. be flexible.

[tomliotta]

This bothered me for about "a minute" when it first happened to me, but I was a GoogleDork before the word was coined,...

Likewise, for the past 16 or 17 years or so. But that doesn't affect the usefulness of this site's search feature. Why have the feature, why invest effort in it, why use whatever resources it requires, if it's less than useful? The issue is whether the feature is useful to community members, not whether going somewhere else is better. Having to go elsewhere shouldn't be what new members learn about the site, should it?

[in-gold]

I have the same problem when I was trying to search for windows 10. I got results windows 7, windows XP. all else. I tried the +prefix, single and double quotes, The search needs an AND/OR/XOR Boolean logical operations.

[Habitual]

I have the same problem when I was trying to search for windows 10. I got results windows 7, windows XP. all else. I tried the +prefix, single and double quotes, The search needs an AND/OR/XOR Boolean logical operations.

"Windows 10" is the phrase to search for.

Code: Select all

Search found 124727 matches: windows 10

Class dismissed.