• Untitled Document

    Join us on March 29rd, 7pm EST

    for the CBEC Virtual Meeting

    All EYO members and followers are welcome to join the fun and get to know the guest speaker!

    See the link below for login credentials and join us!

    March Meeting Info

    (dismiss this notice by hitting 'X', upper right)

Site "Search" Questions

Blue Chip

Member III
I probably have this in the wrong place, but I just can't figure out how to use part of this site.
If I want to find an answer...HOW DO I TIGHTEN MY WIDGET, I tried going to mechanical section, typing in Widget and hitting go. All I got was every topic ever discussed in the univers under the "mechancal" section.
I'v tried this on a few different topics and finally gave up, but enough of that.
HOW do you look up somethin on this site that I know has already been discussed???:confused:
 

Mark F

Contributing Partner
Blogs Author
Hi Ralph,

I use Google's "search site" option. I have had the same trouble using the search tab here.
 

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Results, Wherefore Art Thou

Gentlemen,
I moved your question(s) to a more appropriate forum and titled it.
The basic "search" dialog box for this application seems unable (to me anyway) to be able to cope with phrases. It just looks for individual words. So, if you want to search on "fuel tank" you will get every(!) thread that uses either word.
Not helpful.
I have taken to using the Advanced Search box. Then I use the Search by Tag box.
Here's where some of the blame goes back to the thread originators...
IF.... your thread does not have really helpful and descriptive words in the Tag section at the bottom, and note that tags can be short phrases, then it still will be buried in a blizzard of results.
What can you do? Ah yes.... Thought you'd never ask! :)
Get used to using that little Tag Edit function to remove useless tags and insert useful ones on all of your threads. Go ahead and add tags to other threads, too. A lot of existing threads have poor tagging due to generalized titles like Problem or Help Me...
:rolleyes:

Plan B: Often you know that you or one of the regulars here had replied to a certain thread. And, often you know just which forum to look in. If you are sure that in addition to a certain word one of the replies was from electrican Tom or woodworker Martin, now put that name into the User Name box. This will narrow your search a lot.
For instance, if you are rebuilding the head and holding tank on an 80's boat you will want to put Sean into that name box because you recall that he has put in great comments about that project when variations of it have come up here.
And so on....
And yup, I use the Google option sometimes too.

Hope this .02 worth is on some help. Ask more questions if this is unclear.

Regards,
Loren
 
Last edited:

Sean Engle

Your Friendly Administrator
Administrator
Founder
Searches - Google Searches...

The site db is indexed by word - and does not even index numbers. This has been an issue for awhile, and I'll check with Jelsoft and see what the latest is on the updates to work on this problem.

As mentioned, however - is the alternative of using the Google search targeted at this db as mentioned by Sven below - it works. Start with your search parameters, and then add "site..." as mentioned below - then continue to add additional parameters - and you'll narrow it down. Google's spiders are on our site every ten minutes going over the db - so it's pretty up to date.

Here's an example which is searching this site for info on the E35-3 rudder - note the quotes force the search to only those two words, in that order. When you click on the link below, it will take you to a Google search - look at the input field at the top - it's pretty self-explanatory - although, as you'll notice, there are issues following this path as well (as you are restricting a great deal of info). There are other search options as well:

http://www.google.com/search?source....r_gc.r_pw.&fp=80ab9cbe03966427&pf=p&pdl=3000

Try that now - and I'll find out what the deal is with the search engine on the forum software and get back to you.....

//sse

If you include

site:http://www.ericsonyachts.org/

in a Google search it will restrict the search to Sean's site but give you all the bells and whistles of Google.

For example, put

E35 site:http://www.ericsonyachts.org/

in the Google search box.


-Sven
 
Last edited:

Vagabond39

Member III
Cheers & Jeers

Most everyting I have gotten to on this site is JIBBERISH maskerading as a PLACE HOLDER!
Any information is apparently unobtainable.
 

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Oh My...

Most everyting I have gotten to on this site is JIBBERISH maskerading as a PLACE HOLDER!
Any information is apparently unobtainable.

Before tarring the site's capabilities with such a broad brush, you might state how you arrived at your "conclusion."
There is certainly some PlaceHolder stuff in some yet-unpopulated sections, but the meat-n-potatoes of the site is the Forums.
"Threads: 9,429, Posts: 65,025"
After a decade of continuous servous, that's a LOT of searchable information. As stated before, the site search engine has some limitations, and some of us Google to supplement it.

OTOH, if to you it's all gibberish, then perhaps you got up on the wrong side of the V-berth this morning.
:esad:

Loren
moderator
 
Last edited:

Sean Engle

Your Friendly Administrator
Administrator
Founder
Most everyting I have gotten to on this site is JIBBERISH maskerading as a PLACE HOLDER!
Any information is apparently unobtainable.

I'm not sure how to respond to this....other than to note that you opened your account on March 31st - and this thread is dated about two weeks later - so I'm not sure how much you have worked to resolve these issues. I think the word "gibberish" is unfair - though I note the spelling choices in both that word and "masquerade", so...

If there is something specific I can do to assist, please feel free to contact me via the Contact Us forum below!

//sse
 

Sean Engle

Your Friendly Administrator
Administrator
Founder
And...

With the upgrade to 4.1.3 there may be some changes to searching - as all the indexes were rebuilt during the migration, etc.

You just need to go to the search or advanced search button and use the appropriate terms. Think about it narrowly - and try not to use such broad terms (ie; use "Ericson 38 anchor roller" instead of "anchor") - you'll narrow the search and be happier for it.

As we move forward the blogging feature will also be indexed - so if you come to the site, and enter the search time at the front, you should be able to locate everything on the site (including downloads) that tie to those parameters. Of course, that's once we get the downloads issue straightened away.

//sse
 
Last edited:
Top