Annoying post/thread search issues.

azith28

This may already be well known...but since i cant search for it, I wouldnt know if its already been reported.

I cant put the word "Wii" into a search. even if i enclose it in quotes along with other words like "Wii Games" or even something pretty specific like "New Wii Owner, what games to buy" (The name of an old thread, or close to it). Because 'Wii" is a 3 letter word, the search returns nothing (not long enough).

Is there any way to exclude certain words from the filter that counts letters? Sure theres a new 'what <insert game console here> games to buy' every month but it would be nice to search out the old ones and the word Wii should at least be able to be put in this forums search engine.


Thanks

Iruka

I thought the standard was to use google and just search the forums through it, ala:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&as_q=%22Wii+games%22&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&num=10&lr=&as_filetype=&ft=i&as_sitesearch=http://forums.penny-arcade.com/&as_qdr=all&as_rights=&as_occt=any&cr=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&safe=images

Sure its slightly round about, but Its better than nothing.

Thanatos

Searching is one of the most intensive things our forum software does; having to check every three-letter word to see if it's "wii" could slow down the entirety of the forums a ton.

It's not as if our options are "have a working forum where we can search three-letter words" or "have a working forum where we can't search three-letter words." They're "have a working forum where we can't search three-letter words" or "don't have a working forum."

Tube

Unfortunately we are never going to change the search system to allow the searching of three letter words. Sorry.

L|ama

Google has the advantages of allowing 3 letter words, generally being faster, not having search-per-minute limits, and not crashing the forums when you search specific phrases. It also has easier to navigate results for me, so I generally use it instead of the forum's search function and would recommend you at least give it a go.

FyreWulff

Opera 10.x PA Forums Quicksearch Instructions

Menu -> Settings -> Preferences

Click "Search" tab

Click "Add" button

Name: PA Forums Google Search (although you can name it anything you want)

Keyword: paf (although you can change it, I use "paf" because I have a seperate one for the pa mainsite as "pa")

Address: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Aforums.penny-arcade.com+%s

Leave everything else blank/unchecked

Save. Now you can type "paf whatever otherstuff" to search the forums from the Opera address bar

Firefox Quicksearch Instructions

Firefox still uses a ass backwards way of adding custom searches from Netscape 4. You have to make a 'search extension'. I'll type how to make one once I'm done yelling at Mozilla.

Internet Explorer 8 (maybe 7?) Search Instructions

Go to this URL in IE:

http://www.ieaddons.com/en/createsearch.aspx

Input this as the URL:

http://www.google.com/?hl=en&source=hp&q=site%3Aforums.penny-arcade.com+TEST

Name it "PA Forums Google Search" ( once again, can be named what you want)

Character encoding can be left as-is.

Click "Install Search Provider", accept the prompt. Now you can drop down and get a PA Forums Google search right in the toolbar!


Google Chrome Quick Search Instructions

Wrench -> Options

"Basics" tab

Next to the Default Search option, click "Manage"

Click "Add"

Name: PA Forums Google Search
URL: http://www.google.com/?hl=en&q=site%3Aforums.penny-arcade.com+%s
Keyword: paf (can be whatever you want)


Save. Now you can type "paf whatever otherstuff" to search the forums from the Chrome address bar

joshofalltrades

Thanks, that would be pretty useful FyreWulff.

FyreWulff

Added Chrome and IE instructions in the meantime

SporkAndrew

Thanks, FyreWulff, but I had to change the address to http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site&#64976;3Aforums.penny-arcade.com+%s

For some reason it wasn't working without the /search

FyreWulff

I think that accidentally got removed when I was trying to figure out why the forums started suddenly truncating the link text again.

Fixed for the Opera link

Sorry about not being able to get the Firefox one up so far. I've followed all the developer instructions and I can't get the custom file to make me suddenly have a new search engine in FF. But I did find a extension that lets you make them dynamically, so I may just make a tutorial for that if I can get it to always include the site:forums.penny-arcade.com

The only browser definitely left out of this is Safari - it doesn't support OpenSearch and is simply locked to Google, Yahoo, and Bing. I think the only option for it right now is to just make a bookmark to a pre set up google search

RBach

Firefox:
1) Go to google.com and right click on the search box. Select "Add a keyword for this search"
2) Name the search whatever you like (e.g. Penny Arcade Forums) and add a keyword like pa, paf, whatever.
3) Find the newly-added bookmark in your Bookmarks menu or toolbar (depending on where you saved it), then right click on it and select Properties.
4) Copy and paste this link into the Location field, then click OK.

To use, just type your keyword (pa in my case) into Firefox's address bar followed by your search term.

FyreWulff

Okay, I saw that before, but I was all "Shit, I want a thing for search, not a bookmark!"

lol, Mozilla Foundation

RBach

Yeah, it's kind of silly. I just made a folder to store all my search keywords/"bookmarks" and dumped them all there.

Incidentally, I removed Firefox's dedicated search box years ago as I just use these keywords all the time, anyway.

Oh, and that link uses Google's SSL search and I'm too lazy to change it. So enjoy extra-secure search I guess?