Suggestion: Forum Search Enhancement

it would be nice if one could search forums, FAQs and POIs separately.

I don't spend time on any forums but here for the last 4 months. I have a hard time finding things using the search box, I generally keep clicking around for a while til I find something close. It amazes me the speed that some of the regulars post links in a thread when I can't find things I know I've read about since joining.

Are there tricks to the syntax used in the search box that would make it hone in a little more to my search?

Also, just curious, when already typing in a thread and then remembering there is already a thread that will help with the problem, I don't know anyway to save what I've already typed while I go search for that link, other than opening 2 browser sessions. Is this right or am I missing something else?

When typing a long post, I quite often copy & paste to WORD. I have a shortcut on my desktop just for that purpose.

I agree that it would be nice to have some info about search syntax, as well as having separate poi & forum searches, with sort orders.

A good example of a search I recently did was for the A&W Root Beer poi. I can't remember how I eventually found it but it wasn't easy!

As far as replies & searching, I've never seen a forum that has a way to do that without opening up either a new window or new tab. I've been hooked on Firefox's 'tabs' long before IE finally implemented them, but I couldn't live without a browser that has tabs.

I'm glad to know I'm not missing the boat on something basic when it comes to searching for links links during a post.

So if I learn any more today about searching in general on this site and any special syntax that can be used in the search box I'll be further ahead.

I don't know if I'll ever catch up with some of the regulars speedsters here but that is a good thing the way the users jump in so fast to help on this site!

Once you start using them, Careful with those tabs Eugene. (..Pink Floyd)

Sometimes I find that I have so many open tabs that it slows everything down! Still the greatest thing since sliced bread though.

I wonder if you could make a notepad file on your desktop with the links that are helpful, then put a short description of the link as an example:
POI links.txt

http://www.poi-factory.com/garmin-csv-file-format ...Garmin CSV file format

Then if anybody had a question you could copy/paste from your file into the post response??

That is exactly what I do. Strange how many of them involve answers or FAQs from charlesd45.

I rarely search for things on this site. But I tend to plug the search into Google with www.poi-factory.com at the end and get the results that way.

Never thought of that.

No one has responded with any kind of possible syntax options that are available or hints for the POI Factory search box though that may help hone a search any.

There are four operators for search: AND, OR exact match and negative words:

• AND is the default and will find posts containing all of the words (AND is not required)
  • e.g. Miss POI will find all posts with the words Miss and POI
• OR will find posts containing any of the words (OR must be capitalized)
  • e.g. Miss OR POI will find all posts containing either of the words Miss or POI
• exact match will find posts containing the specified string (enclosed in quotes)
  • e.g. "Miss POI" will find all posts containing the string Miss POI
• negative words will omit posts containing the specified string (prefixed with a minus sign)
  • e.g. "Miss -POI" will find all posts containing the word Miss and not the word POI

For more information see http://drupal.org/node/698822

There are no upgrades being made to the site at this time.

Miss POI

@bear007: I actually got Google's syntax wrong, although in my test it did pop up with what I was expecting to find. The correct search syntax is:

 site:poi-factory.com [search terms]

So if I were to search for rest stops, the syntax would be:

 site:poi-factory.com rest stops

The result would be this:

 site:poi-factory.com rest stops

It is possible, using Google's search functions, to narrow down the search further within POI Factory. However the above is generally sufficient.

@Strephon_Alkhalikoi: I never knew this about Google. It works really good.

Thanks for the tip!

When the time for updates for the site comes could you consider adding a feature to the forums where people can "like" or "dislike" a comment made by somebody and show the count. This is used in many other forums in other websites. I think it will help avoid some of the "fights" I see some times when people disagree, instead of writing attacking a comment we could just "dislike it" and save the typing for something more positive.

...if possible, could you include a feature that keeps track of unnecessary complaints? Exposing the "whiners" may reduce the clutter on a great site.