TT has asked me to put together a public service post on how to best search the 2+2 forums. The Search function has its drawbacks, but there are things you can do to get better results.
The Easiest Way to Get Better Results from Search
Using the default options, search results use too small a window of time, and grab too many results (including multiple hits for the same thread). That behavior is easy to change.
1. Change the search terms to use <font color="red">subject</font> only, do not search the subject and body. This emphasizes threads that focus on what you want rather than any post that just happens to include the term.
2. Add <font color="red">-re:</font> to the search terms and use a <font color="red">+</font> in front or each of your search terms
The minus sign means "don't give me results that have this term." Eliminating
re: means that you will only get a result for the first post in a thread, removing the annoying multiple hits from the same thread.
Once you do this, you
must use a plus sign to make sure the result includes the terms you want. Otherwise the search will just return everything that does not include the
re: in the subject line.
Be sure to use the colon at the end of
re to make sure that you don't remove terms that simply start with
re. For instance,
+tipping -re without the colon would not return a subject of
Tipping in restaurants while
+tipping -re: would.
3. Expand the date range beyond 1 week
Don't always use 4 years, but you can easily search a 6 month or 1 year time frame, especially if you search the subject only and restrict to one forum.
4. Make use of preview
The preview is not great. Rather than giving the snippet of the post that matches your search term, it just shows the first chunk of text from the post. Still, this can help you decide what search result is worth clicking through.
Make Better Posts for Better Search Results
Since subject searches make for better results, you can see how it is important to make good subject lines when you post. Good subject lines include keywords that people will likely search for later.
For instance, for trip reports, mention the city and possibly specific spots. The subject lines of
Trip Report: Potawatomi Bingo Casino (Milwaukee) and
Foxwoods 75/150 Taking A Shot Trip Report are better than
5 day trip report (in stages).
More specific subjects are not just good for later search results, they also make for better posts in the first place. SO think about your subject line when posting.
Other Search Tips
1. Match whole words only
If you are looking for
strip and want to eliminate matches for
strippers then you can use quotes and whitespace in your search term. Using that same example
" strip " matches
best central strip room? but ignores
my girlfriend wants to be a stripper. Note that you need the quotes and the leading and trailing space in order to specify a full word match.
2. Use Google Instead
If you include
site:forumserver.twoplustwo.com in a Google search, you will restrict the search to the 2+2 forums. In fact there is a search plugin to add this to Firefox search window.
You can find the Google 2+2 search here.