I've never had much luck using the forum's built-in search function, and figured it was just me not using it correctly, mis-remembering quotes or article titles. I am not convinced of that anymore.
-Example:
I was trying to find a specific transcript containing a note about CERN, remembering that the C's had responded with something along the lines of "They wish!" and proceeded to try combinations of that to search for the relevant transcript.
Nothing came back. -Nothing but lots of seemingly randomly selected threads where the words, "They" and "Wish" were used. -Which is not much better than useless.
I continued plugging away, using different word combinations, and eventually chanced upon what I was looking for on Duck Duck Go. The actual line I had in mind was:
A: They only wish! The more interesting work is of a different nature and location.
Having found the thread I wanted, (the Session 13, June 2015 transcript) I was about to continue my original line of inquiry but then stopped, backed up and thought, "Ugh! Okay. I've been frustrated by this search problem for years now. It's time to get to the bottom of it!"
Please try this to see if you can't replicate the problem:
Search for: A: They only wish!
-Which should be a very easy match, given that there's no algorithmic guesswork needed at all. It's the same string cut and pasted. I tried searching for it across both the specific board containing links to the transcripts (by date) and across the entire forum. Only random garbage came back, collections of hits on single words, (selected in ways which appeared more or less at complete random).
The relevant transcript simply didn't come up.
Am I doing something wrong, missing some basic feature, or does this indicate that the search function might need some attention?
My researches through the forum have been prevented or just made inordinately difficult due to this phenomenon many times.
-Example:
I was trying to find a specific transcript containing a note about CERN, remembering that the C's had responded with something along the lines of "They wish!" and proceeded to try combinations of that to search for the relevant transcript.
Nothing came back. -Nothing but lots of seemingly randomly selected threads where the words, "They" and "Wish" were used. -Which is not much better than useless.
I continued plugging away, using different word combinations, and eventually chanced upon what I was looking for on Duck Duck Go. The actual line I had in mind was:
A: They only wish! The more interesting work is of a different nature and location.
Having found the thread I wanted, (the Session 13, June 2015 transcript) I was about to continue my original line of inquiry but then stopped, backed up and thought, "Ugh! Okay. I've been frustrated by this search problem for years now. It's time to get to the bottom of it!"
Please try this to see if you can't replicate the problem:
Search for: A: They only wish!
-Which should be a very easy match, given that there's no algorithmic guesswork needed at all. It's the same string cut and pasted. I tried searching for it across both the specific board containing links to the transcripts (by date) and across the entire forum. Only random garbage came back, collections of hits on single words, (selected in ways which appeared more or less at complete random).
The relevant transcript simply didn't come up.
Am I doing something wrong, missing some basic feature, or does this indicate that the search function might need some attention?
My researches through the forum have been prevented or just made inordinately difficult due to this phenomenon many times.