How to search: An illustrated guide for noobs and idiots

Hi everyone!

My name's DrBrumTangerine, and I really hate reposts. Honestly, they drive me up the wall. It shows a complete lack of respect for the person that searched hard for those pics in the first place, and who probably searched this forum to make sure that no-one had posted the pics in the first place.

With this (and the countless fools who repost stuff whilst saying in their threads 'Gee, I'm sorry if this is a repost') in mind, I thought I'd make a little tutorial to teach you all how to search. God, aren't I nice?

I'm gonna do it in a question/answer kind of way. I don't often talk to myself, so this should be a new kind of fun for me

Does this forum have a search function? I've never seen one...

You might be surprised to discover that it does indeed have a search function.



As you can see, there's a button at the top of the forum, entitled 'Search'. This isn't exactly rocket science, is it?

What happens when I click the button? One of the big kids at school said it'll make my PC melt, and then my penis will fall off

Don't be so damn silly. Clicking the button brings up a little box for you to enter the text you want to search for (I've labelled that option '1' for you), or the option to performed an 'Advanced Search' ('2'):



I think an Advanced Search at this stage might cause a few brains to melt, so we'll leave that until later. Now, I wonder what happens when we perform a search?

What happens when I perform a search?

Wow, it's as if I'm asking these questions myself! Let's pretend we've typed the word 'leecher' into the box, and clicked go. We'll end up with a screen like this:



As you can see, a list of all the threads containing the word 'leecher' appears, listed in the order of the last post in that thread, just like the normal forum. However, there's 228 posts in the thread at the top. How on earth are we going to find the post we're looking for in there?

How can I find a specific post?

Don't worry. If we click on the first thread, we'll be presented with a screen like this:



Your screen might look a little different - one of my firefox extensions blocks the AFF ads at the top of the forum, and you might not have a professionally drawn big red circle, but apart from that, they should be very similar. Now, if you look inside the professionally drawn big red circle (we'll call it a PDBRC from now on), you'll notice that there's an option to 'Search this Thread'. If we click this, the same search box as normal appears.



So we'll type in 'leecher', and click 'Go' (I've put a PDBRC around it, in case you miss it).

We're then presented with a list of individual posts that contain the word 'leecher' within that particular thread.



I'm not sure what's more miraculous - the fact that the forum provides a function to do this, or the fact that only 4 people in that particular thread use the word leecher

How do I find a post by a particular person?

Well, let's try it, shall we?



As you can see, we're gonna try and search for the name of the first member that came to my mind.

At this point, it's probably worth mentioning that you can only perform a search every 60 seconds. I'm mentioning it now, as this is the time when the forum mentioned it to me:



If you get a screen like this, just click 'Back' on your browser (it sometimes looks like an arrow pointing to the left) and you'll be able to search again shortly. So I'll do that, and search for me again, and we end up with this screen:



Now, I can assure you that I've posted in more threads than that recently. However, I didn't search for my posts, I searched for my handle - the standard search function only searches for text WITHIN a post, not who it's by. These threads contain my full name somewhere within it. I'm sure if I searched for Doc or Brum, there'd be lots more. Still no use to us, though.

To search for posts by a particular user, we need to step into the dark, uncharted horror of (DER DER DERRR!) THE ADVANCED SEARCH!!!

 

I've written this bit slightly more matter-of-factly. I think if you can do all the stuff above, I don't need to patronise you as much any more.

To do an advanced search, click 'Advanced Search' in the search box (it's the bit I labelled '2' earlier). You'll then be presented with this screen:



Don't worry, it's not as scary as it looks. I'll go through each part with you, step-by-step.

Search by Key Word



This searches for a particular word, just like the standard search. The default is to search the entire thread - if you're after a particular thread and remember the title, you can select the 'Search Titles Only' option.

Find Threads with... (Replies)



This allows you to specify a maximum or minimum number of replies for your target, which is useful if you're looking for a common word and trying to filter out the particularly big or small threads. Default, unsurprisingly, is 'Minimum of 0 replies'

Find Posts from... (Date)



This allows you to find threads within a specified timeframe. This is useful if you're looking for, say, a particular lady with a common first name, and you need to see more than 100 threads (as this is the limit for the search - it will only ever display the first 100 threads that fit the criteria).

Sort Results by...



This is a powerful tool that I don't personally use much. It's really for trying to weed out the thread that you can't find using other methods. Default is 'Last Posting Date in Descending Order' - i.e. the most recently active thread is displayed first. The 'Relevancy' option can be useful for searches with multiple words.

Show Results as...



This can prevent the problem we had originally - finding the result you need in a huge thread. Default option is 'Threads', but selecting 'Posts' allows you to see the particular post within the thread that mentions the Key Word (or is by the User Name) that you specified.

Search by User Name



This is the solution to the problem that originally brought us into the Advanced Search. Using this, you can find posts by a particular member. Using the options within the box, you can search for an exact name or a fragment (default is Exact Name), and search for posts by a user or threads started by the user (default is posts).

Search in Forum(s)



This obviously allows you to search for posts or threads in specific subforums. You can select this without going through the Advanced Search by clicking 'Search This Forum' (at the top right of each subforum) - I got bored of grabbing screenshots by the time I remembered this, but you'll find it. You can select one of the options on the menu, or hold the Ctrl key whilst selecting multiple options (e.g. for searching the Celeb and Model forums for a famous model who could be in either). I've put a PDBRC around 'Search Child Forums' - the default is for this feature to be turned on, but its irrelevant as phun has no child forums.

Final Options



After selecting the parameters for your search, you can click 'Search Now' to search. If you like, you can click 'Reset Fields' if you'd like to start setting up the search again. If you commonly do a particular type of advanced search, it may save some time to select 'Save Search Preferences' and then click 'Go' - this will save the selected parameters to use as your standard search. If you did this and got pissed off with it and wanted to revert to the standard settings, select 'Clear Search Preferences' from this box, and it'll reset the search to normal.

That's the advanced search in a nutshell. Stick with me, and I'll post a couple of examples.

 

Example #1

I'm gonna try and find the threads that I've posted in in the General Forum. To do this, I'll set up the search as in this screenshot (follow the PDBRCs):



And, by clicking 'Search Now' (follow the Professionally Drawn Big Red Arrow), we're presented with a more exact search:



Example #2

We're now gonna see how many posts in the General Forum mention the word 'Leecher'.



Same basic thing as before, and on clicking 'Search Now', we're presented with a list of posts:



Easy peasy, isn't it?

That's basically a rundown of how to search on this forum. Any questions, comments, etc - reply in thread. You now have no excuse WHATSOEVER to repost, so don't do it.

 

rofl! This should be a sticky.

 

LMAO @ the PDBRC. classic like coca cola.

 

Brum for MOD!!

 

jesus christ, got some free time?

 

I'm supposed to be doing some work. I reckon it'll be the old 'iron my entire wardrobe' next, or possibly sort out my room, as it's a shitheap.

 

lmao!

that made my day man

 

Jeezus what a waste of time.

I understand your sentiment.

But to talk down to us is very condescending.

And we are not interested in searching for the word leecher.

If you had made your tutorial based on how to search for pics that have alreday been posted then I might have read it all.

Regards

Digby

 

sigh

 

It is indeed very condescending, but I think that your reply proved that it needed to be.

I'm terribly sorry that you're not intelligent enough to apply the knowledge you could have learned above to a different situation.

For instance, if you're posting a random pic of Jennifer Aniston nude and you want to check that it's never been posted, why not do a search for 'Aniston' in the thread titles of the Celeb forum? Or even 'Aniston nude', sorted by relevance?

If you'd like to make my afternoon's work totally obsolete by posting your own tutorial, holding the hands of the other members who lack patience and intelligence, be my fucking guest.

 

WTF , DR sorry you cant save them all, nice tutorial though. I am sure att least a few will find it usefull

 

Wow. Great tutorial Doc!! thanks for taking the time, I actually learned some things there. Unfortunately. Screw you for making me educate myself. My goal was unproductiveness today and now I'm totally off track.

 

Click here for Seeka's Tutorial.

 

Thanks heaps Dr Brum for going to the trouble of doing this, I've stickied it and when the new rules are processed, it will have a link to this.

 

LOL! This is very funny and informative at the same time. Thanks for making me laugh.

 

rofl. great post Doc.

 

I done been trying to do them there seerches in here but even tho I get new pages comin' up I don't see no PDBRC thing coming up on da page to tell me what to seerch fer.