Thread: search frustration

I'm not sure if there is any different functionality when you are a new member. I did the same search for both items and got heaps of results including your post.

You can always use Google but restrict the results to this site - in google, just type in your keywords, followed by site:www.woodworkforums.com - pocket hole jig gives 2,120 results

i use the search bar it sends me directly to advanced search i fill it in including the spam jigsaw thing and nothing very frustrating

Originally Posted by Treecycle

I'm not sure if there is any different functionality when you are a new member. I did the same search for both items and got heaps of results including your post.

Must be for I had the same result as you. Also I don't get the "the spam jigsaw thing" to fill in, that must also be for new members.


Peter.

Originally Posted by Sturdee

Must be for I had the same result as you. Also I don't get the "the spam jigsaw thing" to fill in, that must also be for new members.
Peter.

I've been a member since 2010, not sure if I've posted anything but I'm having the same problem, no search results and that stupid jigsaw thing every time I search. I've tried using google and restricting the domain but I find it's useless because it doesn't bring up searches with all my search terms. e.g. I search for acrylic cyclone, go to the listed pages and they are missing either acrylic or cyclone, where I am looking for pages with "acrylic AND cyclone" not "acrylic OR cyclone". Google no long appears to use boolean search terms and using their "advance search" feilds makes no difference. I normally avoid Google as the searches are full of rubbish now but starting to find other search engines are getting just as bad.

I'm trying to find a thread from someone who has or is contemplating building a cyclone using clear acrylic sheet rather than sheet metal. I know people have built them because I've found images for them (DIY ones not the Clearvue commerical version), but I can't locate a discussion or thread about it on any woodworking forum or site.

I'm getting to the point I hate looking up anything now because it just turns into a huge waste of time going down a bunch of rabbit holes finding nothing and would be better and cheaper to just experiment myself than try to find out what others have done and extend on that.

Sorry, having a crappy day and search facilities on web forums and search engines aren't helping. 10 years ago I could find what I was looking for within 10 minutes, now I can easily spend 10 hours and get nothing useful.

Hi,
Your header says "new member" although you joined in 2010 you only have 3 posts and that is how you advance.
Regards

Originally Posted by A Duke

Hi,
Your header says "new member" although you joined in 2010 you only have 3 posts and that is how you advance.
Regards

Thanks for your reply. So how many posts does someone have to make to be able to have the search page work? That seems counter intuitive to me, everyone gets annoyed with dumb repeated questions that could be easily found by searching the forums but new members can't search the forums because the search page doesn't work for them, so they have to ask their dumb questions. I think I originally joined so I could search the forums, now that has been taken away too.

In google, just type in your keywords, followed by a space and then add "site:www.woodworkforums.com" (without the quote marks)

You have to make a certain minimum number of posts before the jigsaw thingy goes away so that the forum does not get overwhelmed with bots spamming "What is best CNC roofer from china? We have best spinderal with Germany made almost metal beerings, thank, for your attention, write Mr Bahhir"

(and that it appears for search probably relates to how permissions are granted - the forum software may not be able to do such fine grained permissions as permission to search but not post without a captcha)

Originally Posted by Master Splinter

In google, just type in your keywords, followed by a space and then add "site:www.woodworkforums.com" (without the quote marks)

Yes tried that, that's what I meant above saying "I've tried using google and restricting the domain" in my first post above. I've used Google since 1998 and familiar with their search terms, unfortunately most don't work any more. You used to be able to do things like search for acrylic.cyclone and it would find pages with the two words "acrylic" and "cyclone" near each other but not necessarily the phrase "acrylic cyclone", proper boolean searches don't appear to work any more either. Hence my frustration because I know what I'm looking for is out there if my search terms came up correctly and weren't ruined by spam bots and rubbish pages.

Unfortunately it is more in Googles interest to make money out of their searches than it is to provide good search results so they will never truly tackle the problem of spammed pages. Google Adwords were a wonderful thing when they first came up with the idea, now making money from search terms has just created poor search results and wasted time.

Shame there isn't a better way of dealing with people that use and create "spam bots", they are a blight on humanity!

You're over thinking it.

Ignore the more esoteric search operands in Google and just type in more words to search with - I think Google's result for 'acrylic cyclone "dust extraction" site:www.woodworkforums.com' provides a significantly more usable result than the forums' own search results.

And...there are ads on the internet????????