How to narrow search?

[FlyingBagpipe]

How would I go about filtering out which kind of models I want to have a look at in the WiP and RFi sections?

 

Say I want to only look at ready for inspection WW1 aircraft...how do I filter that section of the forum? I can find loads of discussion using the sub categories in the discussion section but not in the others.

 

Nothing seems to come up when I search a tag term such as WW1 or WWI.

 

[Adam Poultney]

To my understanding, the forum's search function is quite limited, although not entirely useless. 

I believe it works on a simple search for a word or set of words you search for, nothing too fancy. I think by default if I put in the search term "WW1" that it will only return results for threads which include the term "WW1", in the title or in the thread itself. Because of this, "WW1" won't return results for any thread which is about WW1 stuff unless it's specifically mentioned as the search function has no way of knowing what WW1 even is, or which threads specifically are WW1 themed. You can also choose an option to search a specific subforum (eg: search in ready for inspection aircraft) which is very useful.

There are a number of options that help make the search function a bit more useful, such as being able to search for the term "WW1" in thread titles only, or "World War One" specifically rather than any combination of the words "world", "war" and "one" anywhere in the thread, not necessarily in that order. 

You can also use Google if the BM search function isn't behaving nicely, either put Britmodeller on the end of your search or better, site:Britmodeller.com

 

It would be nice to see an improved content tag system, perhaps an option when creating a thread to specify an era, kit manufacturer, aircraft type (or tank, ship etc) that is better than the current way you can add up to 3 tags, I'm not sure how those effect the search function on the forum. But the site admins don't have unlimited time and funding so we will have to make do with the search function we've got.

 

[rayprit]

The search function on this site is absolute rubbish.........the way I conduct a search is through "Google"  I type the search item into the box BUT at the end I put in "Britmodeller"  I generally get the exact item I am interested in and it goes back upto and over 10 years..........much better way to search the site...............I typed in Hawker Hunter on this site, I got everything made by Hawker, Hawker Siddeley every type of Hunter and any other aircraft which had Hunter associated with its name, this included just about every american aircraft, Nimrod, if somebody was building another aircraft, say the Sabre, but in the article included the word Hunter or Hawker, these also came up...........filtering through this lot of upto 10-20 pages can take ages and be very frustrating, especially when photos have been deleted or hosts changed ......................"Google" is the way to go and add Britmodeller at the end

[Graham Boak]

Doesn't the site allow for the use of normal search terms such as AND, NOT etc.  I'm pretty sure it does, if totally vague on the details.

[Black Knight]

4 hours ago, FlyingBagpipe said:

How would I go about filtering out which kind of models I want to have a look at in the WiP and RFi sections?

 

Say I want to only look at ready for inspection WW1 aircraft...how do I filter that section of the forum? I can find loads of discussion using the sub categories in the discussion section but not in the others.

 

Nothing seems to come up when I search a tag term such as WW1 or WWI.

 

All the aeroplanes are mixed together, as are the cars, the ships

I rarely use the BM search

I use Google

I also limit my search to a specific type

 eg if I want to see a built Fokker Dr.1 in RFI I put in the search, 'Fokker Dr.1, ready, britmodeller' and this brings up a whole load of Fokker Dr.1 ready-for-inspection postings

https://www.google.com/search?q=Fokker+Dr.1%2C+ready%2C+britmodeller'&rlz=1C1CHBF_enGB883GB883&oq=Fokker+Dr.1%2C+ready%2C+britmodeller'&aqs=chrome..69i57.1938j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[FlyingBagpipe]

Jeez, you'd think they could just categorize the WiP and RFI sections to match the discussion area no?

[Adam Poultney]

If it was either fully separated and categorised or as it is now, I'd choose as it is now. If changes could be made, which are unlikely due to the recourses available for running this site bring finite, I'd rather see a more functional content tag and filtering system. You could view all as one or filter. 

but this forum is ran on finite resources and I imagine improving search functionality is very low down the priority list if on it at all

[Ray_W]

Like others, I find the Google search option very effective on the Britmodeller site. Not only text search but images. For example, with the search term "Ready for Inspection - Aircraft" WW1 site:www.britmodeller.com I get hundreds of pages of RFI as follows and note the tags I can select to restrict further. 

 

 

 

Understand a little about the power of search engine search syntax and filters and all can be found efficiently and quickly. 

 

Ray

[ckw]

Agree pretty much with what's been said, but just to add that Google has an 'Advanced search' option:

 

https://www.google.co.uk/advanced_search

 

Which offers 'and', 'or', and 'not' searching and more. Frankly I think any effort spent on improving the Britmodeller search would be wasted effort, and will inevitably be inferior to Google. To be honest these days I see little value in 'in house' search engines unless you are indexing material which you do not want to be made public in anyway or have some very specific search requirement or feature.

 

In the interest of fairness other search engines are available - Bing also has an advanced search facility which may appeal to some as it uses a more traditional Boolean search syntax (ie. AND OR NOT etc.)

 

Cheers

 

Colin