A better way to search forums?

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catfood
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A better way to search forums?

Unread post by catfood » Sat Oct 08, 2016 3:07 am

I'm still relatively new to Linux, so I'm gonna have a lot of questions.
I'd prefer to find previous answers rather than starting new duplicate threads.

Unfortunately, alot of things I've been searching for, over half the words I search get ignored. Not simple words, but like names of "[distros] release notes". Like kielbasa was an ignored term, when i wanted to find whatever might have replaced it.

Same issues with advanced search and picking the appropriate sections, etc. Trying to narrow it down didn't help. Search for quoted "search terms" doesn't seem to work; also, some topics, I don't know the exact release/thread name to do so anyways.

Just wondering if there's a better way to word my searches or something here so 2/3rds my terms aren't ignored?
I don't wanna waste people's time for things I should be able to find myself.
Thank You!
(I remember when debian "non-gui" installer scared me. #never-forget)

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wuxmedia
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Re: A better way to search forums?

Unread post by wuxmedia » Sat Oct 08, 2016 9:48 am

yeah the search is a bit weird on this forum, I have trouble finding old stuff, Bacon seems pretty good, but I think he just remembers the topic url by heart.
What can work is a broad search then a search within the results.
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Re: A better way to search forums?

Unread post by machinebacon » Sat Oct 08, 2016 12:02 pm

Some things are moved into a dumpster (for example really old release notes that would just confuse people)

Here's the deal: collect all your questions, open a new thread, call it "Catfood Minced Questions", type them in and I promise we will answer all of them in less than 12 hours.
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Re: A better way to search forums?

Unread post by pidsley » Sat Oct 08, 2016 1:47 pm

wuxmedia wrote:yeah the search is a bit weird on this forum, I have trouble finding old stuff, Bacon seems pretty good, but I think he just remembers the topic url by heart.
What can work is a broad search then a search within the results.
Wux, is there any way to tweak the search? For example to increase the number of occurrences of a word before it is ignored, or something like that? Or is this phpBB stuff out of our (your) control?

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Re: A better way to search forums?

Unread post by machinebacon » Sat Oct 08, 2016 1:55 pm

The search function can only be tweaked by adding mods, if ever. The mods need exact phpbb versions. Our themes only work for certain phpbb versions. So it's kind of "hard" (not really hard, but it would need more than just extracting a zip folder onto the server :))

I get better results when I select only certain forums (sections) or if I remember who wrote the post. Usually the :Related topics: on the bottom of the page is quite good, too. So for example, if you are searching for something related to grep, you would search "grep" in HOWTOs, posts by pidsley, and then hit the first entry. On the next page just scroll down and see if the suggested related topics somehow fit what you were looking for. (edit: I just tried it and it only found one match in SUPPORT -- can't really imagine pids never writing about grep in HOWTOs...)

Or do you have an example we can try?
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Re: A better way to search forums?

Unread post by catfood » Sat Oct 08, 2016 10:21 pm

Nothing specific off hand. Before I even registered, I was trying to find a lot of BBQ releases I saw on youtube.

Um, actually was trying to find stuff on USB installs recently, but came up with way too many results. It would take either of those words anywhere and not "usb installs", so seemed to flag almost every thread on here as those are relatively common.

I appreciate how quick and helpful everyone is. I even saw times Bacon googled stuff for other users, lol. I just know it's easy to wear out your welcome with too many dumb questions that could have been researched better on your own..
Thank You!
(I remember when debian "non-gui" installer scared me. #never-forget)

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Re: A better way to search forums?

Unread post by catfood » Sat Oct 08, 2016 10:22 pm

A lot of my questions are probably the same as every other new user here. I can't imagine most of them haven't been answered already at some point.
Thank You!
(I remember when debian "non-gui" installer scared me. #never-forget)

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Re: A better way to search forums?

Unread post by pidsley » Sat Oct 08, 2016 10:26 pm

We don't mind answering questions. The forum has been a bit slow lately anyway (no new releases or interesting experiments.) If you are annoying we will let you know.

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Re: A better way to search forums?

Unread post by wuxmedia » Sat Oct 08, 2016 10:47 pm

there was talk of upgrading the forum. but I couldn't be bothered and as a better excuse which bacon pointed out, custom theme.
Thought you meant slow as in loading speed, not slow as in quiet :)
No, I meant slow as in quiet. I haven't noticed any speed problems. Sorry for the confusion.
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Re: A better way to search forums?

Unread post by machinebacon » Sun Oct 09, 2016 3:59 am

The good thing is that we have grillers in every part of the world, so you generally get some kind of response quickly, and we have a success rate of 99% in solving problems. The remaining 1% are people who disappear after stealing our time and just writing something like "not being interested in typing commands into the terminal window" or "but it used to work in Linux Mint 11, how come it doesn't work here out of the box", and those can happily fuck themselves :)
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Re: A better way to search forums?

Unread post by catfood » Mon Oct 10, 2016 9:59 pm

My weird Toshiba sound card works right outta the box, so you've got most distros beat there... i do still plan on using other distros via usb on the netbook, but BBQ will be hard installed.
You guys all seem really knowledgeable too and generous to share. Debian's great,
Last edited by catfood on Wed Oct 12, 2016 2:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
Thank You!
(I remember when debian "non-gui" installer scared me. #never-forget)

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Re: A better way to search forums?

Unread post by catfood » Mon Oct 10, 2016 10:03 pm

Hopefully i learn enough to give back to the community at some point. If nothing else, I like to think outside the box and try weird things I'm not supposed to do. I can be the resident find weird bugs no one thought of guy, lol. How can I break something today :D

I have a few ideas for spins I'd like to make, but I got a ways to go.
Thank You!
(I remember when debian "non-gui" installer scared me. #never-forget)

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ivanovnegro
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Re: A better way to search forums?

Unread post by ivanovnegro » Tue Oct 11, 2016 10:34 pm

catfood wrote:Debian's great, but their forums are full of rude people it seems. Ubuntu forums seem filled with ignorance and disinformation, lol(15 solutions to a problem and none of them work).
Here I have to interfere and say that we do not like bitching about other communities. We do that in private.

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Re: A better way to search forums?

Unread post by pidsley » Tue Oct 11, 2016 11:06 pm

^ Thank you ivan. catfood, if you have not read "The BBQ Philosphy" please give it a look, especially the "Discipline and Personal Interaction Recommendations" section.

http://linuxbbq.org/wiki/index.php/BBQ_Philosophy

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Re: A better way to search forums?

Unread post by catfood » Wed Oct 12, 2016 2:39 am

Sorry, thanks.

I was just stating how much nicer it is here compared to recent places looking for some of the same answers...
Thank You!
(I remember when debian "non-gui" installer scared me. #never-forget)

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Re: A better way to search forums?

Unread post by machinebacon » Wed Oct 12, 2016 6:15 am

^ no problem. That's exactly the reason why the BBQ is like it is -- we have successfully ditched those people who don't fit the vibes here. We can accept a "great script, I will modify it to make it fit my needs" much more than a "okay, it works, but you should have ...", but actually we care much more about what tobacco somebody smokes (I hope you do!), or what beer or music he/she prefers. And that's not only my opinion :)
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Re: A better way to search forums?

Unread post by catfood » Thu Oct 13, 2016 2:25 am

Blunts and grizzly mint, lol
Thank You!
(I remember when debian "non-gui" installer scared me. #never-forget)

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