Hey, I just wanted to start a post on the issue because I'm having a lot of trouble with the forum's search feature. Namely, LOADS of completely unrelated things being put up first simply because they have the WORD in a post, even when the word I used was the NAME of the post I wanted.

That's just one example.

Another huge issue I'm having is that EVERY search I run is FILLED with stuff from this "Roll to Dodge" crap. Apparently it's some people roll-playing and doing choose-your-own adventure...or something. But BECAUSE it's a story, it's almost guaranteed to have tons of words in it that will be shown to you before anything useful as a search result. If you want an examply just how incredibly common it is, typing "Roll to Dodge" yields no results because it's "too common". Goddamnit, I DON'T WANT THINGS SHOWING UP IN MY SEARCH FROM 3 YEAR OLD OFF-TOPIC CHAT!

Is there something I'm missing about this search feature? Am I not understanding the basic way to inquire using it? Am I supposed to put things in parenthesis or quotations or something? In this day and age, I can't honestly believe the search feature could be THAT useless.

If anyone has any tips or tricks, or suggestions, please let me know, because I've been trying to look up a lot of things, and am getting no-where.
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Also, if the forum moderator sees this (whoever that is) Could you PLEASE clean and delete all off-topic chat from more than 6 months ago? That would help SO MUCH.

You can restrict the search to a specific forum. You want to search somewhere that's NOT in Data Realms Off-Topic -> Off Topic Chat -> Forum Games

So if you're looking for a mod, search in Mods and Scenes -> Mod Releases

It's also worth noting that if you're looking for a particular phrase such as rocket launcher, IIRC it helps to surround that phrase with quotation marks. Just entering rocket launcher in the search box will cause it to trip on things that contain both rocket AND launcher, in any combination, anywhere in a post. If you use quotation marks (e.g. "rocket launcher"), it should only trip specifically on rocket launcher as a phrase.

Aside from that, always use forum-filtering (you can select multiple forums by holding down CTRL), and all the other options are pretty powerful yet also nice and self-explanatory! Don't go demanding chunks of the forum be wiped out just because you aren't using the tools right under your nose properly. It's kind of arrogant and snotty.

I have been searching only from the sections I want to look within. For the life of me when I read your replies I didn't know how you all were setting specific limitations on your searches. I finally just pressed "Go" with nothing in the search field and "BAM!" there is the advanced options screen. Thanks for the tips and help.

P.S. I still think it's silly to be forced to load a new page and use advanced searches every time, rather than just typing in the little box on page you're already on...simply because completely irrelevant junk from 3 years ago floods every normal search. I still think the forums warrant a little maintenance. You can call me arrogant all you want. I just call it Spring Cleaning/not being a hoarder and keeping things just because.