Thread: So much info - Searching SRP efficiently

I am often overwhelmed by the amount of information contained on SRP. It’s likely that most/all of the questions I would like answered have already been dealt with somewhere in the bowels of the forums and threads.

It seems that many long time members get frustrated with members asking questions that have been answered many times before. Based on my own experience, those repeat questions get asked because newbies either do not know about the search function or do not know how to nail down a search to get a set of results focused on what they want.

When I do a search, I initially get way more links to info than I can comfortably process. Wading through the linked threads to find what I am interested in takes a lot of time.

So, I thought it might be useful to have a thread that focused on how to use the search function of SRP to efficiently locate information. What I did not do, is make sure this wasn’t the focus of an already existing thread - wouldn’t that be ironic?

Indeed, with the last and final name-change we need to train the Google to find links. Using the search makes it work better and better.
I often relate to new members it is important to do this before asking questions.
Not only does it familiarize us with terms and procedures, it really helps to separate good advise from notso good as we do ask.
One can also learn who is more knowledgeable around here as well.

I agree with both of you wise gentlemen. I often use search when I am stumped and think of it, but basically being lazy, it sometimes seems easier o start a thread with a question. That approach impedes learning, because when you us search, targeting your question, you often find very good advice from the past, that you would never get unless you were very lucky to still have that person from the past see it and answer the same way again.

Hope that makes sense.

Yea, searching can be difficult and frustrating at times on this site. I don’t know how the search criteria is set up, but I suspect that much of the problem is that information is buried in a totally unrelated titled thread.

And even when you know the title of a thread, the advanced search will not find it. For example, I often refer folks to a thread, “Second Try at Honing-Seeking Opinions” if you search those words the advanced search will not retrieve it.

1. This is the response I get. “The following words are either very common, too long, or too short and were not included in your search:
"second-try-honing-seeking-opinions"

Yet, searching those same words on Google, the thread pops up, first hit.

Pretty much everything you need to know is here: https://shavelibrary.com/w/Shave_Library

The way I see it is, questions, even repeated questions are good as it keeps the Palace alive. If everyone only used the search button it would be a very boring forum indeed.

The search function works great on my laptop but not very well on my iPad.
Also sometimes if you look first, you can get the question refined first so you are asking about specific things and not vague things. No one wants to try to answer how long is a piece of string, but get the question to more specific parameters. . .

Ask the question

If it is well covered you will get the links that we think to answer it best
If it is an evolving idea your question could get many answers and start a good discussion on it

Being perfectly honest the only question I don't like seeing is "What is the Best......." I try and stay out of those

We have two searches. The first is the one built in the software and is available in the 'advanced search' button. I think it's a simple query of the database for the search terms and the only ranking on the results is by date.

The other search is that toolbar with the magnifying glass and that's google's search of our site. They index all of our content and then use machine learning algorithms to rank the results by 'relevance'.

But at the end of the day we're a community and nothing can compare to actual people
This is the real wealth of our forum!

The title of a thread is key IMO. When someone wants to ask a question about a subject like Shave Angle then titles his thread "just wanting to know..." It doesnt help anyone when trying the search.

Searching is good and ive done it a lot, but what i get back from the search is way too much or not what im looking for. Sometimes i get lucky.

Would it be a good idea to offer a tutorial on how to create a search using the various options available in the advanced search function? There are drop down menus that narrow the scope of a search and folks can use AND, OR and - (NOT) to filter the results.