Is there a way search for post only by the poster's name & topics they started?

[dex]

Is there a way search for post only by the poster's name and the topics they started?

So, if I wanted to see all the topics I started; how do I enter it in the search engine?

Also, is there a way to just find all the post by the poster's name?

Thanks

[Martha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dex Is there a way search for post only by the poster's name and the topics they started? So, if I wanted to see all the topics I started; how do I enter it in the search engine? Also, is there a way to just find all the post by the poster's name? Thanks

I don't know about your first question, but to find all the posts by poster's name, click on the poster's name to get to their profile. At the bottom of the profile, below "Additional Information" it will say "Show the Last Posts of this Person." Click on that and you can see all the person's posts in reverse chronological order.

[BigMoneyJim]

There is a "search" button near the top of every page. In it there is an "Advanced search" link.

There is a checkbox in the advanced search that says "Topic subjects only" and it seems to properly only show topics began.

There is also a "by user" field, but I haven't figured out how to make that work. I think it's just broken.

In the past I've searched for a users name in hopes of catching threads where somebody responds to them by name, e.g. "dex, the answer to your question...", but that won't work for the topic start option unless the poster refers to himself in the third person. I've had better luck using Google to search for a users name and some keywords of the post I was looking for, but I can't think of a way to isolate thread starters there.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I've used the 'by user', but you have to match it up EXACTLY to how the user spells the user name, and if they change their user name, it'll only search for stuff that was posted under the name you used. However it still doesnt work very well.

I've sort of given up on using the search tool except for very unusual and specific words. It returns too much unrelated stuff.

[BigMoneyJim]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cute 'n' Fuzzy Bunny I've used the 'by user', but you have to match it up EXACTLY to how the user spells the user name, and if they change their user name, it'll only search for stuff that was posted under the name you used. However it still doesnt work very well.

That was weird. I never got it working, but after copying and pasting a username it worked. Perhaps I wasn't capitalizing. or perhaps...

I notice it doesn't work when used in conjunction with "Topic subjects only". Bummer.

Quote:

I've sort of given up on using the search tool except for very unusual and specific words. It returns too much unrelated stuff.

I agree. Search for "dex" (as a word, not a user) and you get every word that contains those letters including "index". Lots of words I've wanted to search for are parts of other words and make searching difficult.

Like I say, I'll use often Google to search for things here. For those that don't know, you can add "site:early-retirement.org" as a keyword in your Google search and it will only show results from here. Other search engines probably have a similar feature but possibly different syntax.

I've thought about checking with dory36 on setting up a Google site search feature on this site, but I thought having two search buttons would be redundant.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I'd rather have an "ignore butthead troll user" option than a better search tool...