Tinkering with Permies Forum Navigation and Search Features

I was wondering about search, it does not given the results I expect the first time.

For example, if I search for “cast iron” I don’t see the relevant posts I expect as the search results. Instead it seems to appear that I see the most recent post with the matching words that was searched for.

Any thoughts on how to navigate through the search feature for specific topics?

Thanks!

The search defaults to search the forum you are in.

Easiest way to search the whole forums is to search from here https://permies.com/forums

This also gives more options
https://permies.com/forums/search/filters/11

Thanks for replying! This question is coming out of our dinner conversation at wheaton labs. We were discussing how to help make the site easier to navigate for those who are new to permies.

We were trying to figure out how to get to this search filter option easily from the main forums page. But the only way we found was to start with the standard search bar which leads us to a list of just the most recent (not most relevant) options. And then that page gives us the link to the search filter. Without knowing the direct web address, we couldn’t find another way to get to it.

The demonstration showed to me was to go to https://permies.com/forums/ and then search for cast iron.  The expectation was to see a dozen threads about cast iron.  Instead, there were a lot of threads that were quite recent and contained "cast iron"

When doing a search, I prefer the "Advanced Search"; next, I would type in "cast iron" and click "the exact phrase".

If I get too many results, I then go back and click "message subject only" which will narrow the search.

Ahh... I see now. The little notepad next to the search bar holds the link to the “advanced search” option.  Thanks!

I wonder if we should make a change to the forum software on how the "search bar" works by default.

Right now, when you search for a couple of words, it tries to search the exact phrase. For instance, if you search "cast iron", it tries to search for threads containing that exact phrase. If there is no result for the exact phrase, it falls back to searching threads containing the individual words - "cast" and "iron".

And then there is the thing about how search results are sorted. Right now "most recent" posts seem to show up at the top of the list.

I think if we make it sort by "most relevant",  it would look better?