Ok, many have often wondered about the ATS search. While it can seem daunting at first, when properly used, it can be very useful. I know this
exists here already in some form or another, but here's my spin on it....
This is what the search screen looks like:
We’ll go through each of the fields…keep in mind that EVERY field is optional. You only HAVE to put some criteria in the first field, the rest of
the fields could be left blank or at the defaults if you wish. But, we’re going to go through them to help your search efforts.
This word or phrase
must be returned
This is just like putting in a topic in a Google search, etc. Case does not matter in this field. Try to limit this to ONE word, unless you know a
specific phrase (such as “New World Order”) will all be together in your search. If the word or phrase doesn’t give the right result, try
accepted acronyms, like NWO, etc.
word/phrase [must be] (or must not be, in the drop down) returned:
word/phrase [must be] (or must not be, in the drop down) returned:
word/phrase [must be] (or must not be, in the drop down) returned:
Use this for additional search criteria. An example may be threads containing something about Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans. A search on New
Orleans could turn up everything from desired threads to threads about the Saints game, etc. But, if you used “Katrina” in one field, and “New
Orleans” in another, you’d get a better list of results.
Search in
forum [All ATS, BTS, and PTS Forums]
The default is to look in ALL forums. If you have a pretty good idea what forum something would be in (such as “Lazar” would probably be in
Aliens and UFOs), choosing a specific forum could give a faster response and list of posts.
From
member name
If you know exactly who made a post you’re looking for, this is a very useful tool. You must type it EXACTLY as their username appears on the board
(case sensitive, all dashes, underscores, etc.). If you aren’t sure, try and see if you see another post or thread by them to verify. Or check the
“Who’s on?” or member list.
Search for
matches in [thread POSTS only] (or thread SUBJECT lines only in the drop down)
Its usually a good idea to stick with the default on this one, unless you KNOW the title of the thread/post contains what you’re looking for. The
POST option can take longer, but will generally find more of what you’re looking for. The SUBJECT option is more useful when you’re looking for a
thread you saw recently, know the title vaguely, but may not recall the forum it’s in.
The downside to choosing POSTS versus SUBJECT, is that you’ll have multiple entries for the same thread (as it’s searching each post in the thread
that mentions the criteria), so be aware of this.
Search through
date range [3 months] (or last day, a week, a month, 6 months, last year, the beginning in the drop down menu)
3 months is a good default setting for this, but often I find that I’m using the search for somewhat older posts. 6 months is a good compromise and
still gives results fairly quickly. Expect picking last year or the beginning, to take a bit for the results to come up.
Ok, so we’ve got our criteria in…now what? Well, this is the result page for just putting in “lazar”
You’ll see different headings here…
Thread topic / pages = This will tell you what general site its in (ATS, BTS, or PTS), and list the thread subject title, as well as the pages of the
thread. Click on the subject if you want to go to the entire thread in general.
Post Author = This can be helpful for future searches too, if you choose to search by Author.
Post ID = If you want to go to the specific post of the thread, which contains your search criteria, click this number. This is the most expedient
way to get to what you’re looking for, most of the time.
replies and views = This is simply to get an idea of how much activity a particular thread has. This might be helpful, if you know whether or not the
thread you’re looking for was a biggie.
Last post = Is simply that, who posted last, and when. This may prove useful in finding the right entry, especially for a thread that pops up
numerous times in the search.
I hope this proves at least a little bit helpful…and good searching!
[edit on 27-9-2005 by Gazrok]
