Tips On How To Use the Forum Search To Find Things

@tenkan and I were debating how powerful the forum search function is. I found out surprisingly that logical search terms can be used to connect keywords to better find what you want. Parentheses can also be used to define how these terms should interact. I was thinking about filter terms like AND, OR, NOT.

Most people probably don’t want to be bothered with logical search terms, and I have not yet tested whether the full range of logical expressions available in Discourse software has been implemented on the Hearing Tracker website. Nevertheless, here’s what ChatGPT says Discourse offers in its SEARCH function:

In Discourse forum software, can I use logical terms like AND, OR, NOT?

ChatGPT said:

Yes, in Discourse forum software, you can use logical terms like AND, OR, and NOT to refine your search queries. Here’s how they work:

  1. AND: By default, Discourse treats multiple search terms as an implicit AND. For example, searching for apple orange will return posts that contain both “apple” and “orange”.
  2. OR: Use the OR keyword (in uppercase) to find posts that contain either term. For example, apple OR orange will return posts that contain either “apple” or “orange”.
  3. NOT: Use the - (minus) sign or the NOT keyword to exclude terms. For example:
  • apple -orange: Returns posts that contain “apple” but not “orange”.
  • apple NOT orange: Does the same.
  1. Grouping: You can combine these with parentheses to create complex queries. For example, (apple OR orange) AND NOT banana.
  2. Quoted phrases: To search for exact phrases, enclose them in quotes. For example, "apple pie" will find posts with that exact phrase.

These logical operators make searching in Discourse forums more powerful and precise.

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History repeats itself (the thread linked here only had 8 posts):

https://forum.hearingtracker.com/t/why-is-the-search-engine-on-hearingtracker-so-bad-good/70493?u=jim_lewis

Interesting tips from the thread:

https://forum.hearingtracker.com/t/why-is-the-search-engine-on-hearingtracker-so-bad-good/70493/4?u=jim_lewis

https://forum.hearingtracker.com/t/why-is-the-search-engine-on-hearingtracker-so-bad-good/70493/6?u=jim_lewis

(clicking on the dates at the top or bottom of the slider that @Zebras mentions will immediately take you to the start or end of a thread)

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I meant to put the following post in this thread, but it got put in the AI Summaries… thread in replying to Abram Bailey on HT search functionality.

ChatGPT appears to be hallucinating on the use of logical search terms in Discourse. They do work pretty much as ChatGPT describes, though, when using the Google Site Search Function with the term “site:forum.hearingtracker.com”

Important Things To Remember

  • Logical terms have to be CAPITALIZED
  • Google does not use NOT, instead, put a - (minus symbol) in front of any term you want to exclude
  • The asterisk wildcard symbol * is used for missing whole keywords in a sequence, not for missing endings on a word. In my informal trials, the * seems to stand in for 0 or more missing intervening words between two specified words. I use it with parentheses around the whole string of words
  • The logical negation (- sign) can only be used on individual keywords, not combinations of keywords in parentheses

ChatGPT claims Google Search accepts parentheses to group search terms with logical connectors but says that Google Search sometimes ignores or overrules your grouping, so proceed with caution and test whether any logical construct using parentheses works the way you want it to.

Google Search on a site lacks the many little tweaks HT Search has, like sorting on Most Liked, or even sorting by date. Relevance appears to be the default sort. But at the top of a Google Search page by clicking on Tools, you can define a custom date range or more specifically refine your search terms using a very clear interface.

What the Advanced Search box looks like:

Sample Hearing Tracker searches:

  • site:forum.hearingtracker.com “phonak * infinio” will find Hearing Tracker posts containing the words Phonak and Infinio in order with 0 or more words between the leading and trailing terms (don’t know what the upper limit on the allowed number of separating words is).
  • site:forum.hearingtracker.com oticon AND (real OR more AND -intent) will find posts mentioning Oticon and Real or More but not Intent.
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