The "Search By User Name" Feature

[Omni]

Isn't this supposed to bring up a list of threads made by a particular person?

I mark the appropriate options, like "search titles only" and "show results as threads" and "match exact name" but the results come up with a thousand different threads made by a thousand different people. Unless that's what it's supposed to do.

It's not a big deal, I just thought I'd bring it to your attention.

[Nick]

It used to work the way you are describing, but I guess that functionality got lost somewhere along the way - most likely a year ago when we moved to vBulletin.

I'll look at the documentation and see what can be done, because I don't think it makes sense this way either.

[Lhadatt]

It prolly needs a hack. Look on vbulletin.com for one.

Meanwhile, you can find a user's individual posts by going to thier profile and clicking on "Search for all posts by this user" in the top right of the user info table.

[bahn]

It is a bit odd, but there are ways around it...w/o needing to hack up the board if at all.

Chances are you went about searching for "threads", instead of posts which is what produced something like this

Whoa, that's not what you wanted is it? Fortunately, there are solutions, one which Lhadatt has generously pointed out. By simply clicking on the search button below each person's post will allow you to see ALL posts created by that member.

Then there's the "advanced" search function, located at the top right region of the board in the navigation menu.

This is recommended if you are and less rigid because as you described - you can select the results to show up as posts, or just the threads.

Typically, users figure they must type in a specific keyword or more in order to get the results they desire. And while that's also true - there is another way.

How?

Leave the keywords, out. The other option is identical to the member search function. By typing in the person's member name, you will get all the results. Need to get more specific? Enter a keyword or two, if need be.

Here are some examples to illustrate:

Search results for a specific user (selected as showing results as posts)

You'll get more "precise" results, much like you would in using a standard Web search engine by using a keyword.

Example: I type in the word amusing, and want to see just how many threads have that word in conjunction with the selected board member I entered...

The results...

vB is a very resourceful piece of software and quite diverse in what users and board administrators can explore. You just need to experiment and know what those capabilities are.

HTH...
Bahn

[Lhadatt]

The searches died.

[Omni]

I guess that helped, but if the feature works fine if searching for posts, (as it does) then why not for threads? Is it an anamoly in vB or something?

[bahn]

what exactly are you trying to do?

[Omni]

I was about to do a search for a thread and I saw the "search by user name" thingy on the right hand side, so I figured I'd see what threads I had made, whereupon I saw that the feature didn't really work as advertised.

[bahn]

Use this: http://www.the-nextlevel.com/board/s...ser&userid=732

[Omni]

I'm way ahead of ya on that one.

Thanks, though.