Category Field To Help Search

Would it be possible to add a field that categorises threads by country and/or theme?

Presently searching for Ireland will also include hits where someone with a signature stating "Ireland" has contributed even if the thread has no relation to Ireland. Also, Ireland and Éire are two possible searches. Ireland may also include Northern Ireland stamps that are not related to Éire as a collecting area, but UK stamps.

On the subject of the UK, the area often referred to as Great Britain, actually is the UK of GB and Ireland until 1922, and GB and Northern Ireland thereafter.

Similarly, - keeping to my home country - Dutch stamps relate to the Netherlands. These are inscribed "Nederland" in Dutch.

When running a search on most of these, frequently, more than 50% of posts are completely irrelevant and some relevant posts remain invisible.

And let's not start about Germany.

Not a bad idea, but the internal search seems to be continually under upgrade/repair/whatever these days. Plus there seems to a limit on number of results returned, at least for using a Google search.

A major problem is that there are MANY threads where (for example) the country name is never mentioned, in the title or in any posts.

I was thinking of a searchable field added to the thread title. Enter the title and click on a "subject" in a drop-down list.

I only get 10 pages with the Google search. And most have nothing to do with the subject.
You cannot force people to add this field (I would suggest a default setting "other"), but you can force everyone who does to use a common name.

No doubt people will enter an incorrect value, but hopefully hits will be more relevant and there will be more relevant hits.

And that is why I've changed my posts to include the Country, the Scott Number (since that is my main catalog), and a description of the stamp or the actual question/issue. That way interested people can easily see before clicking and opening.

A similar strategy to some of the leading indicator charts at work. If you want someone to look at and use your information, make sure that they can look at it and understand within 15 seconds what you are trying to show. Too many people put up large data tables and expect people to understand. A better strategy is a trend line with a goal line, and perhaps the competitor line. Works every time. (Just my thoughts.)

But back to the main point, I do find searching for some things a little frustrating at times, but I understand there are limitations. I'm on the ropes whether I would sacrifice speed or accuracy.

I added a search box to individual forum pages if that helps. But unless someone wants to go through and assign a country to 80,000 topics this can't happen.

One thing I learned from a former boss at a former job is to be VERY specific in email memo lines.
The same applies to ebay sales - the title line must be rich in relevant keywords.
The same holds here. The Community would be better served by better title lines - the responsibility of all of us.
Why do we have "Piggys for Leann" instead of "Topical: pigs on stamps"?
Why do we have "Baaaa! Baaaa!" instead of "Topical: sheep on stamps"?
Why do we have "Checks Mix... It's Tasty", which has nothing to do with food, as it implies?
Cutesy titles are a disservice and should be discouraged from the start and reworded as they come along. It is perhaps unfortunate that creating a new thread in a US or Canadian or postcard category usually means feeling it unnecessary to repeat that same general topic identifier in the title.
Agreed, going backward would be quite a task.
And for my own irony, I tend to post a lot of images in my replies and not too many words thus making it harder to find them in the future also.

@bobby131313

Is it possible to assign all existing threads a default "other?"
I would not have a problem going through existing threads I started and change it where necessary.

Couldn't agree more, I've been thinking about raising the minimum characters but when I implemented it at all some people had hissy fits.

I actually got one like this.... ID my Stamp (extra characters)

Looking back, I would use "Éire - Ireland Post 1940 Definitive Stamps" instead of "Ireland Post 1940 Stamps." I did something like that in the "Éire – Ireland 1922 Irish Symbols Definitives" thread.

This search appears overly sensitive. Searching for "Netherlands" gives any thread where this word is used. This appears to include instances in which a participant has this as location. Most threads returned by the search are irrelevant.



Additionally, it shows five pages of results. When first added, the five pages could be called up. Now, changing to another page results in an error. Although it shows 5 of 5, it is 1 of 5.