Q&A: How can I better *search* for the solution to a problem I have?

[kq76]

Q: How can I better search for the answer / solution to a question / problem I have?

A: Personally, I just use Google to find most of the answers to my questions, but use whatever search engine you prefer. But if you haven't already, you should definitely familiarize yourself with how your favourite search engine operates.

For example, if I want to insist the results contain the phrase "fictional league" in them, I'll surround the term/phrase with quotation marks as that tells Google that the result must contain that term/phrase. I often include my username, "kq76", when I'm trying to find an old post of mine or at least a thread I've posted to.

Or say, you've already searched something, but you keep getting mostly results that have nothing to do with your specific topic and you don't want to waste time sifting through them. Like say somehow you're getting a lot of results that have to do with "Perfect Team", but your question has nothing to do with Perfect Team, then in your search prefix a hyphen to the term or phrase you want exclude (e.g., -PT) as that will tell Google you don't want any results that includes the abbreviation for Perfect Team. You can even, IINM, exclude phrases by prefixing a quoted phrase with a hyphen.

Or maybe you remember you saw something you want to re-read on reddit (or whatever site) and you want to limit the results to only those from that site, then using Google search enter, for example, "site:reddit.com ootp [whatever your topic is]" as the operator, "site:", limits the results to those on that site only.

Here are some more Google Search Tips.

When it comes to searching the OOTP boards themselves, use the Advanced Search feature.

If you're not getting good results, ask yourself if there are maybe different keywords than what you're searching? Maybe you think of something by word X, but someone else might use word Y. Try word Y.

If you think you remember someone in particular talking about your topic before, maybe put their username in the username field. For example, say I remember Bluenoser explaining how best to copy custom views, but I can't find the exact post I want, I'll put his username in that field and the results will be limited to the posts where he used the keywords I entered. Maybe you don't remember seeing a thread on the topic, but you think to yourself, "if anyone has talked about this, Matt Arnold has", then enter his username.

Make use of the forum filter. If for example the answer to your question should be on a Perfect Team board, select it. Or if it may also be on a previous PT board, click on one of the boards, press your Ctrl key, and then select another board and so on.

Maybe make use of the tags. I don't think a lot a lot of people make use of them, but I'm usually interested in DH topics so any interesting thread that has to do the designated hitter I'll often add a "designated hitter" tag to it. Different people add different tags to different topics so you might be surprised what you find with them. Besides, if someone went to the trouble of tagging a thread, it's probably got some decent info in it.