Many have complained about the Search function not working properly. I want to work on improving it so I need you all to let me know the exact issues you are experiencing. Whether its bugs or errors in logic, please share below your pain points / suggestions for improvement so I can work with Discourse on making it better. Thank you!
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I’ve noticed that when I search for a school, the top records that come up can be several years old. Would be great to see the most active and most recent threads.
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You can get latest posts by choosing that option in the pull down menu that defaults to ‘relevance’, see here:
Then with the change to latest posts:
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I noticed that, too. But I feel that the most relevant posts that you see first shouldn’t be several years old.
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That makes sense. But at least one can change from relevance to latest posts.
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I have typed in exact thread names and not gotten the thread sometimes.
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@thumper, do you happen to have some concrete examples? I want to document everything for when I reach out to Discourse.
What do you call the different parts of this website? We have forums which include what I would call “sub forums”. For example, within Paying for College forum, there is a National Merit Scholarship subforum. In that subforum are several threads. Within Colleges & Universities there are obviously numerous subforums, each with many threads.
I would like the option to search a thread, subforum (or whatever you call it), the forum or everywhere. In another forum I am on, they have the option to select where I want to search. Next to where I type my word or phrase, I select either:
- This Thread
- This Sub-forum
- This Forum
- Everywhere
You could even add an option to search for articles about the subject or prompts that would lead to other resources on the website.
If I try to search within a thread, I get an option for “in this topic” however, if I try to search a sub-forum (ex USC) I get the search window and below that is a magnifying glass with University of Southern California in blue. If I select to search University of Southern California, it populates the search window with “# colleges-and-universities:university-of-southern-california” I type in the word that I want to search for (ex. NMS) and I get #colleges-and-universities:university-of-southern-californiaNMS Which doesn’t work. I have to type NMS in the search window and then select either “in all topics and posts” or “University of Southern California.”
I would like to have the option for advanced search (ex. show newest first) before I hit execute the search. Sometimes the advanced search icon is cut off by the search window.
If I choose to read a post from the search and then want to go back and look at another item from my search, I need to start over. I would like there to be a “back” button or “back to search results” function.
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It has happened to me as well.
Another example… If I search for Bachelor, the thread for “The Bachelor” tv show does not show up. The TV show thread was active this week, yet my search brings me to closed threads or threads from 2022. I need to go into advanced search and change it to search for newest first.
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@CC_Sorin, the default search setting is “Topics/Posts.” I believe these two categories should be separated because, often, we remember part of the title of a thread we’re searching for. However, since the search function looks for both topics and posts, the results are frequently not what we’re looking for.
For example, if there’s a thread titled “Colleges with Admit Rates of 60-100%…” and I can’t remember the exact title, but I search for “Colleges with Admit Rates,” this thread appears at #15, rather than near the top of the results.
ETA: I tried another search with more specific wording: “Carnegie Mellon early decision”, and the search results are (in order):
- Colby College Early Decision for Fall 2025 Admission
- Chance me for T20s after not matching [VA Resident, 4.45/4.00 W, 1500 SAT, Fire ECs, ~1500 SAI]
- Class of 2029 Official Regular Decision (RD) Threads
- Carnegie Mellon Early Decision for Fall 2025 Admission
So, the thread I was looking for shows up at #4 despite using quite specific wording that matches the title.
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I don’t right now…but if it happens again, I’ll let you know.
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Here’s an example. I was in this thread. I searched for your name and this thread didn’t even appear.
I shouldn’t have to type your full screenname. Simply Sorin should have pulled it up.
Ditto if I look for the CC TOS or rules. Tried looking for them recently and it was not easy ( I know they are on the bottom of the page but that’s not easily accessible on the app without a lot of scrolling)
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When I search @ cc_sorin (with no space between @ and c), this thread is the 8th listing that comes up (I have to click on ‘more’ at the bottom of the search page). All the threads that come up on my search were created by sorin.
If I change the search parameter from relevance to latest post, this thread is the 4th listing.
Click ‘more’ at the bottom of the search page that you posted above. Under the 5 threads that came up, you see the word ‘more’…
Alternatively, you can click the upper right hamburger icon
and then you get what I posted above where you can change how you sort from ‘relevance’ to ‘latest post’ for example (or click advanced filters to get what you posted above)
Maybe there is a tutorial somewhere b/c I have tried both the hamburger and the advanced options and I see neither “more” nor “relevance” as options. 
oops, @Mwfan1921 I meant to tag you, not myself! I don’t see either of those options…
eta: I did just fumble bumble into finding the “sort by” and changed t to “latest post” . Hope that is a permanent reset as I don’t recall how I found it.
The more is in your screenshot (I circled it in red for you):
The search function always resets to relevance, so you do have to change it back to latest post every time, if that’s what you want.
I think the problem is how it is determining relevance. What I’m seeing isn’t sorted by what I would consider relevant.
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