# Advanced search: posts that I have seen
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/advanced-search-posts-that-i-have-seen/57966
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [26 Febbraio 2017, 12:07am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/advanced-search-posts-that-i-have-seen/57966 "2017-02-26T00:07:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@tophee](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tophee)
#### Post date: [26 Febbraio 2017, 12:07am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/advanced-search-posts-that-i-have-seen/57966/1 "2017-02-26T00:07:10Z")
How about adding the possibility in advanced search to limit the search to “posts/topics that I have seen”?
Need I explain? I guess we have all been there: “Where is that post about X that I saw the other day?”…
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### Author:  [@joebuhlig](https://meta.discourse.org/u/joebuhlig)
#### Post date: [26 Febbraio 2017, 1:33am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/advanced-search-posts-that-i-have-seen/57966/2 "2017-02-26T01:33:20Z")
I could see value in the inverse as well. When looking for solutions to an issue I haven’t seen.
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### Author:  [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [26 Febbraio 2017, 1:58am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/advanced-search-posts-that-i-have-seen/57966/3 "2017-02-26T01:58:39Z")
I have two ways of finding what I’ve seen before.
I bookmark topics / posts that I plan on revisiting.
I search for a relatively unique word that I remember seeing.
Both more or less work OK, but both also have some limitations.
There is the `topic_users` table that could be queried so this feature is technically possible. What I don’t know is how much of a performance hit it would be.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [26 Febbraio 2017, 2:15am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/advanced-search-posts-that-i-have-seen/57966/4 "2017-02-26T02:15:41Z")
Why not scope the search by time if you know it was recent? You can also order results by most recent.
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### Author:  [@Remah](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Remah)
#### Post date: [26 Febbraio 2017, 2:57am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/advanced-search-posts-that-i-have-seen/57966/5 "2017-02-26T02:57:40Z")
I like the @tophee’s suggestion because the most difficult posts to find are the ones I’ve seen that are not recent.
I’m much more likely to remember the specific text contained in a recently read post.
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### Author:  [@tophee](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tophee)
#### Post date: [26 Febbraio 2017, 9:30am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/advanced-search-posts-that-i-have-seen/57966/6 "2017-02-26T09:30:15Z")
That works if the post was posted recently but not if only the reading was
recent.
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### Author:  [@mpalmer](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mpalmer)
#### Post date: [26 Febbraio 2017, 10:19pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/advanced-search-posts-that-i-have-seen/57966/7 "2017-02-26T22:19:40Z")
I would be a frequent user of “search in posts I have seen”.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [26 Febbraio 2017, 10:55pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/advanced-search-posts-that-i-have-seen/57966/8 "2017-02-26T22:55:35Z")
Ok @tgxworld can you add this to your list? Make sure the advanced search UI gets updated for it too.
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### Author:  [@tophee](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tophee)
#### Post date: [26 Febbraio 2017, 11:15pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/advanced-search-posts-that-i-have-seen/57966/9 "2017-02-26T23:15:52Z")
Not sure if I’m overestimating the popularity of this feature, but it might even be worth mentioning in the call for signing up shown to a returning user. Something like “You can even search among posts you read previously, making it easier to return to interesting topics.” For me, it would trigger me to sign up immediately, while the current call doesn’t really convince me 100%.
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### Author:  [@cpradio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/cpradio)
#### Post date: [27 Febbraio 2017, 12:24am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/advanced-search-posts-that-i-have-seen/57966/10 "2017-02-27T00:24:29Z")
@tgxworld, you may want to also take into account the PR I have sitting that touches advanced search, otherwise, there will be conflicts 😉
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### Author:  [@tgxworld](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tgxworld)
#### Post date: [8 Marzo 2017, 5:03pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/advanced-search-posts-that-i-have-seen/57966/12 "2017-03-08T17:03:23Z")
Ok I’ve added the `in:seen` and `in:unseen` search filters in
[https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/4744](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/4744)
Only thing left for me tomorrow is to update the UI for advanced search.
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### Author:  [@tgxworld](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tgxworld)
#### Post date: [9 Marzo 2017, 2:48am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/advanced-search-posts-that-i-have-seen/57966/13 "2017-03-09T02:48:11Z")
Ok advanced search UI is done too via
[https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/b419a5765e5f5947e3ae07676817d4a717f5c86f](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/b419a5765e5f5947e3ae07676817d4a717f5c86f)
I’ll leave this topic for a couple of days in case there are bug reports.
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### Author:  [@tgxworld](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tgxworld)
#### Post date: [12 Marzo 2017, 2:48am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/advanced-search-posts-that-i-have-seen/57966/14 "2017-03-12T02:48:31Z")
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