Is there a user level explanation of how to use search?

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The discussion revolves around the search function in Discourse. 51mon is looking for a user-level explanation of how the search function works, as opposed to the Ruby code explanation. They observe that the search function seems to insert an implicit AND between search terms, but does not allow for an explicit OR. Additionally, they note that search terms form a fuzzy match, which may be due to stemming.

JammyDodger clarifies that using @mentions to search for a user’s posts has been available for a long time, and that the tip mentioned in the Search Tips and Tricks thread is actually for finding posts where someone has been @mentioned within the post itself.

JammyDodger also confirms that the search function does indeed work by looking for posts with all the search terms in, and that there is currently no OR function available. They also explain that the regular search uses stemming, but the AI semantic search finds more topics based on a similar function to the Related Topics feature.

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Continued from: Searching for content effectively

Can anyone provide the link to a description of the search function used by discource in English - IE not the ruby code!

Also @ mentions would appear to be have been enabled since the posts in this topic were written - a search for “@canapin Search” - without the quotes - found just canapin’s posts

It seems to me that rather than (just?) stemming an implicit AND is inserted between all search terms provided but no explicit OR is possible - so “improv topi” Will find improve and improving but only if it is in a post with topical or topic or topiary!!

Thanks in advance

PS I tried searching for documentation on the search but was rather snowed by № of results!

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Is there a user level interpretation of how the discourse dialog box interprets the tokens and results returned EG it seems that words entered getting implicit and there is no way to generate an or but search terms seem to form a fuzzy match not always standing stemming fuzzier

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Using @mentions to search users’ posts has been available for a long time. I believe the tip in Searching for content effectively is to find when people have @mentioned someone within a post itself rather than posts by them.

That’s right. :+1: The search will look for posts with all the search terms in. Currently there is no OR function for it.

For the regular search, it works on stemming, though if you’re using the AI semantic search it will find more topics based on a similar function to the Related Topics you find at the bottom of topics.