We have quite a few “magic” directives in search like
order:latest
status:open
category:bugs
Though very handy they are impossible to discover.
We need something like keyboard shortcuts help to help discovering this. Visual mocks totally welcome.
Another rather interesting option would be to amend the syntax some and allow for autocomplete there. Eg: use :order:latest then after typing : we can pop tips somewhere.
I thought we already discussed this. Put a help link to the right of “show more” in the existing search interface. The help link pops a dialog just like ? does for keyboard shortcuts.
Yeah, I just did not want to lose this, and do not mind getting additional feedback
To be honest, I could do with a little less magic in the search field, and a little more handholding, i.e. a nice, slim filter UI just above the input field… even if that only inserts magic into the search string. 
Although, that seems like a good idea, it is too late in the game. I would have already had to enter a search to see the advanced options and what do you do if there aren’t more than 5 results?
Why not do this? (ignore the color of the text for now)
Clicking on it, would show a div beneath it showing the :order:latest, etc. (so the search container gets bigger and you can continue to type without having to close a modal.
Later on, when a “true” advanced search page is in place, the link can take you there instead.
I had put a lot of though into Discourse seach this weekend but in the end pulled my comments. Had second thoughts about them. I felt like I was being critical of something I don’t have first hand development knowledge on…plus it feels too philosophical for a discourse administrator to get in the middle of.
But here is what I see…
The problem is data decay and the rate of this decay depending on the concept or module can be fast (here on meta). Other instances may be different.
Sam’s ‘order latest’ is one good all around combantant to this (if it can be discovered and used).
Except this checkbox area does not appear when searching from the homepage, etc. We could just add arbitrary white space in that case though I guess.
I like this idea very much…but what do discourse developers think about this? They made search into a widget thing for a reason.
If all this is open through API then maybe someone will champion an advanced search plugin that makes a search page with all the bells and whistles.
I think they want to just add discoverables to the widget seach.
Also beyond meta.d …how much is seach a problem (for other discourse sites)?
IMHO it is very much better than it was last spring, but still has room for improvement. And I would like to see it extended to other areas as well. eg. Be able to Search my PMs, Notifications and private Staff areas.
This help is now present.