# How does the search function work?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-search-function-work/326284>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [October 14, 2005, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-search-function-work/326284 "2005-10-14T21:04:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-search-function-work/326284/1 "2005-10-14T21:04:55Z")

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I have never been able to use the search function to find anything. I can’t find any of my posts, or any posts by anybody. I can’t find a keyword in the entire database. Every single thing I have ever tried to search for has yielded no results.

Yesterday, I tried to find a poem about birds, written in a Brooklyn accent. I tried every word in the poem: boids, poiple, coib, woims, Joisy, Goit, pertoibed. Nothing. I ended up spending about half an hour, combing through all the threads I’ve read in the past few days before I found it.

Could someone please tell me how to use this search engine?

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**Author:** ![Santos\_L\_Halper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/santos_l_halper/32/1_2.png) [@Santos\_L\_Halper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santos_L_Halper)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-search-function-work/326284/2 "2005-10-14T21:58:09Z")

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I’m not sure what problem you’re having. To do a search for a users posts, click on the **search** button then select **advanced search**. Put in the desired user name in the **search by user anme** box and click **search now**.

As for the poem, is it in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=256339)? I did a search on the word **boids** and it was the sixth thread listed.