# Is there an alternative way to search that is actually accurate? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [May 14, 2004, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-alternative-way-to-search-that-is-actually-accurate/245125 "2004-05-14T15:43:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2004, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-alternative-way-to-search-that-is-actually-accurate/245125/1 "2004-05-14T15:43:11Z")
I just watched “A Beautiful Mind” last night and tried to do an SDMB search to find old threads where people discussed it. All I turned up (doing a title-only search) were three threads from Cafe Society dating from 2002. The movie was released in 2001, and I’m sure there had to have been at least one thread talking about it around that time, but the search didn’t turn anything up. I remember some discussion in ATMB that the search index needs to be rebuilt or something to that effect, but I guess I thought it would have been done by now. Is there some other way, perhaps through some third-party search engine, to accurately search the SDMB archives? ---
**Author:** ![biqu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@biqu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/biqu)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2004, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-alternative-way-to-search-that-is-actually-accurate/245125/2 "2004-05-14T16:12:13Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > Is there some other way, perhaps through some third-party search engine, to accurately search the SDMB archives? Some Dopers have successfully used [boardreader](http://www.boardreader.com) to search the message board archives. I have not had much success with it myself, so I can’t vouch for its accuracy. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2004, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-alternative-way-to-search-that-is-actually-accurate/245125/3 "2004-05-14T22:15:45Z")
_A Beautiful Mind_ was released towards the end of 2001, was it not? It’s possible that the discussions started when it came out would still be active (receiving new posts) in 2002, in which case I think that the board software would list those threads as being from 2002. Did you open them and see if they were what you were looking for? ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2004, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-alternative-way-to-search-that-is-actually-accurate/245125/4 "2004-05-15T01:03:00Z")
I did, Chronos, and while they were interesting enough, all three were about some specific aspect of the film. I didn’t find what I was looking for, which was an all-purpose general discussion thread. I suppose it’s possible that no such thread exists, but I thought that would be a little unusual for a film that was this popular and won Oscars and so forth. ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2004, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-alternative-way-to-search-that-is-actually-accurate/245125/5 "2004-05-15T01:57:35Z")
Does the SDMB search window accept dummy (or skeleton) characters, such as the asterisk, for one? Also, IIRC, it does not recognize what may be html symbols, I WAG, such as a phrase in quotes or use of the + sign - to indicate word proximity. Has this been considered? - Jinx