# Sorry to clog up space with that, but my search fu is weak

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sorry-to-clog-up-space-with-that-but-my-search-fu-is-weak/329888>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [November 7, 2005, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sorry-to-clog-up-space-with-that-but-my-search-fu-is-weak/329888 "2005-11-07T07:22:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![JimSox5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5a626/32.png) [@JimSox5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimSox5)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sorry-to-clog-up-space-with-that-but-my-search-fu-is-weak/329888/1 "2005-11-07T07:22:58Z")

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I can’t seem to find the “Ask the 50’s Dad” thread. I tried searching for it, but since all the terms are three letters, they don’t search well (or at all). There is probably a way around this, but I sadly do not know it. Would it be possible for somebody with Bruce-Lee-like search fu to help me out? Please?

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**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sorry-to-clog-up-space-with-that-but-my-search-fu-is-weak/329888/2 "2005-11-07T12:03:30Z")

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Voila. [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=335904&highlight=signed+young+lady](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=335904&highlight=signed+young+lady)

I left the search terms that I used in the link so you could see what I searched on. I knew the word “signed” appeared in there, and I felt fairly confident that the term “young lady” had appeared somewhere in there.

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**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sorry-to-clog-up-space-with-that-but-my-search-fu-is-weak/329888/3 "2005-11-07T13:33:11Z")

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Another way to locate the “ask the …” threads is to use any common longer word in the search box (eg “father” for the ask the dad thread), use a reasonable “since X days ago” value then sort the results by title ascending.

The threads that start with “ask the …” appear in a group not that many pages in, after all the titles which start with a " and those which start with digits. I did this search with “father” & last 6 months & the thread was found on page 10 of the results. These searches can be a bit slow, so better to do them at off-peak times.

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**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sorry-to-clog-up-space-with-that-but-my-search-fu-is-weak/329888/4 "2005-11-07T13:39:58Z")

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Just search for “communists”. That’ll thin the herd.

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**Author:** ![JimSox5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5a626/32.png) [@JimSox5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimSox5)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sorry-to-clog-up-space-with-that-but-my-search-fu-is-weak/329888/5 "2005-11-07T15:09:01Z")

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Ah, thank you all. Hopefully after all these fairly common sense suggestions, I won’t have to do this again.

Again, thanks a bundle.