Search

Enter the words or phrases you would like to search for.

Words can only include the alphabetic and numeric characters as well as "_", "." and "'" (apostrophe). Words may be prefixed by one of these characters: "+", "|" and "-". Words may also be postfixed by the asterisk: "*".

The "+" prefix means that the word must be present in order for there to be a match, but this is the default, so the "+" prefix need not be present for required words.

The "|" prefix means the word may be present but is not required for a match.

The "-" prefix means the word must not be present in order for there to be a match.

The "*" postfix means to match all words that begin with those characters. For example, "dog*" matches "dogs", "dogmatic" and "dogwood".

Quoted phrases between double quotes may also be used. Quoted phrases cannot include a prefix character, and so they must be present in order for there to be a match.

Examples:

Search for messages with the word "engine":

engine

Search for messages with the words "engine" and "motor":

engine motor

Search for messages with the word "engine" or "motor":

|engine |motor

Search for messages with the word "motor" but not "boat":

motor -boat

Search for messages with either the word "engine" or "motor", and also with the word "boat":

(|engine |motor) boat

Search for messages with either the word "engine" or "motor", and also with either the word "boat" or "ship":

(|engine |motor) (|boat |ship)

Search for the phrase "When in the course of human events":

"when in the course of human events"

Search for the phrase "course of human events" and with the words "Jefferson" and "declaration":

"course of human events" jefferson declaration

Search for the phrases "sat on a wall" and "had a great fall" and with the word "horses" but not with the word "pigs":

"sat on a wall" "had a great fall" horses -pigs

You may provide author names separated by commas. Authors need not be registered members. In message searches, only messages authored by those users will be listed. In thread searches, only threads originated by those users will be listed. In specifying an author the wildcard characters "." and "*" may be included. "." matches any single character, while "*" matches any number of charcters, including 0 characters. A user name may be preceded by a "-", in which case no messages or threads from that user will be listed.