How to search from

October 13, 2009 7:58 AM

Is there a way to search within an AskMe category (e.g., Home and Garden)? I can't think of a unique enough keyword that would narrow it down under a few hundred questions, but I know the category. I know about tags; that's not helping me either. If this doesn't exist, can we make it so?

I'm looking for an anonymous question that I posted, so I don't want to get specific about it here, and besides, I think this would be a good tool to have in general. Being able to search by date range would also help.

posted by desjardins to Feature Requests at 7:58 AM (23 comments total)

Wow, I borked the title. Have fun filling in the blank, I guess. I'm off to get more ____
posted by desjardins at 7:59 AM on October 13, 2009

I usually use Google for something like this if I can remember any of the keywords. So something like this. It's definitely not perfect [I see 36 h&g questions there....?]. We'd like to have a more rich search engine up at some point but I don't think this is something the MeFi search currently does very well.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:07 AM on October 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

This isn't exactly what you're asking for, but have you tried a search for your terms within Anonymous' account? For example, here are some questions about cats asked by Anonymous.
posted by maudlin at 8:10 AM on October 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

Another way to do this, which will search for "drain" anywhere in the thread, rather than just the summary, is to search for [site:ask.metafilter.com "posted by * to home & garden" drain].
posted by grouse at 8:27 AM on October 13, 2009 [9 favorites]

Maudlin, that's slick; I didn't know how to search by contributor. I'd love to see better searchability.
posted by theora55 at 8:46 AM on October 13, 2009

I was going to ask this at one point, as well. I couldn't find a built-in way to do it, so a fancy google search like what grouse posted might be your only option.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 8:50 AM on October 13, 2009

I came here to suggest the exact same method grouse used. Also, since you know it's anonymous, you can replace "posted by * to home & garden" with "posted by anonymous to home & garden".
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 9:06 AM on October 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

Thanks grouse. Found it on the 3rd page of those results, saved to delicious.
posted by desjardins at 9:07 AM on October 13, 2009

You posted an anonymous AskMe about drains? Draaaaaiiiiiinnnnsss!!!

/zombie plumber
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 9:22 AM on October 13, 2009 [3 favorites]

search for [site:ask.metafilter.com "posted by * to home & garden" drain]

Yay for obscure Google search operators. Another stupid Google trick is that you can search for ranges of numbers using [number]...[other number] (example).
posted by burnmp3s at 9:30 AM on October 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

You posted an anonymous AskMe about drains?

Yes. Plumbing is a very private matter.
posted by desjardins at 9:34 AM on October 13, 2009 [3 favorites]

I'm off to get more ____

With all the animosity on the site of late, it's clear most of us aren't getting enough ____.
posted by FishBike at 9:43 AM on October 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

(example) [of how to search for $n, same as in town]

Top two results right now? Some forum thread about asian massage parlors in Vegas, and...a metafilter meetup thread (guess which is first).
posted by advil at 9:59 AM on October 13, 2009

an anonymous question that I posted

Found it!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:40 AM on October 13, 2009

With all the animosity on the site of late, it's clear most of us aren't getting enough ____.

Tech?
posted by yeti at 11:12 AM on October 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

Plumbing is a very private matter.
My Leaky Stopcock Shame.
posted by Abiezer at 11:40 AM on October 13, 2009

I wish this were my question - the person earn[s] over $100,000/year currently
posted by desjardins at 11:55 AM on October 13, 2009

that was to Brandon.
posted by desjardins at 11:56 AM on October 13, 2009

This would seem like a good and useful filter to add to search.
posted by Artw at 1:00 PM on October 13, 2009

What do zombie plumbers want? Draaaaainsss....
posted by ooga_booga at 4:42 PM on October 13, 2009

ooga_booga, your lurgy is making you slow. previously.
posted by desjardins at 5:23 PM on October 13, 2009

With all the animosity on the site of late, it's clear most of us aren't getting enough ____.

Note: Everyone needs a _____.
posted by slimepuppy at 3:02 PM on October 14, 2009 [1 favorite]

Oh drat.
posted by ooga_booga at 5:31 PM on October 14, 2009