Chatting to Norio, I made a jest about a gift that keeps on giving...and he suggested that I share.
It began because I was thinking that while Alan may be (temporarily?) gone, he's left a wealth of info/opinion/content that continues to be of value. Some of it may well be many years old, but unlike some things, info on guitars and music is comparatively static (imho).
So, I've been using this lit google search query lately :
site:www.guitarforum.co.za "alan ratcliffe" my search terms
Where
1.
site: = GFSA
2.
"" = exact terms I'm looking for, in this case posts by Alan Ratcliffe
3.
my search terms = whatever I'm looking for
This can be particularly useful if you are looking for something local (amp repairs, luthiers, stockists, materials, etc...) or advice/opinions on a specific product.
Google's search is quite powerful, a few useful things I've picked up
You could isolate threads by using
inurl:, E.g.
inurl:setup-mods-and-repair to search only that section
or if you are gettings loads of results, try limit results by looking for your search term in the url (title of post) E.g.
inurl:intonation to find posts with intonation in the title
site:www.guitarforum.co.za "alan ratcliffe" inurl:setup-mods-and-repair intonation
Alternatively search the whole site
site:www.guitarforum.co.za inurl:intonation
As Alan isn't he only contributor of info - By including those users whom you feel may have some useful info on what you are searching for by using
OR (capitals important, other google will think you are searching for the word or)
site:www.guitarforum.co.za "alan ratcliffe" OR "Vic" OR "Singemonkey" OR "Keira" yamaha
Also useful to search for multiple terms like
site:www.guitarforum.co.za "yamaha" CG170 OR CG-170 OR "CG 170"
You could also add a little inurl filter to search in guitar gear
site:www.guitarforum.co.za inurl:guitar-gear "yamaha" CG170 OR CG-170 OR "CG 170"
And my all time favourite thing...click on the images tab when you have your result set and trawl through years of sheer guitar pron...much fun!
These are merely a few examples and you'll still probably find it easier to start up a new post...but I like using google and maaayyybeeee some of the above examples will help to traverse the interwebs (not just gfsa).
If google searching interests you...
http://bgr.com/2014/08/13/top-25-google-search-tips-tricks/
http://www.googleguide.com/category/query-input/
Now if I can figure out a way to return all the Pinned/Sticky threads...any ideas? I reckon it's easy if I could get access to the database backend...but that's cheating ?
Feel free to make corrections, suggestions or just pop in and mention this is useless!
