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Keyword tips

Keyword search tips

Most of the time entering a keyword like "campfires" or "bake ovens" or "permits" will get you started just fine. But here are some simple operators you can experiment with to refine your search (think of these as a tiny query language).

Operator Meaning Example Finds
+ AND operator; word must be included; use this most of the time +apples +oranges both "apples" and "oranges" must be found in the same document.
- NOT operator; word must not be included apples -oranges "apples" must be found without the word "oranges".
* wild card (must be appended to the end) camp* camp, camps, campfire, campfires, Campbell
<blank> absence of an operator is interpreted as OR; any document with the word will be found apples oranges any document with either "apples" or "oranges" will be found
"<phrase>" exact phrase; words enclosed in double quotes must be found exactly "orange apples" the phrase "orange apples" must be found
(<term>) grouping; search terms in parentheses are evaluated separately +bananas +(apples oranges) find "bananas" with either "apples" or "oranges"

Note that keywords less than four characters long are ignored.

Keywords are searched in the Title, Caption, Location, Description, and Body of documents.

Keyword search does not look for the root of plurals. So "campfires" will not find "campfire", nor will "campfire" find "campfires". To find both use "campfire*".

Some (very commonly used) keywords are ignored altogether. These are called "stopwords". For a list see stopwords.

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Blog Posts About this Blog

Webmaster's Blog

Setup: 25-Jan-2011 by Henrik Bechmann [551 ];

• This is the blog of the site's webmaster

Sorted by: date (desc). Page 1 of 1 (items 1-2 of 2)

All done

Blog: Webmaster's Blog

Date: 23-Oct-2012 [7321]

Into the final stretch

Description: With basic posting, filing, and access functioning, we're into the home stretch developmentally speaking.

Blog: Webmaster's Blog

Date: 15-Feb-2012 By: Henrik Bechmann [1029]

page 1 of 1 (items 1-2 of 2) per page:

[About] Webmaster's Blog

Henrik Bechmann...
Henrik Bechmann

The technical work of setting up this website has been motivated by a convergence of three personal interests:

  • Support for CELOS, the Centre for Local Research into Public Space, which is dedicated to supporting people working together for the common good, in common space
  • Technical fascination with the challenges of combining high level design ideas (notably organizing material in continually evolving topics) with building a concise, maintainable, scalable environment
  • Long term commitment to the notion that in a rapidly changing world which is piling huge challenges on us all, one of the best responses is to work together in local collective groups; this means working in the public commons

I've been working at the technology behind this website in some form since early this millenium; it's gratifying to see these efforts start to see the light of day. In a long career of software development (starting in 1981) I dare say this is the most satisfying project I've yet undertaken. But like any technical project like this, it is never done. I look forward to describing the ongoing technical changes to this site in this blog.

So from time to time I'll be blogging about added features, website feedback we've been getting, and yes, I may weigh in on some topical interests.

Thanks of course to CELOS and The Ontario Trillium Foundation for contributing so consistently to the support of this project.

In the meantime, my fondest wish is that some of you, dear readers, will find the material in this website helpful, and find a useful platform for organizing and presenting information related to our social well-being.

Finally, it must be said that the really important work on this website comes from all the folks that have assembled the content. This will always be the case. The material is challenging to acquire, produce, edit, and present. We invite all readers who are interested, to participate in this collective venture.

- Henrik Bechmann, January, 2012