Searching the PBS list archives
Mary Sue Ittner (Thu, 14 Feb 2008 15:30:01 PST)

Hi,

I guess I need to announce how to search the archives every now and then as
new members are always subscribing to this list. At one point there was a
way to search from the archive page as one of the ibiblio support members
had figured out a way to add this to the mailman software. She graduated
from the University of North Carolina and moved on to another institution
of higher learning for further education. When the mailman software was
upgraded as it is every now and then that search field was lost. I wrote to
say what a nice feature it was, but the answer I got was that it was not
included in the software and what the woman had created was a hack and her
replacement was not putting it back. I tried writing the group that writes
the mailman software suggesting this would be a great addition, but alas,
that was the end of it. You can still search the archives but you need to
go to Google and use this formula:
+[pbs] [search terms] site:///lists.ibiblio.org

Following this model, if you were wanting to know about Narcissus
discussions on pbs you would enter in the google box this:
+[pbs] [Narcissus] site:///lists.ibiblio.org

It would be interesting to use the formula that David gave us and this one
and see which achieved the most helpful results.

Since the archive messages have a line for the previous post you will get
some messages not relevant, but you will still get quite a lot of hits for
posts that were about Narcissus. I've put the formula on the Pacific Bulb
Society web page so I can find it when I need it, but don't know if anyone
looks for it there. I wish I could put it on the archive page, but I don't
think I can access or change what is there.

If people kept the subject headings relevant to the topic by changing them
when the subject changed, it would help readers of the list determine which
messages to delete and which were of interest.

Mary Sue