LUNACY'S FAN FICTION REVIEWS
SEARCHING HINTS
Reviewer can be reached at lunacy@dc.seflin.org
Last updated: 03/06/00

Please make sure to read the EXPLANATORY NOTES before reading these reviews.

The LUNACY FAN FICTION REVIEWS site now includes a search feature made available through the FreeFind and PicoSearch services. The keyword searching is powered by FreeFind. The phrase searching by PicoSearch. Note that these are DIFFERENT services with different features. Below are some hints on how to optimize your searches using these two services:

1. FreeFind and PicoSearch are not case sensitive so it doesn't matter whether you type your key terms in lower or upper case. The results will be the same.

2. Phrase searching is the most accurate type of searching so whenever possible go that route. PicoSearch requires you to put phrases in between quotation marks so if you wanted to see all the stories I've given a rating of highest recommendation to you would search for: "highest recommendation"

If you wanted to look for some spicy stories you might want to search for: "Amazon Ice Company"

Always remember when doing a phrase search TO USE QUOTATION MARKS. If you do not do this the PicoSearch search engine will simply assume that you want all the pages that feature the words you typed (a keyword search in other words). For Amazon Ice Company you would get all the pages with Amazon in them (quite a number!), all the ones with Ice and all the ones with Company. By using the quotation marks you're telling PicoSearch that you only want pages in which the exact phrase Amazon Ice Company appears. Note that you can search for multiple phrases at once by simply typing one phrase after another.

3. If you want to combine terms but not search for them as a phrase then make sure to use the keyword searching offered by FreeFind. Lets say that you remember reading in a recent report that artist Angelique was going to be in a WHOOSH PALACE CHAT. You can't remember how I worded that so phrase searching will probably not help you. Instead do a keyword search for Angelique and Palace. Make sure to select the MATCH ALL option so that FreeFind returns only pages that contain both terms. If you use MATCH ANY FreeFind may locate pages that have one of the terms in there but not necessarily both. Note that when doing a keyword search you do NOT used quotation marks. You can search for keywords via the PicoSearch service by typing them in the phrase searching box and not using quotation marks but I would recommend you use FreeFind (the keyword searching box) because it seems to do better with my site when it comes to keyword searching.

Just to give you another example of when keyword searching is appropriate - lets say you remember reading a story in which Callisto poisoned Gabrielle. To look for it you would do a keyword search for Callisto and poison or you could do one for Gabrielle and poison or you could search for all three terms at once. Note that you do not need to use Boolean operators (AND, OR). Selecting the MATCH ALL option is equivalent to using the boolean operator AND, selecting the MATCH ANY option is equivalent to using OR.

4. In doing keyword searching try to go with the less common terms from the ones you're considering. For instance in the search above it is much smarter to search for Callisto and poison or to search for Gabrielle and poison than to search for Callisto and Gabrielle because the two names are all over my reviews whereas the term poison doesn't appear as much. If you don't find what you want on a first attempt consider different forms of the words you're searching for. If poison doesn't bring up much then search for poisoned or poisoning.

5. If you are searching for an author use the keyword searching. If the person writes under a regular name with a first name and a last name go with the most unusual one of the two. To find pages that mention bard Jim Kuntz for instance, search for Kuntz. You can include a first and last name but keep in mind that I may have used different versions of the name you're looking for - searching for Melissa Good may not bring up pages that have the name Missy Good on there and vice versa.

6. The easiest way of locating a review by story title is simply to look in the alphabetical title index available on the main page or at the bottom of all other pages. However, lets say you want to search for a title because you are looking for a mention of it other than that in its own review. In that case use the phrase searching and make sure to put the title in quotes. If the title involved articles ignore those. For B L Miller's story A QUEEN'S SACRIFICE you would search for "Queen's Sacrifice".

7. The results pages you'll see from both FreeFind and PicoSearch do NOT include links directly to individual reviews - they will simply link to pages containing the requested term(s). To then actually locate the term(s) in the cited pages use your browser's FIND option. Note that the PicoSearch does include as part of your results actual excerpts from the sentences that contain your phrase making it easier to determine which file you really want.

8. The results will include links to the title and category indexes as well as to the individual fanfic reports. Do remember that the reports are NOT updated once I post them. I only update the indexes so if your results include links to index pages as well as to reports the index pages are more likely to include the latest information including the latest URLs.

9. Both FreeFind and PicoSearch use a "Spider" - a program that periodically looks at my site and re-indexes it, including in its search database any new information added. The Spider programs do NOT run on a daily basis so if you're looking for information posted in a recent report keep in mind that it might not have been indexed yet. Look instead directly at those recent reports.

10. If you're looking for COMMERCIAL titles and do not find them reviewed through any of my commercial reviews pages you can try searching Amazon.com, a huge online bookstore, through the search interface below. Amazon.com frequently includes reviews for their titles.

Search: Books Popular Music Classical Music Video	Enter keywords...

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