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tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
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Q&A Mismatch between search guidance, search help page, and search behaviour for votes and score

There is some inconsistency between the guidance and the behaviour when searching by votes or by score. Searching by votes In-page search guidance votes:4 votes with 4+ votes Search help pa...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by trichoplax‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by Monica Cellio‭

#2: Post edited by user avatar Monica Cellio‭ · 2023-05-29T23:57:00Z (over 1 year ago)
#1: Initial revision by user avatar trichoplax‭ · 2023-05-29T03:22:21Z (over 1 year ago)
Mismatch between search guidance, search help page, and search behaviour for votes and score
There is some inconsistency between the guidance and the behaviour when searching by votes or by score.

## Searching by votes
### In-page search guidance
> **votes:4** votes with 4+ votes

### Search help page
> you can use `votes:5` to find posts where the net votes (upvotes minus downvotes) of a post equals 5 or higher

### Actual behaviour
Searching for `votes:4` gives results with votes +A/-B, where A-B=4 (exactly 4, not 4+ as mentioned in the example or suggested on the help page).

## Searching by score
### In-page search guidance
> **score:0.5** votes with 0.5+ score

### Search help page
> you can use `score:0.5` to filter your search to only include posts with a score of at least 0.5

### The search results page "Advanced Search Options" box
> `score:>=0.5 created:<1y grammar` would return only posts mentioning "grammar" that have a score >= 0.5 and were created less than a year ago

### Actual behaviour
Searching for `score:0.5` gives results with score 0.5 (exactly 0.5, not 0.5+ as mentioned in the example or suggested on the help page - only the "Advanced Search Options" box correctly states that `>=` is required to achieve this behaviour).

## Searching by upvotes and downvotes
### Search help page
> If you search for `upvotes:4`, Codidact will find posts that have received at least 4 upvotes

> Likewise, if you search for `downvotes:4`, Codidact will find posts that have received at least 4 downvotes

### Actual behaviour
Searching for `upvotes:4` gives results with 4 upvotes (exactly 4, not at least 4 as suggested on the help page).

Searching for `downvotes:4` gives results with 4 downvotes (exactly 4, not at least 4 as suggested on the help page).

## Solution options
Should the wordings be changed to match the behaviour, or should the behaviour be changed to match the wordings?

Since the current behaviour is significantly more powerful than most of the wordings currently suggest, my preference would be to improve the in-page example wordings to use an example including `>=` (which will achieve the behaviour they currently describe), and to give more detailed examples on the help page to show all 5 usages (`<`, `<=`, exact, `>=`, and `>`).