[HP4GU-FAQ] Egroups Search/Spoilers

[Neil Ward]

Margaret wrote:

>I did a search on the yahoo archives in egroups searching for 'lupin'. I
>just wanted to see the general discussion even if the messages did not get
>listed on our FAQ database. The two lists did not match up. I would expect
>the search to find messages that weren't listed in the FAQ list;
>unfortunately, I also found that the messages listed in the FAQ list did not
>show up on the search. Has anyone else had a similar problem?

*****

I haven't used eGroups for searching yet, but I can confirm, from searches
of the text files, that there are a lot of topic-relevant messages that
aren't in the FORT database.  I've also found, when searching on spells and
charms, that I had to take into account misspellings of Priori Incantatem,
Fidelius and Imperius etc.  With McGonagall, I ended up searching on McG or
Minerva, as so many people either couldn't spell her surname or avoided it.

Perhaps the eGroups search only looks in the title and first few lines of
each post?  Perhaps the other FORT messages you saw didn't mention 'Lupin'?
I'd try Marauder, MWPP, Remus, Moony and werewolf as well as Lupin.  


Margaret also said:

>Another problem has surfaced that didn't occur to me before. I prefer not to
>know anything about the future books; I actually stopped visiting the board
>for several weeks before GoF's publication. It's ten months to publication
>for the next book and already we're dealing with spoilers. 

*****

I can see your point.  It's likely that little facts (or unconfirmed
rumours) will slip out now and then before book 5 is published.  It's also
likely that people will post messages about such things in HP4GrownUps.
Perhaps we should decide who does and who doesn't mind reading posts that
have 'spoiler' at the top and those who don't mind can screen those posts
for information for other FAQ volunteers.  If we'd thought about this before
we could have had a general 'spoiler content; post Book 4' section in the
FORT database. 

Neil


            Flying-Ford-Anglia

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   "Then, dented, scratched and steaming, 
   the car rumbled off into the darkness, 
   its rear lights blazing angrily"

 [Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets]

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