Why didn't I find the post I was looking for?

1: Because the post doesn't contain the word(s) you typed.

SearchVoat does text search (unlike Google, where AI interprets your query and gives you the results you meant to search for). SearchVoat only gives you results which contain exactly what you typed.

Therefore:

• get the spelling right (unless the post is misspelled - then it might be unfindable)
• use no more than one or two distinctive words
• use asterisk wildcard: mexic* matches mexico, mexican and mexicans

2: Because the post (or its subverse) is marked NSFW and you didn't select NSFW: include.

NSFW is off by default. That excludes not only posts marked NSFW, but also all posts in NSFW subverses (like v/QRV). If you used the Voat search bar to search, and you happened to be in a NSFW subverse at the time, SearchVoat will automatically include NSFW. But if you were on the front page, or v/all, or somewhere else in Voat, or went directly to https://searchvoat.co, NSFW posts will be hidden by default.

3: Because your search text appears in the post body not the title...

...and you didn't select Search post body. By default, posts will only display if your search text appears in the post title or exactly matches the subverse, username or domain. Check Search post body to search the body of text posts as well.

Basic Search

• Type something into Search text (or don't, to retrieve all posts)
• Filter or expand results with options on the right-hand sidebar (hamburger menu on small screen devices)
• Hit Enter/Return, or click Search in the sidebar. Or hit Posts, Comments or Subverses to display submissions, comments or subverse titles.

Advanced Search Options

Special Search text characters

• use wildcards at the end of a word, eg: mexic* matches mexico, mexican and mexicans
• use hyphen to exclude a word, eg: clinton -foundation displays posts mentioning Clinton but not the Clinton Foundation
• search for exact phrases in double quotes, eg "Every Single Time"

Filter by subverse, username, domain, reply-to

Enter one or more subverse, user, reply-to user or domain names separated by commas to include only those posts/comments. Put a hyphen on the front to exclude them. (Limitations: you cannot enter more than one "reply to" name, and you cannot use wildcards in these filters.)

Enter username "anon" to search for anonymous posts/comments (or "-anon" to search only for named ones).

You can search posts for the original domain (and results will display the original domain name) even if the original link was archived through a service such as archive.is.

Filter by date range

Enter from and to dates in MySQL UTC format. For example, enter December 25th, 2018 as "2018-12-25". These can include times, so 6am UTC on Christmas Day is "2018-12-25 06:00".

Search post body/subverse sidebar text

By default, posts will only display if your search text appears in the post title or exactly matches the subverse, username or domain. Check Search post body to search the body of text posts as well. Check Search sidebar text when searching for subverses that mention your search text in the sidebar text.

Include NSFW

By default, SearchVoat will not display NSFW posts or their comments, or subverses. Select NSFW: include to include all posts and comments; select NSFW: only to include only NSFW posts/comments ya pervert.

If you are already in a NSFW subverse when you search from the Voat sidebar search box, NSFW: include will be selected by default.

Include anonymous subverses

By default, SearchVoat will include both anonymous and not-anonymous (nonymous?) subverses when searching for subverses. Select Anon: exclude to exclude anonymous subverses; select Anon: only to include only anonymous subverses.

Results order

By default, posts & comments are listed by date, most recent at the top. Select Order by: oldest first to list by date, oldest at the top. Select Order by: random to list in random order, which can be an interesting way to browse subverses. (Random order only works if you have specified something to search; either a subverse, username or some search text. You cannot list all posts/comments in random order.)

Subverse order

By default, subverses are listed in order of number of subscribers (Popular). Hit Active to list by the date/time of the most recent post; New to list by most recently created; Alphabetical to list in alphabetical order by subverse name.

Output format

By default, results are listed in HTML format - i.e. as a webpage.

Select Output: postable to display a list of posts which you can copy-and-paste into a post or comment body as a nicely formatted table. You can also download posts as CSV and JSON formatted data files.

Alerts

SearchVoat can notify you by Voat DM whenever a new post or comment matches your search. This can be useful if you want to look out for specific mentions across all Voat subverses and users, and is also often used to "follow" specific users and subverses.

If you are a mod of a subverse, for example, you might want to be notified whenever anyone posts to it. (For convenience, I suggest you specifically exclude your own posts from the alert by entering -yourusername in the Posted by users(s) search option.)

Click Create Alert to set up an alert for the current search. You will be redirected to your Voat "Compose Message" page, pre-filled with the recipient @SearchVoatBot and a title reference for the search. You have to type something - anything - in the message box to allow the send.

Within a few minutes you should receive a DM from @SearchVoatBot to confirm the alert, and you will continue receiving DMs whenever new posts/comments match your search. The DMs include a link to immediately delete the alert.

Deleted/edited posts

SearchVoat uses a copy of the Voat database which is only automatically updated when a new post or comment is made, not when posts/comments are edited or deleted. This means that if a post/comment is deleted on Voat, you may still be able to find it on SearchVoat. We expect to overcome this limitation at some point in the future.

Meanwhile, you can manually trigger an update of a post/comment in the SearchVoat database by finding it on SearchVoat and clicking edit/delete.

You must specify the reason for the update:

• the post/comment has been deleted
• the post/comment has been edited and the version here is out of date
• the post/comment should (or should not) be marked NSFW
• the post/comment should (or should not) be marked anonymous
• the user who made this post/comment has been deleted (and therefore all of their posts/comments have been deleted or anonymized)

The update will be queued for processing. SearchVoat will display a message indicating how long it will take for the processing to occur - usually within a minute. SearchVoat will check that post/comment/user against the master Voat database and update itself, if necessary. If posts/comments have been deleted they will then immediately disappear from the results, and if they have been anonymized or edited they will be displayed correctly. However, the search index is only rebuilt once every 24 hours, which means, for example, that during that time a search for a deleted username may reveal their newly-anonymized posts.

If you want to receive formal notification from SearchVoat that the database has been updated, you may optionally enter your email address or Voat username. You will receive an email or Voat DM showing the results of the update. This message will include your IP address so I suggest you don't use this facility to spam/troll other users.

There are throttle limits to edit/delete requests (currently 1/second, 5/minute, 20/hour, 50/day).

Limitations

• New posts/comments may take up to 30 minutes to appear. New subverses may take up to 24 hours to appear in the Subverses results.
• Up/down-votes aren't in the SearchVoat database so you can't sort by Hot.
• There are throttle limits to searches per IP address (currently 1/second, 20/minute, 100/hour, 200/day).
• The light/dark (night mode) theme isn't passed to SearchVoat from Voat so it defaults to dark. Click the "lamp" icon to toggle night mode.
• The v/8chan mirror threads aren't in the SearchVoat database, because there is such a large volume of data with so few views/subscribers and anyway I don't consider them to be Voat content. If you want to search them, go to 8chan.

In conclusion

I hope you find SearchVoat useful. It's a pure hobby for me and I'm always interested in hearing ideas for improvements and extra features - and bugs, of course. Please comment below and let me know.

Cheers!