# Question about searching



## Deathisnear24 (Nov 19, 2013)

Hello, I have been a semi-long time user of FA and need a question answered about searching and can't seem to find the answer through searching on the forums. Is there a way to search for a [faicon] bbcode? I want to search for a specific user so I can find the pictures that include their character as most of the time the commissioner doesn't put the name of the character or the character owners name anywhere BUT the [faicon] bbcode tag in the description making it impossible, for me atleast, to search for it. I've tried using the @ tags during searching but it only seems to search things that are in plain text. This is really bothering me and I can't seem to find a way to search for it. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!


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## BRN (Nov 19, 2013)

Oof, that's difficult to answer. Well, unfortunately, the easy part is - no, there's no way to search for an icon.

However, I think I can guess what you want to achieve, and whether or not it's possible will depend on the way that FA's search engine reads descriptions - if it reads the 'parsed' version, it'll just see the name of the user rather than the icon itself (it's not possible for a text reader to comprehend an image, after all). 

But that said, if you're using the '@keywords' filter, it will not be searching the description, only the tags. If you're sure the person's name will be in the description but not the tags, it's contradictory to use @keywords.

Alternatively, if you know the name of the user you're searching for, why not just find their profile at www.furaffinity.net/user/[insert name here] ?


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## Deathisnear24 (Nov 19, 2013)

I would love to just go to their userpage but they don't upload their commissioned art there for whatever reason or another. I don't use the @ tags in combination with others. Your answer clears it up a little so I can describe it better. I'm looking to search the name attached to the [faicon] tag and not the icon itself if that is the ONLY place it is located on the image (the one generated by the [faicon]) it's not even in the keywords or typed out in the description. If that is the case it will not appear using the search function. I'm talking about pictures like http://www.furaffinity.net/view/12077810/ I cannot find it while searching 'retrospecter' in the search function at all even with the various @ tags.


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## BRN (Nov 19, 2013)

It's difficult to guess this.

The Description box looks clean to the naked eye, but it'll depend on the way that the FA search function reads descriptions - after all, if you look at the source code of that webpage, what's actually written is this:
	
	



```
<a href="/user/retrospecter" class="iconusername"><img src="//a.facdn.net/retrospecter.gif" align="middle" title="retrospecter" alt="retrospecter" />&nbsp;&nbsp;retrospecter</a><br />
<br />
```

It's possible that FA's search tool might be searching through this clusterfuck of punctuation for your search term, because normally anything else such as plain text just shows up as, well, plain text in the source.

If nothing else, I propose a workaround; e621 has a feature where you can search by character with the tag 'character:[insertnamehere]'. As for making FA work, if 'retrospecter' isn't producing results, it doesn't look like there's any other way to help.


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## DragonTalon (Nov 19, 2013)

You can search for such tags but you have to type them the same way they are used.

The BBCodes for putting a user icon into a journal or comment are :iconUSERNAME: :linkUSERNAME: :USERNAMEicon: so you have to search for this, minus the :'s.  Just put all three in the search box and you will find any submissions with them in the description.


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## PheagleAdler (Nov 20, 2013)

DragonTalon said:


> You can search for such tags but you have to type them the same way they are used.
> 
> The BBCodes for putting a user icon into a journal or comment are :iconUSERNAME: :linkUSERNAME: :USERNAMEicon: so you have to search for this, minus the :'s.  Just put all three in the search box and you will find any submissions with them in the description.



I always search WITH the colons. It works fine, and it finds EVERYTHING with that specific code in the description.


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## BRN (Nov 20, 2013)

DragonTalon said:


> You can search for such tags but you have to type them the same way they are used.
> 
> The BBCodes for putting a user icon into a journal or comment are :iconUSERNAME: :linkUSERNAME: :USERNAMEicon: so you have to search for this, minus the :'s.  Just put all three in the search box and you will find any submissions with them in the description.





PheagleAdler said:


> I always search WITH the colons. It works fine, and it finds EVERYTHING with that specific code in the description.



Really now? This is great news! I guess that means that the search engine reads the unparsed version of the description.

That certainly makes it a lot easier all round.


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