It was the Tagging Improvements thread.
Remembered that was my original "auto write metadata" thread. I was babbling a lot but yea I think you were talking about the Find panel. I just forgot to follow up on doing this exclusion that you mentioned, then I don't know how to do it.
I think that I'm over thinking this. Because if searches drill down starting at the parent folder, then other drives are out of the scope of the search, unless I specifically ask for their inclusion. But it still leaves the puzzle of how to permanently exclude something from searches but not for the alternate times when I want those things included, or only those things. Search paths or the A or I attributes are probably the two criteria most likely involved, for me at least.