The new search system- problems, observations, issues

[WebmasterAlex]

So, it's the new year now, really it's kinda like the 'near future'. Are there any reports on the 'major improvements' that the koalas were working on that are supposed to be showing up?

Patience is a virtue

 

[jfulcer]

Hey, BT, great to see you again. Welcome back. We've missed you around these parts. Stop by and say hello once in awhile, I see you are here most days.

Hmmm, interesting things you find when you search a little. Boardtracker is officially a spider, or in their terminology, a 'koala' (because they are cute an cuddly). It indexes the boards by actually being logged in as a user, and monitoring the new posts. I assume this is why it doesn't see replies right now because it just looks for new posts. The Boardtracker user serves the purpose of them being able to post and reply/etc in addition to being what indexes the posts.

Looking forward to those near future updates (hopefully improvements) to make your new search engine more usable and effective. I think most, myself included, have pretty much given up on using it, finding it to be so very rudimentary in its results. But that's great to hear, those updates coming, much appreciated.

They do say on their web site that something new is coming - as Webmaster Alex just confirmed by replying to my post. Again, more information - but Boardtracker has been around for quite some time (2 or more years? I'm not sure how far back). It is based in Tel Aviv and was developed by a guy named Ron Kass.

I excitedly look forward to these new improvements. I thought for a little while there that old search was back, but was wrong...

 

[orljustin]

I'm not reading through this whole post, but with regards to the search engine...

It's useless 99% of the time. I want to use it to see the threads I've posted to:
http://www.disboards.com/searchbt.php?user=orljustin

I get 5 posts from last year.

Half the time the page returns nothing, and doesn't say anything why. It's like you never entered something.

No wonder people post the same thread topics over and over again. Can't find anything.

 

[WebmasterAlex]

I'm not reading through this whole post, but with regards to the search engine...

It's useless 99% of the time. I want to use it to see the threads I've posted to:
http://www.disboards.com/searchbt.php?user=orljustin

I get 5 posts from last year.

Half the time the page returns nothing, and doesn't say anything why. It's like you never entered something.

No wonder people post the same thread topics over and over again. Can't find anything.

orljustin- Go to your user control panel and then subscribed threads. No need to use search at all to find your posts

 

[jfulcer]

orljustin- Go to your user control panel and then subscribed threads. No need to use search at all to find your posts

This is, of course, if you have subscribed to all your threads.

Until the koalas get busy, you can always try google, as it will index more of your posts than boardtracker will at the moment.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Adisboards.com+orljustin&btnG=Google+Search

 

[Dan Murphy]

Koalas?

 

[travelbug]

Koalas?

Dan, look at post #362 in this thread where jfulcer explains the koala thing. Or check out this link :
http://www.boardtracker.com/cgi-bin/boards/index.pl?page=4

HTH!

 

[bengalbelle]

orljustin- Go to your user control panel and then subscribed threads. No need to use search at all to find your posts

How is this useful? I post in a thread with thousands of pages. I wanted to find a specific post I made only a few days before, but with the amount of traffic on the thread, it took me forever! I could have found it in just a minute with the old "find all posts" feature.

Why can't we have the old search feature while this one tries to get out of the stone age? (I'd search your previous posts to see if you had already answered this if I could ).

The "new posts" is the way I used to surf the boards, but I find it very hard to use now. It no longer shows which board the post is on (for example, sometimes a title looked interesting (like banned, LOL) only to find out it's on the VMK board. On the old new posts I could see that right away and skip over it. Now you have to click on the thread to find out which board it's coming from. Also, why are the page numbers at the top of the page? I scroll down to look at the topics, and then I have to scroll back up to go to the next page.

Finally, the new posts feature doesn't really work. I've clicked on it, read a few threads, then clicked it again. I got the exact same search as before. I then went to a specific board to see if there really weren't any new topics, and there were plenty. They just didn't show up in the search. I've also seen a thread that said it had 0 replies when it really had 5-6 (no they weren't all posted between the time I clicked on new posts and then clicked on the thread).

Please, please dump this new search !

 

[WebmasterAlex]

How is this useful? I post in a thread with thousands of pages. I wanted to find a specific post I made only a few days before, but with the amount of traffic on the thread, it took me forever! I could have found it in just a minute with the old "find all posts" feature.

Why can't we have the old search feature while this one tries to get out of the stone age? (I'd search your previous posts to see if you had already answered this if I could ).

The "new posts" is the way I used to surf the boards, but I find it very hard to use now. It no longer shows which board the post is on (for example, sometimes a title looked interesting (like banned, LOL) only to find out it's on the VMK board. On the old new posts I could see that right away and skip over it. Now you have to click on the thread to find out which board it's coming from. Also, why are the page numbers at the top of the page? I scroll down to look at the topics, and then I have to scroll back up to go to the next page.

Finally, the new posts feature doesn't really work. I've clicked on it, read a few threads, then clicked it again. I got the exact same search as before. I then went to a specific board to see if there really weren't any new topics, and there were plenty. They just didn't show up in the search. I've also seen a thread that said it had 0 replies when it really had 5-6 (no they weren't all posted between the time I clicked on new posts and then clicked on the thread).

Please, please dump this new search !

Unless you know how databases work I understand it's not easy to understand. Searching causing extremely high loads on the boards and using them in the manner you are describing is a server killer.
I could have 50 people reading and posting for every person running around continuously searching.
Putting the regular search back right now would increase the load to the point of making the boards unusable for a good part of the day.
It's not going to happen for now

 

[bengalbelle]

Unless you know how databases work I understand it's not easy to understand. Searching causing extremely high loads on the boards and using them in the manner you are describing is a server killer.
I could have 50 people reading and posting for every person running around continuously searching.
Putting the regular search back right now would increase the load to the point of making the boards unusable for a good part of the day.
It's not going to happen for now

All of the ways I described, or just searching for all posts? Will/can the new posts function be improved, or is that part of the problem to?

Oh, and another search issue I'd like to ask about: searching by username. Does it not allow you to search with partial usernames anymore? There are hundreds of variations of tinker bell, for example. Previously I could search "tink" and it would bring up all names with tink in it. I tried that the other day and it didn't work. It also wouldn't search for a username with & in it.

 

[WebmasterAlex]

All of the ways you described.
They are working on increasing search functionality

 

[Deb & Bill]

All of the ways you described.
They are working on increasing search functionality

Thanks, Alex. I'm looking forward to that. Appreciate all that you do.

 

[DisneyWorld Delight]

Glad to see there is a support group for the frustration of the new search engine. I didn't read all 25 pages, but from what I think I understand, things are supposed to get better? Is there a timeline for this? 1 month, 6 months...?

 

[WillCAD]

Glad to see there is a support group for the frustration of the new search engine. I didn't read all 25 pages, but from what I think I understand, things are supposed to get better? Is there a timeline for this? 1 month, 6 months...?

Well, this thread was begun on 8/20/2006, almost 5 months ago. You can draw your own conclusions from that.

 

[TraceyL]

REally missing the 'search for all posts bythis user' function

 

[phorsenuf]

I really miss the find new post feature. Add me to the group that used these boards that way. It takes too long now to have to go through every board topic to find anything I may find useful.

 

[DVCconvert]

I wish we could once again search on a basis of "all posts" by a given member - not just search those posts started by a given poster.

 

[jfulcer]

Will someone just think of the Koalas?

Bindi can help feed the Koalas!

 

[jfulcer]

Unless you know how databases work I understand it's not easy to understand. Searching causing extremely high loads on the boards and using them in the manner you are describing is a server killer.
I could have 50 people reading and posting for every person running around continuously searching.
Putting the regular search back right now would increase the load to the point of making the boards unusable for a good part of the day.
It's not going to happen for now

An optimized database server could do this with one hand tied behind it's back. But of course money doesn't grow on trees. This is one area that mysql shows it's weaknesses, IMHO.

 

[katallo]

I've had difficulty with searching for previous posts and was told to read this thread. I honestly, don't have time to review all of these posts but will check back to see if the problem is resolved. Each time I click on my user name, I receive a "no previous posts" message.