Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum

Main => Forum/Website Discussion => Topic started by: CitznFish on May 15, 2003, 09:13:01 pm

Title: Search sucks
Post by: CitznFish on May 15, 2003, 09:13:01 pm
Search is the most aggervating POS I have ever worked with. I can't even find a post I made last week.   >:(


Not user friendly at all.......

(just venting)
Title: Re:Search sucks
Post by: spectre on June 30, 2003, 01:27:55 pm
punch a wall it works better :)
Title: Re:Search sucks
Post by: saint on July 01, 2003, 08:46:34 am
I hear you -- the problem is this is a canned package.  We can replace the whole message board again, or we deal with the search as is.  What were you searching for?  I found a ton of posts under your user ID when I did a simple search.  I'd like to try to duplicate what you were searching for to see what's going on.

Search is the most aggervating POS I have ever worked with. I can't even find a post I made last week.   >:(


Not user friendly at all.......

(just venting)
Title: Re:Search sucks
Post by: RetroBorg on July 01, 2003, 12:36:25 pm
I found the search Ok but when I try and use the advance search I end up with nothing I know it's probably me but I can't make head or tales of it. ???
Title: Re:Search sucks
Post by: SirPoonga on July 02, 2003, 02:18:46 am
saint, what I find weird is when you put a time on the advanced search you get different results everytime you change how far back you want to search.   Wouldn;t it will show the latest stuff too?
Title: Re:Search sucks
Post by: Grasshopper on July 02, 2003, 06:57:02 am
I also find the search function a bit hit and miss.

For example if I want to search for all the posts I've made in the last year I put '360' in the max age since last post box and 'Grasshopper' in the by user box and leave everything else with its default value.

However no posts are found.

Am I doing something wrong? Maybe adding a help screen would be useful.
Title: Re:Search sucks
Post by: AlanS17 on July 02, 2003, 10:35:38 am
Well I've NEVER had a problem with the search... until today.  :-\

I guess if you REALLY know what you're looking for you can get it. Plus here's a tip for those of yall that may be having trouble. I think the search automatically cuts off at anything in the last 2 months unless you specifically do an advanced search and lengthen it. That may be where some of yall are having problems.
Title: Re:Search sucks
Post by: RandyT on July 02, 2003, 12:27:44 pm
I also find the search function a bit hit and miss.

For example if I want to search for all the posts I've made in the last year I put '360' in the max age since last post box and 'Grasshopper' in the by user box and leave everything else with its default value.

However no posts are found.

Am I doing something wrong? Maybe adding a help screen would be useful.

One thing for sure is that it's not just you.

I have never seen the "search by user feature" work.  This usually means putting an extra bandwidth burden on the board by listing all posts for a specific user and then using the search function in the browser to find results.

RandyT
Title: Re:Search sucks
Post by: IIOIOOIOO on July 02, 2003, 12:52:41 pm
The best match I can come up with between what I see when trying to search, and what the code may be doing on the back-end is this:

Parms received from browser.
Some filters are applied to form a very broad query.
Results are capped at x records.
More filters are applied.
Consequently, your post can be cut off by the initial cap before the query limiting filters are properly applied.

This happens because the pool of posts to search against is artificially trimmed too early in the process, and is a very common mistake. Also, a hard one for a developer to catch without testing it on a fully populated system. It will always work right with say... less than 200 posts. It will in fact USUALLY work right with a higher number of posts. However, the higher the post count in the DB becomes, the more this error condition comes into play.

If you want me to take a look at the stuff, I can. I've only done one LAMP contract before, but it's a pretty basic system so I should be able to figure out what's going on.
Title: Re:Search sucks
Post by: Grasshopper on July 02, 2003, 03:06:44 pm
I think IIOIOOIOO's theory is probably correct.

Anyway, I've found a workaround.

If I put 'e' (the most common letter in the english language) in the search for box then the search engine comes up with a list of all of my posts for the last 360 days containing a letter 'e'.

This must cover virtually every post as the chance of a post not containing at least one 'e' is very small.
Title: Re:Search sucks
Post by: radiator on July 12, 2003, 07:31:35 pm
hmmm, making a post without using the letter 'e'?!

"my arcad machin has stoppd working...nd sum hlp!"
Title: Re:Search sucks
Post by: Howard_Casto on August 07, 2003, 10:58:54 pm
Guys the easiest way to find older topics is to google it.  Use the "site:" tag to limit your search to arcadecontrols.org