Frustrated With Search Function

[palo5]

Originally Posted by effCup

That's right. The problems are with the titles/names "Orea", "Adrianne", and "Usha". Advanced -> title searches for each of them do not find those two respective threads. In Usha's case that's the only name in her thread title. If they were fixed in the same manner as with Simone St. John then they could be found using advanced -> title searches.

vef does have thousands of model threads. In my time on vef (since 2012-02) I've encountered perhaps only a couple of handfuls of model thread titles with just this type of anomaly/problem, so I don't think the scope is too serious to tackle, is it?

It gets more confusing by the post and/or PM

I fixed the Simone St. John thread title, and all I did was change "Simone StJohn" to "Simone St. John"

So what do you want us to do with single-name titles?

We'll fix any problem we can. Really, we will. But seriously, if you know you get results with a simple search and don't get them with advanced, how persistent do you have to be to keep searching in advanced?

I can only recommend you use simple searches where advanced doesn't work. It's the only rational and commonsense thing to do

[hos]

Originally Posted by palo5

I can only recommend you use simple searches where advanced doesn't work. It's the only rational and commonsense thing to do

effie isn't that irrational that he only sticks to his preferred search (advance & title). also, it's not so important what example names he gave. his reason is simple:

title search brings up a handful of results, while quick search can lead to a result hard to bare.

and if you search for models, f.e. just checking "does she has a thread", you would expect that you will find her thread best way by using advanced/title search. that's his point.

and the problem is (not just his problem), that there are several model threads with incomplete or modified titles - threads, you won't find with a title search (which is, to be honest, technically far more simple than the quick search) when you would use a name which was added to the title later than the thread was originally started.

imho a solvable problem if a developer would simply review the code, if thread title modifications will affect the search database properly - and if not, that he will add 2 lines of sql update code which would do the necessary action for the db table holding searchword / thread ID relations.

Jenny explained that the search engine is crap. Anyhow, what's the problem trying to make crap a bit less crappy?

[Jenny48549]

Originally Posted by effCup

That's right. The problems are with the titles/names "Orea", "Adrianne", and "Usha". Advanced -> title searches for each of them do not find those two respective threads. In Usha's case that's the only name in her thread title. If they were fixed in the same manner as with Simone St. John then they could be found using advanced -> title searches.

vef does have thousands of model threads. In my time on vef (since 2012-02) I've encountered perhaps only a couple of handfuls of model thread titles with just this type of anomaly/problem, so I don't think the scope is too serious to tackle, is it?

Originally Posted by hos

effie isn't that irrational that he only sticks to his preferred search (advance & title). also, it's not so important what example names he gave. his reason is simple:

title search brings up a handful of results, while quick search can lead to a result hard to bare.

and if you search for models, f.e. just checking "does she has a thread", you would expect that you will find her thread best way by using advanced/title search. that's his point.

and the problem is (not just his problem), that there are several model threads with incomplete or modified titles - threads, you won't find with a title search (which is, to be honest, technically far more simple than the quick search) when you would use a name which was added to the title later than the thread was originally started.

imho a solvable problem if a developer would simply review the code, if thread title modifications will affect the search database properly - and if not, that he will add 2 lines of sql update code which would do the necessary action for the db table holding searchword / thread ID relations.

Jenny explained that the search engine is crap. Anyhow, what's the problem trying to make crap a bit less crappy?

No need for adding code. I fixed the "Usha" issue by editing the title using the "edit thread" function. Advanced search now finds the thread.

I am fairly certain the issue occurs if a mod just changes the title by editing the first post only instead of using the edit thread function.

Edit : All of the above issues with single names have been fixed for advanced search using edit thread

[hos]

Originally Posted by Jenny48549

instead of using the edit thread function.

the double click in forum/thread list feature to modify direct in the list instead of using thread edit tools? that would explain much. and if that's the reason for the different effects for the search engine, it should be known by all mods. thread titles shouldn't be modified this way ever again.

[Jenny48549]

Originally Posted by hos

the double click in forum/thread list feature to modify direct in the list instead of using thread edit tools? that would explain much. and if that's the reason for the different effects for the search engine, it should be known by all mods. thread titles shouldn't be modified this way ever again.

I have notified staff.

[effCup]

Thank you Jenny & hos, for achieving this fix and for identifying both the underlying cause and the importance of trying to minimise its future inadvertent occurrence with a notice to mods. re. thread title edits. Thank you also to palo5 & aphex1973 for taking my "problem" seriously & listening.

Palo, a very minor thing, I haven't mentioned it above because to me it seems pretty irrelevant to this matter: I use vef's simple search multiple times almost every day, just as I also use advanced search multiple times almost every day. To me they are different tools, designed for use in different circumstances, regardless of the similarity of their names. & yes, I sometimes use one search and then the other almost immediately after, even for the same query. It all depends on what I'm trying to achieve. There are also times when google is the best tool for searching some parts of vef. /shrug/

All good.