The new search system- problems, observations, issues

[GailT]

I just don't bother even trying to search, not worth my time, I just go down and look at all the subjects and pick what I want. I know I probably miss alot but that's ok, my nerves get shot when I tried to do a search before.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Good thoughts, Jennifer.

It may be this thread, http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1488950, that alex posted some months back, when the improved edition of the new search came out. Again, not sure, but it is titled, New search test feedback thread, so it is possible that it is an additional thread for feedback on the newer search from earlier in the Spring, the one where you need to go to the gold color to make it work some, and this thread here, the one from last year, is more appropriate for none gold, but still BT?

 

[mikkiwikki]

And yes, WebmasterAlex is a webmaster. Perhaps his username gave it away.

Gee that sounded a little sarcastic to me.

 

[fhtpdw20]

Every time I click into veiw a thread and start to read it, board tracker on google comes up. I hit the back button and get back to the thread, but when I scroll down, I get sent back to board tracker on google again. This problem started 10/7. If this keeps up, I will no longer be able to use this site and it is number one favorite. I have checked for viruses, deleted cookies/temp files, rebooted, but nothing seems to work. Thanks for your help. It also does the same thing when I click on thread from email response back.

 

[Uncleromulus]

I tried to access some of my old threads by clicking "find all threads started by Uncleromulus". What came up was the general search feature and when I put in the key word I was after (Wolfgang Puck) it came up with no results. Which is, of course, not the case.

 

[Shorty82]

Search is pretty much disabled for all skins but "California Gold". Supposedly the search system is being worked on.

 

[agnes!]

Uncle -

Are you doing your search while using the California Gold 'skin'? I only know of two ways to generally search the DIS. Either use the BoardTracker DIS'Search or do a Google/Yahoo domain-name search of the DIS and putting your DIS nick in as a search parameter.

agnes!

 

[agnes!]

I admit it, I am techno-illiterate, but in line with the above posts...

When a BoardTracker DIS'Search feature isn't working or is perhaps disabled because the system is in Beta-mode (I know that features come and features go while they are being tweaked), can that button/clickpoint/option be disabled as well?
For instance, *if* Find New Posts isn't working, then can that option be deleted until the working feature returns OR can a helpful response message be put into that feature stating "This option temporarily disabled", something other than "Nothing to display" or "No Results" etc.

I don't know if this general idea is possible, but I've asked this question before in the various New Search threads and don't remember seeing a response.

Thanks,
agnes!

Was wondering if BoardTracker or one of the Webmasters had the answer to my question/idea above.

Thanks,
agnes!

Hi agnes.
Since we are not representing DisBoards and can not speak on behalf or the webmasters or make any changes to DisBoards, we (BoardTracker) can not answer this question.

(In general, its better to turn off features that don't work. But sometimes its really messy to get rid of something small, and its better to leave it till the feature is reintroduced.)

BoardTracker -

Thanks for your reply.

agnes!

 

[thomprod]

I suppose a lot of people that are posting on this thread are frustrated after promise after promise, deadline after deadline, update after update go by the wayside, one by one. Here is my helpful feedback:

1) If search is not working, then as another poster suggested - put a 'temporarily DISabled' message up for when the search comes up. It certainly would eliminate the large number of messages that say "why does search not work?"

2) If someone is going to post a date something is going to happen, then stick to it even if you can't do it 100%. Put a message on the search saying "please note: this is not 100% indexed" or whatever is missing/wrong.

3) Put a sticky at the top of this help forum: "How to use a partially enabled search" (or something) and point to the California Gold help messages we've posted over and over.

4) Tell us what is going on. A weekly(?) message stating progress/goals would be wonderful. Communication is soooo important. If all of us that are interested in this know that progress is being made other than 'The Koalas are working on it', it would be soooooo nice.

I agree with all of these points as well.

 

[thomprod]

So, and please do not take this as anything other than the question that it is, where should we address such concerns? I know I'm not alone in wondering if things are ever going to function even remotely close to how they did in "the good old days" , so is there a place other than this that we might find those answers? Is there a way to let someone (and who?) know that we are really frustrated by the (lack of) search function?

In my opinion, and again I'm not being snotty or sarcastic, I'd rather just know if that's never going to happen. If it isn't, then I'll just move on. Goodness knows I still appreciate this board, and use it for many things -- just maybe not as much as I used to when it was a bit more user friendly -- and certainly not for the research tool for which it was intended. I'm not throwing a fit, or threatening to go elsewhere, etc because that would be silly.

I would just love to have an honest answer as to where this is going (if anywhere), or - truthfully - if you all have decided to not take our feedback, etc, as would be your prerogative. It sounds from your post that we might just be talking to ourselves in this thread (forgive me if I'm understanding it wrong) ... just please let us know if that's true so we don't get the feeling that we are just wasting our time.


Thanks for all you do, and thanks in advance for clarification on our "involvement" in getting this feature changed (or not).

I second tink2020's comments.

 

[Friendly Frog]

So, and please do not take this as anything other than the question that it is, where should we address such concerns? I know I'm not alone in wondering if things are ever going to function even remotely close to how they did in "the good old days" , so is there a place other than this that we might find those answers? Is there a way to let someone (and who?) know that we are really frustrated by the (lack of) search function?

In my opinion, and again I'm not being snotty or sarcastic, I'd rather just know if that's never going to happen. If it isn't, then I'll just move on. Goodness knows I still appreciate this board, and use it for many things -- just maybe not as much as I used to when it was a bit more user friendly -- and certainly not for the research tool for which it was intended. I'm not throwing a fit, or threatening to go elsewhere, etc because that would be silly.

I would just love to have an honest answer as to where this is going (if anywhere), or - truthfully - if you all have decided to not take our feedback, etc, as would be your prerogative. It sounds from your post that we might just be talking to ourselves in this thread (forgive me if I'm understanding it wrong) ... just please let us know if that's true so we don't get the feeling that we are just wasting our time.


Thanks for all you do, and thanks in advance for clarification on our "involvement" in getting this feature changed (or not).

I think you did a great job describing how many of us feel.

 

[Dan Murphy]

How is the BT indexing going? Any progress report available? Any idea if skins other than the gold one will be available at some point?

 

[dpuck1998]

How is the BT indexing going? Any progress report available? Any idea if skins other than the gold one will be available at some point?

Still burning the candle for us Thanks Dan...keep up the good work!!

 

[BoardTracker]

How is the BT indexing going? Any progress report available? Any idea if skins other than the gold one will be available at some point?

More than 50% of Disboards data is indexed now (760K threads and 11M posts [http://v2.boardtracker.com/search/?...ch=site:disboards.com&cat=1&order=1&scope=4]). The rest is catching up all the time.
User based search is working find and as far as we know all past feature requested features are fulfilled. (if there are any let us know).
There are two issues we are focusing on (aside from completing the coverage of historical data)..
1) speed of search - to reduce the search time to sub-second searches.
2) non disboards issues that have no effect over the search here, but that delay the official BoardTracker version switch (and removing the "beta" status of the new version)

as for other skins, it is actually WebmasterAlex's decision now, but there is no problem setting the new search instead of the old one on all skins.

Let us know your thoughts..

 

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

Please let me & others now what is going on with thread notifications. I haven't received email notifications since last night & have checked all my settings.

TIA

 

[StitchfansJr]

Last time I checked the DIS profiles weren't working. =/

 

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

Please let me & others now what is going on with thread notifications. I haven't received email notifications since last night & have checked all my settings.

TIA

Still nothing! Updates please.

 

[safetymom]

In other cases when you change servers your internet provider has to recognize the new server. It may be your internet provider is slower at recognizing this new server. I have been getting my notifications.

 

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

In other cases when you change servers your internet provider has to recognize the new server. It may be your internet provider is slower at recognizing this new server. I have been getting my notifications.

How do I check if it is recognized or not?

 

[safetymom]

You would need to contact your ISP.