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Forum Search Engine Issues (2018 Onward)

EnolaGaia said:
Just for the record ...

(1) Were you using the "Search titles only" option?

(2) Were you correct in believing the 6 / 7 letter word was actually in the title - as a discrete word?
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Yes, on both counts, so it was doubly frustrating. I do concede that the search function works better than it used to, but from time to time, it seems to miss the obvious. I wish I could recall exactly what it was that I'd been looking for, but I can't!
 
Peripart said:
Yes, on both counts, so it was doubly frustrating. I do concede that the search function works better than it used to, but from time to time, it seems to miss the obvious. I wish I could recall exactly what it was that I'd been looking for, but I can't!
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With you on that. Even though I've been here nearly from the start and know a lot of what we've covered, I sometimes search for threads that I know we have but can't find them.

As life is too short to try every combination my item then gets plonked in the next-nearest thread I can find.

Searching for a word in one's own posts often helps, as suggested earlier.
 
I tried to find the RIP thread a while ago, I could get many threads with the word 'the' and 'thread' in the title but not RIP. So I tried R.I.P. but apparently these letters were too short or common to search on. Easy if you search on 'Rest in Peace' but that's a lot like needing to know how to spell a word before you can look it up in a dictionary.
Yes there are 30,000 threads and over a million posts and no I cannot provide a better search algorithm.
 
Bad Bungle said:
I tried to find the RIP thread a while ago, I could get many threads with the word 'the' and 'thread' in the title but not RIP. So I tried R.I.P. but apparently these letters were too short or common to search on. Easy if you search on 'Rest in Peace' but that's a lot like needing to know how to spell a word before you can look it up in a dictionary.
Yes there are 30,000 threads and over a million posts and no I cannot provide a better search algorithm.
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The trick with that one is to remember that it comes under 'News' and is stickied.

Which of course does not help with the search problem at all.
 
Can you search for a phrase instead of individual words - like put punctuation marks around it or summat ?
Secondly, how do you signpost an earlier post, like with a phrase "click here" and you're taken to that post ?
Sorry, this should under Notes & Queries but I'm tired.
 
Bad Bungle said:
I tried to find the RIP thread a while ago, I could get many threads with the word 'the' and 'thread' in the title but not RIP. So I tried R.I.P. but apparently these letters were too short or common to search on. Easy if you search on 'Rest in Peace' but that's a lot like needing to know how to spell a word before you can look it up in a dictionary. ...
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That's a good example of the operational limitations. The search database is limited to indexing items of more than 3 letters' length, and punctuation marks don't count at all.

Some time back I added the redundant "Rest In Peace" bit to that thread's title so as to provide a handle for locating it via a search.
 
Bad Bungle said:
Can you search for a phrase instead of individual words - like put punctuation marks around it or summat ?
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Yes ... Enter the phrase within quotation marks (" ---- -- -----") and the search will return matches on that exact text string. These matches will come from both posts and threads (i.e., thread titles). If you only wish to search titles be sure to select the "Search titles only" check box.
 
This is also a classic case of where you know proper nouns to search for.

Browse to MAINSTREAM NEWS. Enter a famous non-Fortean death (Murray Walker, for instance) and search 'This Forum' (not 'Everywhere').

Want a bigfoot thread? Search for Gimlin in CRYPTOZOOLOGY.

Need Mothman? Search Keel, etc.
 
Bad Bungle said:
... Secondly, how do you signpost an earlier post, like with a phrase "click here" and you're taken to that post ? ...
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The 'bookmark' feature is the way to mark and index a given post for future reference (and navigation). To use it:

Click on the 'bookmark' icon in the upper right / header bar on any post.
Bookmark-Illo.jpg

To navigate back to that bookmarked post, click on your username at the top of any forum page, then select the Bookmarks tab at the top of the drop-down menu. This will present a list of your bookmarks. Select and click on a bookmark, and you will be taken to the associated post.
 
Yithian said:
Browse to (a given forum) ... and search 'This Forum' (not 'Everywhere').
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Right ...

The basic drop-down Search feature at the top of every forum page offers choices for the range / scope of the search, depending on where you are within the forum structure when you invoke it.

If you invoke it on the overall home / entry page your only choice is to search the entire site.

If you invoke it on the listing page for a given forum (e.g., Ufology) you can choose to limit the search to that forum alone. Otherwise it will search the entire site by default.

If you invoke it within a thread you can choose to limit the search to the thread you're currently viewing, the forum within which the thread is located or the entire site. The default setting is to search the entire site (i.e., 'Everywhere').
 
Analogue Boy said:
The search function doesn’t work. I’ve tried a few times lately with no success. I have to go through my own messages to find the relevant thread.

On the other points, pardon me for contributing. I’ll be far less inclined to post now.
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Rynner came up with a better and faster solution to this board's search function .. so instead use something like Google (he didn't like Google ... he used a different search engine that I can't remember the name of) .. so just go on and type in eg: Forteana forum bigfoot and that gets you to what you remember and are hoping to re find faster. I've often used his technique.
 
Swifty said:
Rynner came up with a better and faster solution to this board's search function .. so instead use something like Google (he didn't like Google ... he used a different search engine that I can't remember the name of) .. so just go on and type in eg: Forteana forum bigfoot and that gets you to what you remember and are hoping to re find faster. I've often used his technique.
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DuckDuckGo.

Edit: Link here: https://duckduckgo.com/
 
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flannel said:
I tried searching for 404 but it gave no results - it should have found this thread.
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It shouldn't / couldn't have returned a hit on "404."

The search engine can't recognize or search on key word entries consisting of only 3 or fewer characters.

The only way to even have a hope of getting a search hit on a key word of 3 or fewer characters is to search for the too-short word within a quoted phrase. The search engine can search both titles and post text for phrases enclosed in quotation marks.

However ...

If there's no character string within the quoted phrase containing 3 or more letters the search engine will not return any hits.

For example:

Searching on "FT 404" gets no hits, but searching on "code 404" returns two hits. "FT" is too short, but "code" contains the requisite 4 or more characters.

NOTE: The 3-character minimum doesn't apply to thread tags (Advanced Search ---> Search Tags), but the tag has to exist and be selected within the Search Tags entry to garner hits.
 
EnolaGaia said:
It shouldn't / couldn't have returned a hit on "404."

The search engine can't recognize or search on key word entries consisting of only 3 or fewer characters.

The only way to even have a hope of getting a search hit on a key word of 3 or fewer characters is to search for the too-short word within a quoted phrase. The search engine can search both titles and post text for phrases enclosed in quotation marks.

However ...

If there's no character string within the quoted phrase containing 3 or more letters the search engine will not return any hits.

For example:

Searching on "FT 404" gets no hits, but searching on "code 404" returns two hits. "FT" is too short, but "code" contains the requisite 4 or more characters.

NOTE: The 3-character minimum doesn't apply to thread tags (Advanced Search ---> Search Tags), but the tag has to exist and be selected within the Search Tags entry to garner hits.
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I've just turned up a lot of the same findings.

Might it help if we edit the titles of the threads on specific issues from, say, 'FT 404' to 'FT404'?

And will the SEARCH function recognise punctuation marks (because FT-404 looks better)?

Edit: the answer to the last question is no.
Edit 2: the rename with no space will work, the others will not.
 
How about changing the thread title to Issue 404 (eg) instead?

At least the word 'issue' is 5 characters long, and we don't need to specify that it is FT cos it is the FT board anyway.

Then if you search by 'issue' it will bring up all the issues.
 
You could consider adding a page where they're listed in numerical order.
 
flannel said:
You could consider adding a page where they're listed in numerical order.
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I'd like that, but I don't think we have a way of maintaining the order.

What we could do is get all the issue specific threads in a single sub-forum with the same title format so that members can sort ('filter') by title in alphabetical order:

For instance:

Screenshot 2021-04-19 at 12.30.46 AM.png
 
"FTNNN" is the format currently appearing on the magazine cover, so Yithian's suggested approach has the advantage of reflecting what's on the face of the magazine.
 
Mythopoeika said:
Did you get a '404 not found' error?
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No - he couldn't have received a 404 error for a failure on a dynamically created listing (as opposed to a failure to locate a static webpage).
 
Trevp666 said:
... and we don't need to specify that it is FT cos it is the FT board anyway.
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No, it's not. As agreed in 2018 this forum is no longer formally affiliated with Fortean Times magazine or its publisher, and the forum makes no claims of such affiliation.
 
EnolaGaia said:
this forum is no longer formally affiliated with Fortean Times
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Aaah yes, okay, I forgot that aspect of it, but I think everyone who comes to this place knows which magazine we are generally referring to if we mention (eg) FT 397.
I couldn't imagine (yes I could) anyone landing here and expecting to find articles from 'Farming Today'.
 
EnolaGaia said:
No - he couldn't have received a 404 error for a failure on a dynamically created listing (as opposed to a failure to locate a static webpage).
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Yes, I know that.
 
The Fortean Times Magazine section has been edited and reorganized to facilitate browsing and searching - especially searching for content concerning specific FT issues. The new structure for this forum section is as follows:

Fortean Times Magazine
(Contains a general FYI notice explaining the layout and hot links to the subsections)

Subsections:

FT - General Discussion, Subs, Submissions, Etc.
This subsection addresses the magazine overall - covering matters of subscription, making submissions, suggestions, comments, etc.

Particular Fortean Times Issues
This subsection contains threads addressing specific published issues. This is the place for reviews and discussions concerning magazine contents, organized by issue number.

The titles on threads dedicated to specific issues have been edited to consistently reflect the "FTXXX" format that the search engine can handle.
 
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