Currently advanced search functions are not available.
This is part of the list of issues already but I am not certain it was deemed worth including with the new forums due to how little the old search function was used in vB.
It's def worth including, of course people want it. Every forum needs a good search feature. The old forum search was handicapped, thats why it was used less. But it DID offer advanced search. The whole promise for the new forum was improved functionality, so please add it to the list. Otherwise we are moving backwards.
In the mean time, use the Google search. I never relied on the old search, unless I was looking for a certain poster.
Basic Stamp flamethrower site:forums.parallax.com
Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say No at will to Forum search!
Because it never worked in the part makes NOW the PERFECT time to fix it in this promising, fancy new forum.
Don't worry, you guys will thank me when it's fixed.
My observation that search has never worked on any forum or other site is, I believe, generally true. Yes, I'm sure one can find counter examples somewhere.
As a naive beginner in web development back in 1998 or so I wondered why such an obviously simple thing is so hard.
Turns out that if you stuff all your posts and whatever other text into a SQL database it's damn hard to find anything in it given a few random search terms or key words. SQL databases are really good if you already know exactly what you are looking for.
Over the years people have tried to address this problems by adding "categories" or "tags" or other meta data that users can add to their input and can then be put into SQL tables and then used to refine search results. It's all a hack around the limitations of the relational data bases used.
Some how you have to index each and every word ever posted. And then have nice quick way of combining and ordering all the results for the lookups for every word involved in a search query in a useful way.
Perhaps there are such free text search engines available now. Should Parallax waste time on implementing that?
Perhaps not. Google has this sorted already.
My observation that search has never worked on any forum or other site is, I believe, generally true. Yes, I'm sure one can find counter examples somewhere.These guys have it working great on VB with tons of search criteria. Yes, including tags. http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/search.php
I can't imagine why anyone would defend NOT having a great forum search tool. Inconceivable.
They haven't sorted half of it. If you're merely looking for a topic, then Google or Bing is the way to go. But if you want to narrow searches by post starter, or within a specific range, or a host of other criteria, you're out of luck. Once Google reindexes this forum, it will see all new pages -- because, well, they ARE new! PITA for limiting searches to just older content.
The ideal search uses a little of both. Google excels at matching keywords, so for those searches, rely on embedded Google search. The forum itself is better equipped to return nuance. Many forums work this way: generic searches go through Google; Advanced Search (there's a link to it) calls up the UI for specifying things like poster name, category, tag and how far to search back.
The fact that you can't (easily) do Boolean searches with forum search comes from lazy programming, not anything inherent in forums. Parallax already has this as an issue. Alternate forms like "basic stamp", basic+stamp, and basic AND stamp don't seem to work. That's just poor coding. Blame the coder, not the platform.
Vanilla does support advanced search. I don't think it's enabled, though. How "advanced" it is, I don't know. I've never seen it in action.
Good point about Google search. A bit too general sometimes.
Oddly some time ago I made a very bad analogy involving a "baby mulcher". Despite that seeming like a very unlikely combination of words neither forum search of google site search can find it.
Edit: Trying again, I did find the baby mulcher from google. It's link goes to the wrong page in the thread that post appeared in though.
Odd.
erco
Posts: 20,254
Comments
This is part of the list of issues already but I am not certain it was deemed worth including with the new forums due to how little the old search function was used in vB.
Basic Stamp flamethrower site:forums.parallax.com
Thankfully Google fixed that for us.
Because it never worked in the part makes NOW the PERFECT time to fix it in this promising, fancy new forum.
Don't worry, you guys will thank me when it's fixed.
Passing ruffian here:
My observation that search has never worked on any forum or other site is, I believe, generally true. Yes, I'm sure one can find counter examples somewhere.
As a naive beginner in web development back in 1998 or so I wondered why such an obviously simple thing is so hard.
Turns out that if you stuff all your posts and whatever other text into a SQL database it's damn hard to find anything in it given a few random search terms or key words. SQL databases are really good if you already know exactly what you are looking for.
Over the years people have tried to address this problems by adding "categories" or "tags" or other meta data that users can add to their input and can then be put into SQL tables and then used to refine search results. It's all a hack around the limitations of the relational data bases used.
Some how you have to index each and every word ever posted. And then have nice quick way of combining and ordering all the results for the lookups for every word involved in a search query in a useful way.
Perhaps there are such free text search engines available now. Should Parallax waste time on implementing that?
Perhaps not. Google has this sorted already.
I can't imagine why anyone would defend NOT having a great forum search tool. Inconceivable.
I did say "I'm sure one could find counter examples"
Perhaps not. Google has this sorted already.
They haven't sorted half of it. If you're merely looking for a topic, then Google or Bing is the way to go. But if you want to narrow searches by post starter, or within a specific range, or a host of other criteria, you're out of luck. Once Google reindexes this forum, it will see all new pages -- because, well, they ARE new! PITA for limiting searches to just older content.
The ideal search uses a little of both. Google excels at matching keywords, so for those searches, rely on embedded Google search. The forum itself is better equipped to return nuance. Many forums work this way: generic searches go through Google; Advanced Search (there's a link to it) calls up the UI for specifying things like poster name, category, tag and how far to search back.
The fact that you can't (easily) do Boolean searches with forum search comes from lazy programming, not anything inherent in forums. Parallax already has this as an issue. Alternate forms like "basic stamp", basic+stamp, and basic AND stamp don't seem to work. That's just poor coding. Blame the coder, not the platform.
Vanilla does support advanced search. I don't think it's enabled, though. How "advanced" it is, I don't know. I've never seen it in action.
Oddly some time ago I made a very bad analogy involving a "baby mulcher". Despite that seeming like a very unlikely combination of words neither forum search of google site search can find it.
Edit: Trying again, I did find the baby mulcher from google. It's link goes to the wrong page in the thread that post appeared in though.
Odd.
Vanilla does support advanced search. I don't think it's enabled, though. How "advanced" it is, I don't know. I've never seen it in action.
Another potential first for Parallax. Flip the switch and turn it on, Jim! What could go wrong?