than a disabled search feature?
Of course the ideal situation would be minimum downtime AND a functional search, but if I could only have one I’d rather have search. SEARCH stands beside Elizabeth Montgomery, my Amazon Prime membership, PharMorr $.69 movie rentals, and U.S. History View Master reels among things I never realized how much they meant to me til they were no longer there.
Oh god yes.
It feels like being sent to the corner or something.
Yep, I want the search and more than willing to trade off on downtime to have it. At least re-instate the new post search function.
Amen.
Absolutely yes.
I said this before:
Time outs = 
Disabled search = :mad:
Count me in. I’m never really bothered by down time. I expect it on all the systems I work with–things happen. Scheduled down time is even more acceptable. I do like “full functionality” when the system is operating.
I’m old, my memory is failing, I really really need the Search Function.
Oh yes. I would definitely rather have downtime than a disabled search function.
(Out of curiosity, why does the search have to run off the same database? A mirrored DB updated overnight could give search for content posted up to the last 24 hours without hitting the main boards.)
I donno. It goes down but not that much.
On the other hand, I rarely use the search function. Can’t post to zombie threads anyway…
I run a gov web site that has it’s problems too. It can be rock solid for months, and then go down every day for a week. Not to make excuses, but thats from our network provider. Our only choice for high speed at this time. Wireless. Long distance. Mountain weather conditions. 2+2 = :mad:
We are getting a better network by the end of the month.
Yes. I came home yesterday and went directly to SDMB search, even before removing my coat. I was disoriented by my inability to find the link, until my eye wandered far enough to catch the announcement.
I felt so helpless. Impotent, even.
(We’d eaten at an unusually busy McDonald’s and had a conversation about McD’s being a trial-by-fire for young people entering the workforce, and I wanted to share the “Former McDonald’s Employees” thread from not too long ago.)
No search! Aaaargh!
I suspect this may fall into two camps: the people who spend all day here, posting posting posting, who are more interested in board speed than in functionality. And then those who come here less frequently, who use the search feature to hone in on what they want, or just look for things, or goof around.
Me, I’m in the second camp. I rarely post anymore, I find the lack of a search feature to be really, really, really annoying, and if given a choice, I’d take slower board (which, frankly, I can’t remember ever seeing happen to me so it’s a non-issue) over no search.
I also have to wonder if some of the recent perceived board speed improvements (haven’t seen them myself, the board is the same as always for me) come from less traffic rather than no search.
So short version: want search back.
The loss of the “New Posts” link has dramatically changed the way I use the boards. I would prefer the occasional outage to the loss of that function.
However, if it’s temporary (and they say it is)… I can make do. Permanently disabling search and new posts would probably eventually drive me away from the boards.
Not necessarily - some of us who spend all day here 
do so by using the ‘new posts’ search to keep track of the last few minutes or hours of replies.
“New Posts” is how I browse the board. I can go for months without clicking on actual forum titles. Well, used to could.
I used Advanced Search to bring up old threads to cite in replies. Can’t do that any more.
No search is marginally better than turning the threads into scrolling RSS feeds that you have to read six words at a time as they scroll by. It’s definitely a big improvement over having the posts you wish to read sent to you in hexacecimal or binary scribbled on a napkin and tied to the leg of a pigeon. I would hesitate to say it’s the worst possible development on the board, since things could always get worse.
Don’t like it though. I hope no one at Reader or Loafing is thinking “OK, killing search addressed the performance problem, so we’ll just leave it that way”
I would rather have search with occasional downtime.
I very rarely use the search function and didn’t even notice it was missing until I read a comment about someone not being able to search and also noticed that said poster was not a guest. A quick trip to ATMB was what finally helped me to hone in on the poster’s quandary. I’ve really enjoyed the lack of down time since search has been disabled, but I also acknowledge that most people want the search back and am more than willing to yield do the masses.
I don’t search very much. I can see how it’d be useful to have it…if that’s how you surfed the Dope. I don’t see why it has to be an “either or” proposition. Why can’t it be both? Aren’t less successful messageboards equipped with both?
What everybody else said. How am I supposed to keep track of the threads I’ve responded to?
Absolutely. I don’t subscribe to threads, I search for my name! I’m sure I’ve lost tons of threads I was participating in or even started (I had almost forgotten people were helping me with my kitchen!) and I’ve come entirely unhinged from the community. I’m definitely participating less. Although maybe that’s the pan.
If they have both, how can they be “less successful”?