Search date too specific

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1

Unless I’m losing my mind, it seems that the indexing of the server leads to somewhat incorrect search results based on date.

An example, to demonstrate what I mean:
I did a search on User name: Thinksnow, last week and newer, all forums.

It dutifully returned threads I’d posted to in the last week. Great, right? Job done and everyone is happy, right?

Nope.

See, I noticed that the “What if the LOTR…” thread is still up, on the first page of C.S., actually, and I had posted to that a few times, months ago to be sure, but it was not listed in the search results. I had noticed this before, but it never really clicked until recently.

It seems to me that the indexing creates a situation where threads that are current, that you might have posted to or have keywords you list, will fail to return in a search because the date of posting for that entry is outside the boundaries/parameters of the search.

To say again, stated a different way: if you are searching for “Gecko” and you know for certain that someone mentioned one in a thread that you see on the first page of MPSIMS and you do a “since yesterday” search on it, you will only get a hit if that gecko-post was made/submitted in the last day. If it was submitted two days ago, or a week ago or if it is a resurrected thread and gecko was mentioned two years ago, you won’t find it.

Mind you, being aware of this, I changed my search parameters, but it leads to much more resource-intensive searches, including 1-year windows or yesterday & older windows.

What’s up with this.

2

What’s up is, if I read you aright, is that the search mechanism is doing exactly as advertised. If you search on username Gecko for “all posts from last week and newer” it will give you places where Gecko posted in the last week and newer.

It doesn’t say “all threads that Gecko may have ever posted to, to which someone else has posted in the last week.” It says, “all posts” from Gecko, and that’s what it gives.

If you want to search for all threads to which you have ever ever posted, to see if anything new has happened to them, then you need to set the time frame way far back.

If you want to search for all the posts that Gecko has made in the last month, then you set the time frame for the last month.

Seems to me, it’s doing just what it advertises, unless I’m mis-reading you?

3

PS - I think that if you want to keep track of any thread to which you have ever posted, it may be easier to “subscribe” to the threads rather than search. I will let some who are technically more versed than I (which would be 99.93% of members) to respond more correctly.

4

Sorry, perhaps I mis-spoke- I meant “gecko” as a keyword, not user. Either way, though, you, and I for that matter, are stating it correctly and while that is technically correct to the exact letter of the search parameters, the engine used to work differently.

The engine used to pull a keyword or user name if it appeared in a thread that was active within the timeframe detailed in the search parameters, whether or not the specific post contianing said keyword/user name was so dated or not.

And, since you mentioned it, I was not aware of the “subscribe” feature and will take an interest in determining its use, however I fail to see how that would aid in a search for keywords or user names that happen to be contained within posts strictly outside the bounds of the search parameters, while the thread itself is with the parameters. It’s somewhat disconcerting to see a thread that you know contains a fact/detail/name/user on the first page after having repeatedly failed to find it in a dated search.

Don’t get me wrong, please, I certainly appreciate the trade off of functiionality the new software has offered and the increased (overall) speed we enjoy from its use, I’m just crossing i’s and dotting t’s.

5

In checking the faq, it seems that thread subscription is nothing more than the trusty email notification option. Interesting, but seemingly nothing new.

6

Thinkson is right to a point.

Prior to the last upgrade a search would return any thread that was active in your timeframe with your search string regardless of wether your string appeared in your time frame.

For example. If in 2001 someone started a thread with the word ‘blorfoodle’ in the OP. Then there was a brief discussion surrounding it. Then in 2003 someone bumped it without using the word ‘blorfoodle’ then a search on ‘blorfoodle’ would turn up that thread.

But now it won’t unless the word is used within the time frame.

I noticed this after the last upgrade and moved on. No biggie. But the search function definitely changed.