I just posted to a couple of threads, and not only do those threads not show up when I do a vanity search (for follow up), they are nowhere to be found on the “New Posts” list.
I though the search function in any application was a steady-state thing…the condition you ask for is either met, or it is not.
This is very clearly not the case with the search function here, which leads me to believe that this message board as a whole may be unreliable.
Of course, I don’t get my knickers twisted just because of a stupid thread I can’t pull up on a search, but isn’t the fact that the function doesn’t “function” properly indicative of some technical problems?
I thought the definition of a vanity search as to search for mentions of your name. In your case that type of search works. But I’m not sure about the new posts thing.
I tried looking up a year old pit thread on wasps. The title had the word wasp in it.
No hits.
Okay, maybe I misspelled wasp. Retype, being VERY careful to spell W A S P
No hits
Redid again, checking the post date pull down as ANY DATE. Triple checked everything.
No hits.
Pulled up and scrolled through my subscribed threads til I found it. Guess what? WASP was in the thread title. It was in the Pit. It was one year ago. Simple four letter word. Search couldn’t find it. Similar things have happened to me on other searches. Like not finding a thread or post on one word, but finding it another and then noticing my first searched for word was clearly there. ARGH!
Other times, though, it works just fine. What in THE hell could cause the problems? (Besides the OBVIOUS 3 letters or less, blocked out words, wrong instructions, etc… I’ve been here plenty long enough to know how to search correctly.)
I have very limited comprehension of this, but my understanding was that the realm of the search function was not updated continuously, but only daily or every X hours. However, I will call this to the attention of them that knows.
No Clue Boy, you searched on “wasp” and got nada. Search on “wasp*” and you will find lots of hits. Note that a search on “wasp” will not give you titles that have the word “wasps” in them. Nor, apparently, even a title with “wasp/hornet”. The search is a literal one, it looks for exactly what you typed. The asterisk is a place-holder that will broaden the search, so that “wasp*” would find “waspish” and “wasps” and “waspegon” and whatever else.
Whoops, sorry, No Clue Boy, I guess I’m the one who’s clueless.
No Pit threads turned up with “wasp” in them, nor “wasp*”. I’ll put this into the hopper for someone knowledgabel to look at. Can you please post or email me a link to the thread in question, so we can see what’s up? (You’ve got around 500 posts in the Pit, and I don’t have the time to go scrollilng through page after page to find the one you’re not getting.)
FTR, that wasn’t the first time this has happened to me, just the first that happened while someone had a current thread about search problems. Sorry, I can’t remember the other searched for words that failed, but it seems to happen more and more lately.
Occasionally, when I search for a new post I will have to change the default search window from ‘one week and newer’ to ‘yesterday and newer’ and then the new post(s) will show up. Not sure why, but it always seems to work.
So, if I want to find the threads that I posted to yesterday and today (anything short of 24 hours) I narrow the search to exclude everything before that time.
Or cut and paste.
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The Search Function Doesn’t
An Arky Today 03:34 PM
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*
Now, apparently that didn’t pick up all of your posts today either… screwey.
When I used the default week option it found 12 posts by an arky today and all the ones listed using the yesterday option are in the week opted search, Hmm.
What I do find is that if the search misses it using the week and newer default it will find it when using the yesterday and newer option.
I usually end up doing two searches which causes more strain on the server I’m sure.
On more than one occasion I’ve searched for posts I know that I’ve made and couldn’t find them by key word/author/forum combos. I’ve had to just break down and search through every post I’ve made within certain time frames.
I second the finding that the search function is only partially functional.
I hope the tech gurus can get the search fixed, because it is horribly frustrating. A couple of days ago, like NCB, I tried to find a thread; I was certain about the title and the forum, yet was unable to find it by any combination of parameters.