JDEList searching?

  • Thread starter brother_of_karamazov
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brother_of_karamazov

Legendary Poster
Is anyone else struggling with the search functionality in the new version on JDEList?

While the last version was not the best, it was workable. Now I can't find anything...or rather I find everything when doing a search now. I tried adding explicit boolean terms, using quotes, etc. but I haven't been able to get really good search results.
 
I guess the worse thing is that the BB engine here is not even Google friendly and it appears that the threads do not get indexed by Google.

A favorite method I use to search sites that do not have a high quality internal search engine is to use a Google search that limits the search to a certain site.
For example: micro$oft sux site:slashdot.org will return results from Slashdot that match the search string. The results will include the discussions and are very useful. Doing a similar search, omw site:jdelist.com does not return the number of results I would expect. I guess the Google site: method is out.

Has anyone kindly asked Eric if everything is alright with the new version's search function? If the site is not searchable, a lot more repeat questions get asked which leads to a bit of frustration.
 
Can you give me an example of a search that doesn't retrieve accurate results?

Thanks.
 
The search seems to be defaulting to a boolean "or" for every search. I tried specifying the boolean "and" but putting the word "and" in the query seems to return every post with the word "and" in it- not very useful. I also tried the "+" sign but got no better results.

For example, take a query with the terms: advance project. This will give you a result set of every post with either advance OR project in it- again, not very useful.

Also, is there any way to make the default query date range something other than searching for the last week's posts?

Eric, I am more than willing to help you out on this. Having run a community forum with a php-based package (Drupal), I am well aware of the challenges of what you do. Just let me know what you need and please understand that I hope my feedback is not percieved as overly critical but taken in the light of trying to improve this valuable community resource.
 
I see what you mean. Try: "advance project" or +advance +project.

We can change the default. What do you suggest?

Thanks for the offer. While I want to avoid customization if I can, I am certainly open to needed modification (like the mailing list!). I'll let you know. I appreciate the constructive criticism!
 
Oops - I though the original post was related to Knowledge Garden searching - not JDE List. I retract my comment.
 
"Oops - I though the original post was related to Knowledge Garden searching - not JDE List."


Hah! I had a feeling that you would never use that term in reference to our JDEList- you are one of the long-term guys who appreciates what Eric does.

The KG search does have its difficulties.
 
In regards to the default date range I would think that the most basic search someone wants to do includes ALL postings, therefore the default date range should be all inclusive and not mostly exclusive as it is now.

The default range of "newer than 1 week" exludes 99% of the posts and makes an additional step necessary- changing the date range to one that includes all posts. If there is any way to change the default date range I would change it to include all posts. You could probably set it to "newer than 10 years" to accomplish this.

The problem with the search still exists though, even if one uses the "+" sign since the "OR" is still assumed instead of the "AND" and will give a result set that includes (definitely because of the "+" sign) any of the terms. This is not exactly the expected result with a multi-term query. I'm just not sure what the answer is to this one though. I'll give it some thought and get back to you.

I appreciate your willingness to listen Eric.
 
Ahh, a quick Googling of teh Intarweb reveals:

http://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Number=35218&page=0&view=&sb=5&o=




- Entering 2 or more words WITH PLUS SIGNS will search with an AND operator. So entering +peanut +butter will search for posts that contain peanut AND butter but they do NOT have to be together.

In most search engines the "+" serves the function of ensuring that a term appears in the result set. I guess on UBBThreads things are different.
 
I tried +advance +project again and from what I can tell, it works correctly. advance AND project appear in the resulting posts that I viewed (I didn't view all of them). Not so?

Eric (in Atlanta)
 
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