Search problems

[rbreding]

Has anyone noticed the following:

When searching (as example) for the following "amazon" under advanced search by title only the newest thread it can find is dated back to 2004. However when searching entire thread it pulls up the newest ones from that day (today). Both titles have the keyword that was searched for (amazon) however the title search only seems like it hasn't had a database index done or something.


Can someone confirm please ?


Search criteria:

Find threads with - At least 0 replies.
Find Posts from - Any Date and Newer
Sort Results by - Thread Start Date in Ascending Order
Show Results as - Threads
Search in Forum(s) - Search All Open Forums.

[rbreding]

I just did another search for "seagate" in the Hot Deals section and the newest it found was This One (http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=36442&t=212188&highlight=seagate)dated back to 3/10/2006


SOMETHING IS STILL FUBARR

[TKE96]

I just did another search for "seagate" in the Hot Deals section and the newest it found was This One (http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=36442&t=212188&highlight=seagate)dated back to 3/10/2006


SOMETHING IS STILL FUBARR
Got the same issues tonight.

Wish this wasn't happening.

[slickdeals]

After playing with the new search engine for a bit, I found out that it only supports sorting by relevancy and last post date. The other sorting options have to be removed as it's not giving correct results. VB's searching engine works with sorting but since it is such a server hog, we'll be keeping the current one.

[Killerz]

After playing with the new search engine for a bit, I found out that it only supports sorting by relevancy and last post date. The other sorting options have to be removed as it's not giving correct results. VB's searching engine works with sorting but since it is such a server hog, we'll be keeping the current one.
This is quite disappointing. I LIVED for sort by thread start date. The current state of the search the past few weeks has been horrible. There has to be something else that can be done. I'm sorry I don't have any suggestions as I am not knowledgeable about this programming game but I just can't keep from feeling that we are missing some solution. Is there no other less server intensive way to get some decent working search functions? What changed from not even a year ago to now that has made the search stop working? Not only does this make using the forums much less effective and efficient, it also causes a severe repost problem as people aren't even attempting to use the search anymore causing more server and moderator strain.

Were the options in the situations I mentioned below supposed to be removed as well as I am getting incorrect results when using them?

I was in hot deals form and went to the bottom of the page. When you sort by number of replies, or rating or number of views and then set a date range to search, it uses the LAST POST date in the search and not the THREAD START date. So say I was out of town for the weekend and I want to find the highest rated threads from the last 2 days. I would think all I have to do is select sort by thread rating for last two days but the results (http://forums.slickdeals.net/forumdisplay.php?s=&f=9&page=1&pp=80&sort=voteavg&order=desc&daysprune=2)I get are all threads (no matter how old) which have new posts in the past 2 days which IMO is dumb because what do I care how high a post from 3 months ago was rated. How does that help me? Anyone else feel this way and if so can it be changed to thread start date?

I tried to work around this but couldn't. This is what I tried to get the end result I was looking for by doing the first search directly. Hot deals form went to the bottom and sorted by thread start date from the last day or whatever time period. Lets do last day for example. The results come up like this (http://forums.slickdeals.net/forumdisplay.php?s=&f=9&page=1&pp=80&sort=threadstarted&order=desc&daysprune=1) which if you go to the later pages you see it is bringing in threads started far outside 1 day starting on the 4th page (http://forums.slickdeals.net/forumdisplay.php?f=9&page=4&pp=80&sort=threadstarted&order=desc&daysprune=1). Now even though at least in the beginning I have the most recent threads in order from the date range I was looking for. However, now I can't even click the button on the top of the rating column to resort THESE RESULTS to get to what I wanted in the first place which was highest rated threads from past 2 days because of the 3.5 pages of results from my first search which were outside the requested range.

[slickdeals]

This is quite disappointing. I LIVED for sort by thread start date. The current state of the search the past few weeks has been horrible. There has to be something else that can be done. I'm sorry I don't have any suggestions as I am not knowledgeable about this programming game but I just can't keep from feeling that we are missing some solution. Is there no other less server intensive way to get some decent working search functions? What changed from not even a year ago to now that has made the search stop working? Not only does this make using the forums much less effective and efficient, it also causes a severe repost problem as people aren't even attempting to use the search anymore causing more server and moderator strain.


IMHO, search is working much better. The deals I have searched for always appeared in the first page of the results. Most importantly, the results show up in under 1 second vs VB's server crashing search taking 30+ seconds. The database just can't handle the 100 million records created by VB's search index. It's nice to have sorting options but it wasn't worth it when the search goes down during semi-peak times. What have you searched for that doesn't come up in the results?

Were the options in the situations I mentioned below supposed to be removed as well as I am getting incorrect results when using them?

I was in hot deals form and went to the bottom of the page. When you sort by number of replies, or rating or number of views and then set a date range to search, it uses the LAST POST date in the search and not the THREAD START date. So say I was out of town for the weekend and I want to find the highest rated threads from the last 2 days. I would think all I have to do is select sort by thread rating for last two days but the results (http://forums.slickdeals.net/forumdisplay.php?s=&f=9&page=1&pp=80&sort=voteavg&order=desc&daysprune=2)I get are all threads (no matter how old) which have new posts in the past 2 days which IMO is dumb because what do I care how high a post from 3 months ago was rated. How does that help me? Anyone else feel this way and if so can it be changed to thread start date?

I tried to work around this but couldn't. This is what I tried to get the end result I was looking for by doing the first search directly. Hot deals form went to the bottom and sorted by thread start date from the last day or whatever time period. Lets do last day for example. The results come up like this (http://forums.slickdeals.net/forumdisplay.php?s=&f=9&page=1&pp=80&sort=threadstarted&order=desc&daysprune=1) which if you go to the later pages you see it is bringing in threads started far outside 1 day starting on the 4th page (http://forums.slickdeals.net/forumdisplay.php?f=9&page=4&pp=80&sort=threadstarted&order=desc&daysprune=1). Now even though at least in the beginning I have the most recent threads in order from the date range I was looking for. However, now I can't even click the button on the top of the rating column to resort THESE RESULTS to get to what I wanted in the first place which was highest rated threads from past 2 days because of the 3.5 pages of results from my first search which were outside the requested range.
The date filters work on the last post date rather than thread start date as you observed. Nothing has changed from default. Your argument for sorting via thread start date makes sense. I wouldn't make it the default since VB has last post date virtually ingrained in the code base. I will have to take a look at sorting by rating & filtering via thread post date combo since the results are more usable.

[rbreding]

Search is still broken.

Searching by the following:

Keyword: seagate
Search titles only
Find Posts from "Any Date and Newer"
Sort by "Relevancy in ascending order"
Show results as "Threads"
Search in forums "Search all Open Forums"

The newest post returned is this one dated 12-30-2005 (http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=36442&t=176771&highlight=seagate)


Narrowing that down to:

Search in forums "The Deals"

Newest thread (http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=36442&t=211994&highlight=seagate) dated 3-10-2006



So that being said....search continues to be worthless. How hard can this be to return accurate results ???? Am I doing something wrong ??????

[slickdeals]

Why in the world would you search a very common term and sort relevancy in ascending order? When you do that, the least relevant threads are on the top of the list and the most relevant and likely to be recent threads get pushed to the bottom. Since there is a limit on the # of results returned, it doesn't get into the results.

[Killerz]

What have you searched for that doesn't come up in the results?
Its not really a matter of not coming up in the results as it is the difficulty in finding what I am looking for. Take this example. It just so happens that my hard drive just crapped out on me. I am now in the market for another hard drive and really don't have the time (or just don't want to) sit around and wait for a new deal to come around. So what I USED to do is go to slickdeals, do a search for lets say seagate and sort by thread start date. This way, within the first page (I have it set to show the maximum threads per page) I have absolutely ALL the most recent deals on seagates. Is there another way to go about this that I am missing?

What happens now is when I get the results and find a good deal I am not certain that I am seeing ALL the best deals. So say I do a search now and I come across a Seagate deal, there is no way for me to know if this is currently the best deal out there because the search results are completely out of order and the deal I am looking at could have been bested by a new deal which I would have to go through all the pages checking dates to find. This is just one situation in which the old search function was quite helpful.

I understand that if you aren't able to have this feature then that is that and the sever crashing is not an option. I just don't understand why they would make it so such an obviously helpful feature would be that difficult to implement efficiently. Is the forum software just not written to handle this many records? Is there a way that you can implement the sort feature but limit it to just the last week or the last month. That is all that is really needed anyway. Would this speed things up and prevent crashing?

[rbreding]

Why in the world would you sort relevancy in ascending order? When you do that the least relevant threads are on the top of the list. The recent threads never get displayed because there is a limit on the # of results returned.


Not sure why I got the notification of the post above but come here and the post isn't there....but I will respond to it anyways.


IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT ORDER it is searched in....the results still come up the same...ascending/descending....the oldest is still listed first.


IT IS BROKEN.....Search with my parameters and you will see.

[slickdeals]

Not sure why I got the notification of the post above but come here and the post isn't there....but I will respond to it anyways.


IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT ORDER it is searched in....the results still come up the same...ascending/descending....the oldest is still listed first.


IT IS BROKEN.....Search with my parameters and you will see.
I deleted the post after seeing that you're correct. I forgot to set the in title only option which breaks it. I'll take a look at it but don't hold your breath. In the mean time, you can use sort by last post or don't use title only + relevancy sorting. Anything else broken?

[random.]

Not sure why I got the notification of the post above but come here and the post isn't there....but I will respond to it anyways.


IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT ORDER it is searched in....the results still come up the same...ascending/descending....the oldest is still listed first.


IT IS BROKEN.....Search with my parameters and you will see.
No need for yelling. I'm sorry your getting so fustrated but caps lock doesn't get your point across any better than typing normally.
If it's fixable, it will eventually be fixed, it probably just takes some effort.

[rbreding]

No need for yelling. I'm sorry your getting so fustrated but caps lock doesn't get your point across any better than typing normally.
If it's fixable, it will eventually be fixed, it probably just takes some effort.

Lady....both my post have exactly the same problem with the search function with the same input AND with the same results WITH more than 1 weeks time difference. So WHAT would you have me do differently to get the point across that whatever is wrong is STILL wrong even though I had been asked a question that was obvious, was found to be obvious, was deleted, instead of just saying:

"EDIT: Wait, you are right its broken, sorry for the comment, and we are working on it."



So unless you have something to add to this thread that provides some help in fixing the search problem then making comments about MY CAPS LOCK is useless.

:)

[random.]

Lady....both my post have exactly the same problem with the search function with the same input AND with the same results WITH more than 1 weeks time difference. So WHAT would you have me do differently to get the point across that whatever is wrong is STILL wrong even though I had been asked a question that was obvious, was found to be obvious, was deleted, instead of just saying:

"EDIT: Wait, you are right its broken, sorry for the comment, and we are working on it."



So unless you have something to add to this thread that provides some help in fixing the search problem then making comments about MY CAPS LOCK is useless.

:)
:shake:

[Landers]

Lady....both my post have exactly the same problem with the search function with the same input AND with the same results WITH more than 1 weeks time difference. So WHAT would you have me do differently to get the point across that whatever is wrong is STILL wrong even though I had been asked a question that was obvious, was found to be obvious, was deleted, instead of just saying:

"EDIT: Wait, you are right its broken, sorry for the comment, and we are working on it."



So unless you have something to add to this thread that provides some help in fixing the search problem then making comments about MY CAPS LOCK is useless.

:)
I wouldn't say calling her "Lady" is gonna get you anywhere. Get off your high horse. Sure the search is a POS every once in a while. Doesn't mean ya have to be a prick to other users, particularly Melissa. It seems that she has contributed more to this forum since June that you have in almost 2 years. So back down.

[rbreding]

I wouldn't say calling her "Lady" is gonna get you anywhere. Get off your high horse. Sure the search is a POS every once in a while. Doesn't mean ya have to be a prick to other users, particularly Melissa. It seems that she has contributed more to this forum since June that you have in almost 2 years. So back down.

Nice to meet ya....so you fixed the search problems ?

[Killerz]

Nice to meet ya....so you fixed the search problems ?
HAHAHAAHAH loves it! :lmao:

[Landers]

Nice to meet ya....so you fixed the search problems ?
Oh yeah.. Me and Mr. SD go waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy back, he lets me screw around with the PHP code and see what I can do.. :rolleyes:

[random.]

I wouldn't say calling her "Lady" is gonna get you anywhere. Get off your high horse. Sure the search is a POS every once in a while. Doesn't mean ya have to be a prick to other users, particularly Melissa. It seems that she has contributed more to this forum since June that you have in almost 2 years. So back down.
:hug:
:)


I just don't really get why they are complaining- SD is a free website, with a search function that works most of the time. If it's free, you really can't complain and you especially can't be rude about it. It works well enough.

[rbreding]

I wouldn't call it "FREE". It is subsidized from the ad revenue and click through revenue, otherwise the likelyhood of it being that big of deal when people have to pay for the "membership" is next to nil.

[random.]

I wouldn't call it "FREE". It is subsidized from the ad revenue and click through revenue, otherwise the likelyhood of it being that big of deal when people have to pay for the "membership" is next to nil.
It's free to you.
That was a completely petty and lame arguement, btw.

[random.]

Wow. I just skimmed over your last 15ish posts... Not one of them is helpful of even borderline kind.
I get that you are fustrated and that something about this search function not working bugs the hell out of you, but do you really get enjoyment out of basically being a rude person?
That really is said in a kind voice, btw. I'm not trying to be harsh or an ass.

[rbreding]

It's free to you.
That was a completely petty and lame arguement, btw.


Its not petty or lame....its the truth.


Oh....and if you are done harassing me, can you go fix the search problem please.

[random.]

Its not petty or lame....its the truth.


Oh....and if you are done harassing me, can you go fix the search problem please.
I am done "harassing" you. I hope whatever is bothering you (aside from the search engine) gets fixed and that you go on having a happy life.
:)

[Landers]

I am done "harassing" you. I hope whatever is bothering you (aside from the search engine) gets fixed and that you go on having a happy life.
:)
:iagree: Don't expect help from other people if you're gonna be a prick. This should have been PMed to Mr. SD anyway.

[rbreding]

Oh lord....someone PM me once the search is fixed....I am turning notification off on this thread.


:cool:

[slickdeals]

Sorting by thread start date is back. Sorting by relevancy in descending order + in title also works.

[Killerz]

Sorting by thread start date is back. Sorting by relevancy in descending order + in title also works.
You are truely the king! I hope it doesn't cause any problems with the site/server. It really is a necessary feature IMO. :clap: :worship:

Now whenever you get a chance, please remember to change the sort by thread rating and views, etc... to use thread start date instead of last post date and if this all actually WORKS we are back in business!!!

[Killerz]

Sort by thread start is working perfectly now! Wooohoooo!

Any ETA on when the sort by thread rating and views, etc... to use thread start date instead of last post date will be updated?

[bokey]

Crap.Using the search function to find out why the search sucks so bad only gets threads about how bad the search sucks.

[kenanr]

some search terms show no results now..... try "core 2 duo" or "7200.10" (as in the wildly popular seagate drives). No results in the Hot Deals forum..... something is amiss with the new search.

[random.]

some search terms show no results now..... try "core 2 duo" or "7200.10" (as in the wildly popular seagate drives). No results in the Hot Deals forum..... something is amiss with the new search.
Maybe it has something to do with numbers- if I remove the 2 from core 2 duo, a bunch of results come back.

[kenanr]

Yes, numbers seems to be problematic......

[XXnarg]

I've been trying to follow-up on some tech support issues and have tried to use search to find the relevant posts.

However, when I search on user = Xnarg, I find none of my posts in Tech Support in the last three weeks.

Of, if I search just on user = Xnarg, I see only three posts total in all sections since 12-31, which I know is not correct.

[random.]

I've been trying to follow-up on some tech support issues and have tried to use search to find the relevant posts.

However, when I search on user = Xnarg, I find none of my posts in Tech Support in the last three weeks.

Of, if I search just on user = Xnarg, I see only three posts total in all sections since 12-31, which I know is not correct.
:dontknow: When I search for your posts in tech support, it shows 500 of them.
25 of those being from 01-05-2007, 06:42 AM or newer.

[XXnarg]

:dontknow: When I search for your posts in tech support, it shows 500 of them.
25 of those being from 01-05-2007, 06:42 AM or newer.The first attached image SDSearch.gif is a screenshot of the results when I search on user = Xnarg, selecting the Tech Support forum, sorted in descending order by date, with no other criteria. I'm seeing only a couple of posts in the last two months.

The second image SDSearchXnarg.gif is when I search on User = Xnarg, with no other criteria. I see only 3 posts in the last 10 days.

[random.]

That's so weird. Hopefully someone who knows what they are talking about will come along and figure it out for you, because it still shows me a whole bunch of your newer posts.

[Killerz]

Cant help you with this one. I too see many recent posts by you when searching and search NEVER works for me lolol

[slickdeals]

The first attached image SDSearch.gif is a screenshot of the results when I search on user = Xnarg, selecting the Tech Support forum, sorted in descending order by date, with no other criteria. I'm seeing only a couple of posts in the last two months.

The second image SDSearchXnarg.gif is when I search on User = Xnarg, with no other criteria. I see only 3 posts in the last 10 days.
I cannot duplicate your search results. It might be something specific with your account, maybe preferences in your UserCP?

[XXnarg]

I cannot duplicate your search results. It might be something specific with your account, maybe preferences in your UserCP?We've exchanged PMs. Thanks for fixing this, it's working well now, and I'm sure the forum fix you implemented will prevent others from encountering the same situation. :worship:

[Killerz]

We've exchanged PMs. Thanks for fixing this, it's working well now, and I'm sure the forum fix you implemented will prevent others from encountering the same situation. :worship:
What was the problem?