[repaired] Search forum bug?

Hey, I've increasingly been having trouble finding things by Search.. I'm sure I remember a post, I go look it up with Search, and I just cant find it back.

I've just blamed some increasing inability to search properly.. or just memory failure (mine). Often a post was just a little differently phrased than you remembered, and doesnt have that one word or name you were sure was in it.

But now I caught one. I was looking for a post that I knew Okie wrote about Romney. I used Search to find posts by Okie with the word Romney. The top result was from 30 December: this one. Nothing since.

Then I used the option of looking up Okie's most recent posts, and hopp!, there it was: Okie's post I was looking for. From 4 January. Which has the line, "Huckabee and McCain ganging up on Romney."

So why doesnt it show up in Search?

Same here - I was looking for the post in which Blatham referred to an article by Reza Aslan. Tried looking for posts by Blatham with aslan - got "No topics or posts met your search criteria".

But eventually I found the post through browsing his posts - it's here. And it's got the word "aslan".

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I've definitely had problems with searching, exactly the same kind of thing -- only I finally gave up on trying to find whatever it was. I was figuring it was just a glitch in my brain and not the site, but now that I see it's not just me... hmm.

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google might be an alternative way to search A2k...

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I noticed the ones that didn't show up through the Search option both contain links. Wonder if that's the reason? I've no idea why posts with links wouldn't show up -- could be a coincidence.

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Region Philbis wrote:

google might be an alternative way to search A2k...

Yeah but there's no chronology whatsoever... try looking for <nimh mccain> or something, you could get random stuff from five years all thrown together.

Plus, you cant look for a single post, so you get these pages with ten posts a piece where somewhere on the page, it'll have that post by okie with the word "romney"; or alternatively, it wont - it'll just have some post by or mentioning okie, and some other post mentioning romney. And on you go searching. Not very efficient.

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Hey! I think there could be a simple explanation.

It just struck me that both of those searches that didnt yield what I was looking for, even though the posts were there -- in both those cases, the last item that the Search query returned was from 29 or 30 December or so.

I realised when I just looked for posts mentioning "nimh", and the last result was from 30 December as well. So also from just before the new year.

So now I tried looking for posts with the word "bush". Last result: 30 December.

It doesnt find any items from 2008 Exclamation

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Hmmm..it would appear that our search engine is not aware that 2008 is happening!

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I don't know, but I'm sure 2008 isn't to blame. I just did a search for the last nimh post (looking for all posts by nimh in Forum Help) and it came right up.

If a word is being used as a part of a url (e. g.

Code:[URL=http://www.CNN.com]CNN[/URL]

), that word (whether it's in the title or in the url) doesn't necessarily come up. Don't know if that applies to what you were looking for.

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jespah wrote:

If a word is being used as a part of a url (e. g.
Code:[URL=http://www.CNN.com]CNN[/URL]
), that word (whether it's in the title or in the url) doesn't necessarily come up. Don't know if that applies to what you were looking for.

Nope, it doesnt, in either case.

jespah wrote:

I don't know, but I'm sure 2008 isn't to blame. I just did a search for the last nimh post (looking for all posts by nimh in Forum Help) and it came right up.

Yes - but now look for any single word. Dont search for author, leaving the keyword field blank; look for a keyword. Try a couple obvious ones.

Eg -if I type in the word "false", the last post in the results is Dec 30. More weirdly still, if I type in the word "true", or the word "being", I get "No topics or posts met your search criteria". Something's screwy.

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Search doesn't include 2008 - I've tried it with and without author [Walter Hinteler] and with one and two words.

And I do know that I wrote what I searched ... later than December 30 :wink:

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Walter Hinteler wrote:

Search doesn't include 2008 - I've tried it with and without author [Walter Hinteler] and with one and two words.

And I do know that I wrote what I searched ... later than December 30 :wink:

Search includes 2008 if I just enter your member name and leave the keyword area blank.

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TTH wrote:

Search includes 2008 if I just enter your member name and leave the keyword area blank.

Well, if that really is a very helpful search ...

(On the other hand, you get the same result when just clicking on that member's name)

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TTH wrote:

Search includes 2008 if I just enter your member name and leave the keyword area blank.

Yeah, we established that (see Jespah's post). The problem is if you enter a keyword (whether or not you add an author name as well).

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Walter Hinteler wrote:

TTH wrote:
Search includes 2008 if I just enter your member name and leave the keyword area blank.

Well, if that really is a very helpful search ...

(On the other hand, you get the same result when just clicking on that member's name)

It is helpful when I don't know where the member last posted to be able to click on their member name. I try not to use the search very often since I seem to have trouble with it. Thanks nimh, I didn't catch that Embarrassed

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Walter Hinteler wrote:

TTH wrote:
Search includes 2008 if I just enter your member name and leave the keyword area blank.

Well, if that really is a very helpful search ...

Oh, I do that... easier than looking up where a post of that someone is, clicking on his name, clicking on his last posts, and then get the same list.

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Ah, okay, now I see what you're getting at. I'll tell Craven.

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bumpabump bump..

i miss the search function so for finding back recent posts.. i'm spending hours looking things back up by going through someone's recent posts (or my own). Google is of little use if you're specifically looking for something recent...

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have you tried putting 2008 into your google search? that's been my technique for the past couple of weeks ... name of poster + whatever word or phrase I'm after + able2know + 2008

a bit of a work-around but I've been finding the posts I've been after

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ehBeth wrote:

have you tried putting 2008 into your google search? that's been my technique for the past couple of weeks ... name of poster + whatever word or phrase I'm after + able2know + 2008

a bit of a work-around but I've been finding the posts I've been after

hmmm... i'll try that!

although considering that i've made, uhhhmmm ... 510 posts this year already ( Shocked

) I'm not sure how much it'll help me..

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