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PrimeMulch
Extreme Sheep Herder



Registered: 03/21/19
Posts: 52
Loc: Lithuania
Last seen: 1 year, 26 days
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Sure, I have some feature feedback. The search function works too well.
#27532298 - 11/06/21 09:36 AM (2 years, 2 months ago) |
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I don't even have to post, almost every stupid question that comes in to my head has already been asked by another and I can search for it. Nerf the search engine!  Just a positive! way to go!
One disadvantage is that it can lead you in to old information that isn't true anymore.
So uhhhh, don't grind the newbies for asking stupid questions... common sense things do change over time depending on your view of common sense.
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Ythan
ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ


Registered: 08/08/97
Posts: 18,774
Loc: NY/MA/VT Borderlands
Last seen: 5 minutes, 27 seconds
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Re: Sure, I have some feature feedback. The search function works too well. [Re: PrimeMulch] 3
#27534280 - 11/07/21 09:23 PM (2 years, 2 months ago) |
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Hey thanks! A lot of the credit goes to Sphinx, which is the fulltext search engine we use behind the scenes. But we've done our best to offer a powerful interface which allows people to easily narrow down their queries. Since you mention it though, we probably could improve our ranking algorithm, so that newer posts get a boost over older posts with similar keywords. I've just started messing around with this and the results are promising, so stay tuned and hopefully we'll be able to roll out some improvements in the future!
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Kalendula

Registered: 08/12/05
Posts: 666
Loc: Long Island
Last seen: 5 months, 14 days
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Re: Sure, I have some feature feedback. The search function works too well. [Re: Ythan]
#27665508 - 02/19/22 06:20 PM (1 year, 11 months ago) |
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Why not add Private Messages to the search's menu?
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I need this, right?
Edited by Kalendula (02/19/22 06:27 PM)
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Kalendula

Registered: 08/12/05
Posts: 666
Loc: Long Island
Last seen: 5 months, 14 days
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Re: Sure, I have some feature feedback. The search function works too well. [Re: Kalendula]
#27665721 - 02/19/22 09:25 PM (1 year, 11 months ago) |
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And I would also suggest a much more basic modification to the search:
I invited someone from BL to join this site and after he told me his username I put it in the search and his username did show up, but when clicked, it simply gave me a page that said 'no results' because the purpose of the search is simply to show the posts that a user has made. I was able to get to his profile by going down to the newest registered users and manually reducing the user number in the URL by one and hitting enter until I got to his profile. Could we make it so that a user's profile can be accessed just by knowing their username?
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I need this, right?
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Ythan
ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ


Registered: 08/08/97
Posts: 18,774
Loc: NY/MA/VT Borderlands
Last seen: 5 minutes, 27 seconds
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Re: Sure, I have some feature feedback. The search function works too well. [Re: Kalendula]
#27665811 - 02/19/22 11:15 PM (1 year, 11 months ago) |
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Due to how things were designed decades ago, the search used for private messages is different and more basic than the one used for forum posts. In order to offer all the same options, the private message search would probably have to be re-written. It's not a bad suggestion though, just a lot more work than you'd think. I'm curious how often people use the private message search and how often they run into limitations with the current setup.
Typically to find a user profile I search on the User List, but the way you did it makes sense too, and we should give useful results. I updated it so if you search for a user's posts but there aren't any, you'll be presented with a link to their profile.
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Kalendula

Registered: 08/12/05
Posts: 666
Loc: Long Island
Last seen: 5 months, 14 days
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Re: Sure, I have some feature feedback. The search function works too well. [Re: Ythan]
#27666193 - 02/20/22 09:13 AM (1 year, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
Ythan said: Typically to find a user profile I search on the User List,
I don't know how I missed that. Thanks! It looks like you also added In Reply To or was that already there?
Also, I've just noticed that if there's a dash in a query, the search treats it as a completely different thing, for example I tried searching for 1B-LSD by typing 1blsd and I only got a single result. Very interesting 'legal' form of LSD, for anyone interested: https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/27666117#27666117
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I need this, right?
Edited by Kalendula (02/20/22 09:40 AM)
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Kalendula

Registered: 08/12/05
Posts: 666
Loc: Long Island
Last seen: 5 months, 14 days
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Re: Sure, I have some feature feedback. The search function works too well. [Re: Kalendula]
#27666451 - 02/20/22 12:49 PM (1 year, 11 months ago) |
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Also, one simple feature I've wanted for a while is to have links at the bottom of a user's post (i.e. Extras:) and their profile that, when clicked, brings you to the search page and their username is already in the relevant field. In other words, making it convenient to search another user's posts.
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I need this, right?
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Ythan
ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ


Registered: 08/08/97
Posts: 18,774
Loc: NY/MA/VT Borderlands
Last seen: 5 minutes, 27 seconds
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Re: Sure, I have some feature feedback. The search function works too well. [Re: Kalendula]
#27666788 - 02/20/22 05:37 PM (1 year, 11 months ago) |
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So, with the search, any non-alphanumeric characters are treated as stopwords (basically the same as spaces). 1B-LSD is indexed as two adjacent words: "1B" and "LSD". When you search for that term in the default "all words" search mode, it finds posts with both "1B" and "LSD" but not necessarily next to each other. If you change the search mode to "exact phrase", it should work as you expect because it will only find documents containing "1B LSD" in order. And yeah the "In Reply To" was already there, but hey if you just noticed, it's new to you! 
User profiles already have an option at the bottom to view all a user's posts. Two options, actually - "Show all user's posts" and "Main threads only". But I added an option under post extras for quick access, it looks like this:
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Kalendula

Registered: 08/12/05
Posts: 666
Loc: Long Island
Last seen: 5 months, 14 days
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Re: Sure, I have some feature feedback. The search function works too well. [Re: Ythan]
#27666983 - 02/20/22 08:07 PM (1 year, 11 months ago) |
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That's a cool addition, thanks (and thanks for the instructions), but to be more specific about my request let me make an example: You're in a thread about 1P-LSD and you want to see if a user who is making very informative posts has also commented on 1B-LSD, so you just click a little icon in the Extras: section and a little widget pops up similar to the mouseover and you can just enter 1b-lsd and a search of that query under that username is automatically done. Or just the normal search page in a new tab, but with the Posted by: field already populated. The icon could be a little magnifying glass or something -- I think that would be a nice addition.
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I need this, right?
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TNK
Pleasures of Africa



Registered: 01/30/10
Posts: 14,237
Loc: I AM THUNDERBOT
Last seen: 1 month, 17 days
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Re: Sure, I have some feature feedback. The search function works too well. [Re: Ythan]
#27668692 - 02/22/22 03:58 AM (1 year, 10 months ago) |
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I'm not sure if I couldn't see it or if it's gone but is there a way to only search User Created forums or is searching Community my best bet?
-------------------- Edited by TNK (02/22/22 22:22 PM)
Edited by TNK (02/22/22 12:00 PM)
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Ythan
ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ


Registered: 08/08/97
Posts: 18,774
Loc: NY/MA/VT Borderlands
Last seen: 5 minutes, 27 seconds
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Re: Sure, I have some feature feedback. The search function works too well. [Re: TNK] 1
#27668953 - 02/22/22 10:12 AM (1 year, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
Kalendula said: That's a cool addition, thanks (and thanks for the instructions), but to be more specific about my request let me make an example: You're in a thread about 1P-LSD and you want to see if a user who is making very informative posts has also commented on 1B-LSD, so you just click a little icon in the Extras: section and a little widget pops up similar to the mouseover and you can just enter 1b-lsd and a search of that query under that username is automatically done. Or just the normal search page in a new tab, but with the Posted by: field already populated. The icon could be a little magnifying glass or something -- I think that would be a nice addition.
Ah, okay I gotcha, thanks for clarifying. That's a little more elaborate to code but I can see how it would be useful. I'll add it to my list of requests and try to get back to it when I have some time.
Quote:
TNK said: I'm not sure if I could see it or if it's gone but is there a way to only search User Created forums or is searching Community my best bet?
On the advanced search page, click the small link above the select list of forums where it says "Show User-Created Forums". Then you can select the entire "User Created" category or individual forums.
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TNK
Pleasures of Africa



Registered: 01/30/10
Posts: 14,237
Loc: I AM THUNDERBOT
Last seen: 1 month, 17 days
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Re: Sure, I have some feature feedback. The search function works too well. [Re: Ythan]
#27669148 - 02/22/22 11:59 AM (1 year, 10 months ago) |
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Oh thank you I didn't even see it there; my eyes must not be what they used to!
-------------------- Edited by TNK (02/22/22 22:22 PM)
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1234go
Ban Lotto Champion


Registered: 07/08/09
Posts: 53,821
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Re: Sure, I have some feature feedback. The search function works too well. [Re: TNK]
#27669210 - 02/22/22 12:46 PM (1 year, 10 months ago) |
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Yeah, cool...I didn't know that existed. I need to pay more attention!
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