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Thread: Search function is crippled - why?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Charleston, SC
    Posts
    2,147,489,446

    Question Search function is crippled - why?

    Ok - I've been looking for some old discussions, and the search function is not bringing them up at all.

    I know these threads exist, because I've searched for them before. But like a dumb-ass, I didn't create a file with links to these common threads, so now I can't find them.

    One in particular is the one where Pitts suggested a standard for modulation specs on DPSS lasers. I used to be able to find it by searching for my user name and the term "duty cycle". Now it doesn't come up in the search.

    Anyone have any idea why these threads aren't coming up in the search? It's mostly for older threads (more than a year old).

    Adam

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    Brazil
    Posts
    231

    Default

    Search function could be better IMHO... returning a result down to the post not only the thread. Some threads are HUGE and a pain to search through.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Charleston, SC
    Posts
    2,147,489,446

    Smile

    Thanks for that! I actually ended up using Google to find it ("sitehotonlexicon.com buffo modulation duty cycle" did the trick, albeit 3 pages in), but as I was searching I noticed that even some of the Google links are broken. As in, the cache on Google is still good (it brings up the thread), but if you try to click the link to PL, you only get to the sub-forum that the thread was in, not the thread itself.

    This makes me think that the threads were re-numbered (or otherwise re-organized) at some point, which broke the search function for those threads. Maybe it's time to take the forum off-line for 6-8 hours to build a new master index?

    Adam

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Miami, FL
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    3,590

    Default

    probably when the forum was upgraded to vbull v4

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Posts
    1,725

    Default

    Yep, vbullshitetin 4 completely changed the way I was able to index posts. Before everything was "full-text" search where all the post contents were broken down into discrete components and weighed against themselves when searching. Now it's a lengthy and exhaustive database query with no content caching with *no* way to change it back to full text.

    The only benefit to the DB lock method is that I can change the "weight" applied to each section of the search query but as we all know now - It's fuck all useless if it simply doesn't find anything.

    Thanks Vbulletin.

    It takes about 12 hours but I will setup the board to reindex everything tonight at 11PM EST - Site is usually quieter(I/O) around then.

    And assuming that doesn't clear anything up I need to look at other options. The search functionality is as critical as the "What's New?" box and the Addictbutton.

    Thats another thing that changed... Look at the URL for "What's New?" - It's now a DB defined glorified per account last-access search. Before it was a single communal list of everything that is selectively hidden per user if you already saw it.

    Call me crazy but it seems to me that the latter is far smarter and less intensive on the server if all you have to do is check to see if something is already known instead of doing a completely new search per session, per ID, per last-access.

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