Ugh, not more.......this isnt funny anymore admins.

Duras

amp wrote:

Subscribing does not make you immune from system wide changes or faults. Subscibing gets you some extra features and not a guarantee of service. Think of it more like a donation being rewarded.

Also it does not make you immune from me having the opinion you're a moron. Which you are of course not because you are a subscriber and only the intelligent ones CAN MASTER THE ART OF MONEY!!

This post gave me solid indications that YOU are the moron... However when looking at your profile I realized that I am so wrong as only the intelligent ones can have 5 shiny silvery stars by their username. Too bad I can't use the "Find all posts by user" to learn from your 8k posts wisdom.

Cloud wrote:

We have disabled vB search until we solve our load issues.

If you want a refund, NP.

As FranknFurter, I subscribed mainly to be able to use the option mentioned above. As the feature has been temporary disabled (till some issues are solved) there is no point to talk about refunding. At least in my case.

Sleepy

What I think this thread mainly highlights is that there is both a correct and an incorrect way to give feedback. The correct way is to just let the admins know what's wrong, the incorrect is to be pushy, rude and start stomping your feet.

Shabadu

*hugs boards*

One day, when the clever men have used the magic sponge on the servers and all is well, we'll all look back on this difficult and trying time of overworked and stressed admins, heady legal atmosphere and a plethora users upset about the disappearance of magic stalking buttons, and lolz.

Endymion

I think boardtacker is actually quiet good, for what it is, especially since the upgrade. People should really stop calling it crap, it's a work in progress. Yes the inbuilt search fuction gave you more options with precise results, however it was knocking the site off line repeatedly. In my opinion, that makes VB search the crap one.

oscarBravo

Sleepy wrote:

One other thing on searching with BoardTracker, any chance of getting rid of that bloody dog graphic? It's just plain annoying...

Sounds like a job for...


...puppy shotgun!

Ruu_Old

Sleepy wrote:

One other thing on searching with BoardTracker, any chance of getting rid of that bloody dog graphic? It's just plain annoying...

:eek: Me likes the dog, maybe change the colour from bloo to wed!

RuggieBear

i hate that dog too

po0k

dog >> cat

ecksor

BoardTracker

Sleepy

"Resistance is futile"

Shabadu

Carnivore wrote:

I think boardtacker is actually quiet good, for what it is, especially since the upgrade. People should really stop calling it crap, it's a work in progress. Yes the inbuilt search fuction gave you more options with precise results, however it was knocking the site off line repeatedly. In my opinion, that makes VB search the crap one.

O.O
...

It speaks sense in a rational fashion! BURN IT! BURN IT WITH FIRE!!!!!!!1

The Sweeper

But eef e's wed we wont see his wibble wight against e's fuwwy wed head!

amp

In other news - wibbles wobble however they continue to remain upright.

Shabadu

amp wrote:

In other news - wibbles wobble however they continue to remain upright.

It's as if you're describing a septuagenarian's inexorably doomed erection.

Beruthiel

I like the Borg doggie BoardTracker

ecksor wrote:

Shouldn't he be your new avatar?
He looks just like you!
Butter wouldn't melt in his mouth, but he can kill with one shot.

ecksor

The putty with the shotgun has been my profile pic for quite some time. He wouldn't really fit in a 32x32 avatar I think.

Pidgin

RuggieBear, SyxPak,Sleepy.... The DOG STAYS! (we can't really change our logo now )

Seriously though...

I wanted to reply and give some feedback on the issue from technical and applicative side.

Disclaimer: My post here represents only technical issues and BoardTracker, and does not represent boards.ie position or the board users. I am not affiliated with Boards.ie in any way and I represent BoardTracker only.


The problem with internal search is that it is using an internal VBulletin search mechanism which is inefficient, ineffective and gives poor result matches.
Suggestions like searching only the last month's or year's posts will not really help since the way the mechanism is designed, the actual text search will have to be done on all the data.

Indeed BoardTracker has some shortcomings.
These are: At the moment, you search by thread title and post and can not search by replies; search relies on BoardTracker index which may be accidentaly missing specific threads (although very few) and some threads are indexed only several minutes after they are created.

We are actually adressing the above two issues and plan to solve them both in the future. However, even with those two issue there are many benefits that you might want consider in realizing that BoardTracker search is far better than the old internal search.

BoardTracker search is fast. I know, you had a slight problem with user search up until few hours ago. It was a small glitch and it was fixed. Now (and in general) BoardTracker search is fast, much faster than the internal search.

BoardTracker search doesn't "kill" the board. If you recall, not long ago Boards.ie was very slow. This was due to the internal VBulletin search. When people started searching, the board as a whole became slower. This is a problem that is very much impossible to solve internally with VBulletin.
This is why we came up with BoardTracker search module for boards.
And this is why many big boards use this module now.

BoardTracker search is much more accurate and gives out better results than VBulletin internal search. If you use BoardTracker to search by relevancy for example, and compare the results to internal search by relevancy, the results might surprise you.. BoardTracker is designed for search. Unline a message board system which is a more general one.
For example, BoardTracker offers stemming search. This means that if you are searching for "fast walk", BoardTracker will give you results also for "Fast walking", "Faster walk", "Fast walker" etc... BoardTracker is designed to offer search, that is what it is for.

So while some may think that they lost certain benefits with the board due to the search changing they (as well as everyone on the board) gained some things. no?
Don't you remember times (just few months ago) that the board took 15 or even 50 seconds to load a page? How long does it take you now? Better search relevancy, is another gain. Snippets in the search results with bolded (highlighted) matching words, is not a benefit? And you can now subscribe to your search (better if you do it for search by date though). Tar.Aldarion - is that not a benefit? That's the ULTIMATE STALKER
(And the cooool dog?? That's a CLEAR benefit! )
Not long ago we didn't have search in a specific forum. We didn't have search threads by user. We are improving and making advances all the time. And we hope to improve even more and hopefully offer search by post. Some things take time though.

Note that even benefits some of you may have had with the internal VBulletin search, such benefits were sometimes ineffective. For example, if it took you 50 seconds to search for what you wanted, many times you wouldn't have enjoyed this benefit or bothered waiting for it, no?
Also, many times when you search by post even, you wouldn't get the results you wanted (especially in search by relevancy) because the relevancy and search mechanism of VBulleting are not so relevant and does not show you what you were looking for. This is not to knock down the internal search, but just stating some simple facts about it.

koneko: Why do you think BoardTracker search is aweful? Can you give an example?

Beruthiel

ecksor wrote:

The putty with the shotgun has been my profile pic for quite some time.

I wouldn't know, I only check out interesting peoples profiles

Karoma

Aside: Nice touch with the "Search via Google" addition.

koneko

Pidgin wrote:

koneko: Why do you think BoardTracker search is aweful? Can you give an example?

I can't give you an example as the old search isn't available to do a direct comparison, but it doesn't give me any actual results I can use, which the old search did regularly. It's subjective, I suppose, it just doesn't "agree with me".

I'm not moaning, the old search was bad for the board, made things slow and fall over, and I don't mean any offence when I say I don't like the boardtracker search, but I can only recall one time it actually found something with it (and then only one hit when I'm sure there were more threads about that subject), and it just seems very bare, doesn't give clear results. I'll be more specific at some point, try a few searches, if I have time.

stevenmu

One thing I've noticed is that many people don't seem to be tagging their threads when they start them, which doesn't even give BoardTracker a fair chance. Would an announcement or something to encourage people to tag more help ?

oscarBravo

ecksor wrote:

The putty with the shotgun has been my profile pic for quite some time. He wouldn't really fit in a 32x32 avatar I think.

Might fit in a subscriber-style 64x64 though...

koneko

That doggy needs a little hat.

In general, I think, more dogs need hats.

Pidgin

rb_ie wrote:

Just decided to give BoardTracker yet another go. I've tried it in the past and it's failed to find anything near to what I'm looking for every time.
Tried searching for threads using the tags, username and title all together...not one result even though I can see the thread sitting there in the forums first page.
IMO BoardTracker is an absolute crock of sh1t.

I tool the latest 4 thread from the first four forums...

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054965326
result #2 at: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/searchbt.php?search=Naruto++&order=1&user=&scope=4&cat=1&frm=-1

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054973965
Result #1 at: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/searchbt.php?search=quick+question+utopian+ideologies&order=1&user=&scope=4&cat=1&frm=-1

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054977240
Result #1 at: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/searchbt.php?search=+iPod+Video+Converter&order=1&user=&scope=4&cat=1&frm=-1

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054974867
Result #1 at: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/searchbt.php?search=alan+moores&order=1&user=&scope=4&cat=1&frm=-1


I dont think this represent a search engine that is "absolute crock of sh1t", nor do I think it's a good way to show criticism even if you are not satisfied.

delly

Fair enough the BoardTracker started off a bit hairy, but it seems to be getting somewhere in terms of the previous seach facility. I'm sure time will only improve the situation.

Tar.Aldarion

Pidgin wrote:

And you can now subscribe to your search (better if you do it for search by date though). Tar.Aldarion - is that not a benefit? That's the ULTIMATE STALKER

Good post, and yes, I will subscribe to searches, sounds like a good feature for my um purposes.
Now, to get time to learn about this new search properly.

FranknFurter

Fine.
I made an assumption, that was probably wrong.
When the search engine (original one) was disabled, and it was made clear it was only available to mods and members, I subscribed for that reason as apparently, did others.
No, I didnt bother reading every post on every thread relating to it. I made my assumption on one fact I saw as being made very clear. My mistake.

I have no problem being corrected, what I do have a problem with is being called a moron by a mod I have had no previous issues or contact with, totally out of the blue, mid-way through a thread where others are discussing the same issue. As far as I'm concerned that particular mod needs a kick up the ass, but thats up to the powers that be of course.

And to those who say it has all been made clear, I have to ask then why so many of the "longtime users" do not know this. Dont bother saying "because they are stupid and didnt read (insert random post / thread here)".... it is ridiculous to be expected to suddenly read forums you rarely visit given the amount of forums on boards.ie and the announcments have (to my humble brain) been a bit vague on specifics.

I only used the search by post function to search my own posts, not because Im a "moron", more because I take pills that affect my memory and it was the easiest way of doing it. I know there are other ways but for me, this worked best.

I won't mention it again and I'm sorry I brought it up, specially in a place where a long-time mod responds by spouting personal insults out of the blue for no particular reason in a forum that is for feedback not personal opinions of a poster, and is allowed to get away with it.

b

(PS Koneko, sorry,I forgot, pm me and ill stick it in the post )

Endymion

It's not the duty of the admins to plaster all over the forum what you get when you subscribe. Simple fact is, that When ever the topic of paying for the search function was raised on this forum, some Admin, usually cloud or regi, pointed out that paying to be a subscriber in no way entitled you to a search function. In fact I'd go as far as to say, that if you posted up the thread where it was "made clear" that subscribers had access to the old search utility, there will probably exist a post in it saying not to subscribe just for the feature.

Now you may be annoyed that they didn't tell you but, you know, you didn't ask them. Its unusual to buy something without first knowing what you're buying. Also cloud has offered you a full refund, which is rather generous considering you had the use of the search function all this time. Really you can't complain.

btw, he didn't actually call you a moron, Dawntreader.

Sparky

Good job lads.