The Search is dead, long live the Search!

Dav

We're switching "old" serach off today. End of an era and all that... We've been talking about this since Ross rolled out our shiny new search last year and have been tweaking and modifying the new search based on your feedback over the months since it's deployment.

However, the time has come for us to switch old search (which has been slowly killing the site because VBulletin's code was not built with sites as big as ours in mind) and Danny's looking to do that today.

So goodbye Old Search, we won't miss your taking 2/3 of the RAM in the servers to run, nor will we miss the "oh feck, are we about to fall over" any time it makes a groaning sound

El Weirdo

I for one welcome our new search overlord.

mike65

Boards.ie: Danny

mike65 wrote: »

Get with the times Mike, your postcount is one the reasons we need new search

---

As part of a degradation of old-search functionality, this afternoon old search will be disabled and new searches will no longer be possible. Old search will still be available for vanity searches (searching via thanks) for the next while until the existing functionality is moved to new search and after that it'll be disabled completely.

Long live old-search!

pickarooney

I'm finally comfortable with new search so this has my blessing :P

Shield

mike65 wrote: »

I'm with Mike...

EDIT: Was unaware that us Moderators would still have access to it for moderating purposes. This changes everything. I never used free text searching anyway.

TeddyTedson

Sorry but what is happening exactly? :o

Boards.ie: Danny

TeddyTedson wrote: »

Sorry but what is happening exactly? :o

If you don't know about old search or use it, then grand - nothing's changing for you

Morag

Balls, there is less functionality with the new search.
I know it's needed, I know it was going to kill the site other wise but, the old one could return posts in a manner which was at the very least from newest to oldest, the new search can't even do that.

TeddyTedson

Boards.ie: Danny wrote: »

If you don't know about old search or use it, then grand - nothing's changing for you

I've had my issues with Search in the past. I think I'm using the new one.
It's not great is it.

Boards.ie: Neil

Sharrow wrote: »

Balls, there is less functionality with the new search.
I know it's needed, I know it was going to kill the site other wise but, the old one could return posts in a manner which was at the very least from newest to oldest, the new search can't even do that.

does the sort by flag on http://www.boards.ie/search/advanced.php not work for you?

Boards.ie: Danny

Sharrow wrote: »

Balls, there is less functionality with the new search.
I know it's needed, I know it was going to kill the site other wise but, the old one could return posts in a manner which was at the very least from newest to oldest, the new search can't even do that.

Without getting into the merits or demerits of new search, which trumps old search just by virtue of the fact it doesn't kill boards or result in any downtime, yes, it can.

jor el

I'm with Mike and Shield
From a mod perspective, the new search sucks. You can't select multiple posts by a user for deletion, they have to be deleted individually. Deleted posts don't show up when searching a users activity.

Boards.ie: Neil

jor el wrote: »

You can't select multiple posts by a user for deletion, they have to be deleted individually.

this is staying for mods. the only thing that's disappearing is the ability to free text search on old search.

it's either get rid of free text old search or get rid of boards I know which one I'd prefer.

jor el

Is there some other options that aren't visible yet for that then? I can't get a post search on http://www.boards.ie/search/advanced.php anyway. Or do you still select the Old Vbulletin Search link at the bottom of the page?

Boards.ie: Danny

jor el wrote: »

I'm with Mike and Shield
From a mod perspective, the new search sucks. You can't select multiple posts by a user for deletion, they have to be deleted individually. Deleted posts don't show up when searching a users activity.

Perhaps I should be more clear about this Freetext searching is what kills boards - plugging words into that little text box and hitting search.

Alternative searches such as finding all posts by X, finding all thanked posts by Y etc are less intensive, but are still vastly inefficient. We realise that since the spam control and moderator functions are so heavily integrated into vBulletin search it's almost completely necessary for mods to use old search; which is why they will still have it.

mike65

Is this intended or just a glitch?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/search.php?do=getnew

Boards.ie: Danny

mike65 wrote: »

Is this intended or just a glitch?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/search.php?do=getnew

It's fine; just like searching via thanks it is a non-intensive search and is allowed through for now. We just don't want users happening upon the actual search page complete with text box for keywords, probably from a link in an old post

A glitch, see my post below

Boards.ie: Neil

Just to add a screen shot of exactly what we mean, screenshot = 1024 words.

mike65

If I can't scroll through 20 pages of the most recent posts in the morning I'm going to be a very sad bunny.

tricky D

Damn. Much harder to find the useful results with the new search.

Usability has been taking a few hits recently imho.

Boards.ie: Danny

Boards.ie: Neil wrote: »

Just to add a screen shot of exactly what we mean, screenshot = 1024 words.

Indeed, very soon no user should ever see that page again be they mod, admin or otherwise.

mike65 wrote: »

If I can't scroll through 20 pages of the most recent posts in the morning I'm going to be a very sad bunny.

I didn't understand why you posted that link, then Dav told me to log out :pac: Completely unintended I assure you, that link is available again

tricky D wrote: »

Damn. Much harder to find the useful results with the new search.

Usability has been taking a few hits recently imho.

All of your gripes about outbound links were addressed.

Having trouble finding something with new search = use a better query

Morag

Boards.ie: Danny wrote: »

Alternative searches such as finding all posts by X, finding all thanked posts by Y etc are less intensive, but are still vastly inefficient.

This.

Trying to look at last 20 post and they get returned in a madcap order.
Yes it's usually my own posts to see were that thread was that I posted in
and no I dont' want to sub to each thread and get heaps of email spam thanks.

Boards.ie: Danny

Sharrow wrote: »

This.

Trying to look at last 20 post and they get returned in a madcap order.
Yes it's usually my own posts to see were that thread was that I posted in
and no I dont' want to sub to each thread and get heaps of email spam thanks.

You have taken my comment out of context, I was talking about the alternative searches on old-search.

Reasons to remove old search keyword searching: Plenty, the new search is better at what it does, provides more accurate results and most importantly doesn't kill the site.

Reasons to retain old search: Non-keyword searches on new search need improvements, the search by thanks needs to come over. Other core searches like "Get new posts" aren't really suitable for new search at the minute.

We're happy to keep the less intensive and still somewhat inefficient searches on old search and let people have access to these while the migration takes place. It's all part of the long term goal here, turning little things off as we go.

Dav

Sharrow wrote: »

This.

Trying to look at last 20 post and they get returned in a madcap order.
Yes it's usually my own posts to see were that thread was that I posted in
and no I dont' want to sub to each thread and get heaps of email spam thanks.

The "Follow Thread" functionallity was set up for exactly this reason and you have the option to get an instant/daily/weekly email as well as no email. So any emails you get from it are entirely of your own choosing and are therefore, not spam. This is the pop-up you get when you click on the "Follow Thread" button:



I'm only point thing out because 1) it's both unfair and wrong to label the site as a spammer when we clearly aren't and 2) the reason we had a lot of difficulty in getting news to people about their accounts post hack 2 years ago is that people who asked to be alerted via email about things were flagging it as spam when they didn't want to receive it anymore instead of changing their account settings to no longer receive it.

the_syco

Of all days, it happens today. I came to look for a thread in the motors forum that I created a few months back regarding something to fix the paint on my car. Impossible with the new search. I'll now have to use Google to find the thread. Long live johnny.ihackstuff.com

Oh, and best of luck to the mods. I wonder will the new search function allow them to find shills as easily?

seamus

the_syco wrote: »

Of all days, it happens today. I came to look for a thread in the motors forum that I created a few months back regarding something to fix the paint on my car. Impossible with the new search. I'll now have to use Google to find the thread. Long live johnny.ihackstuff.com

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=74027333

- http://www.boards.ie/search/advanced.php

- Threads in Motors (include subforums)

- Posts by the_syco (just threads started)

- Search

Took all of ten seconds.

The new search is actually much much better for that kind of thing than the old search as it allow the results to be filtered after the inital search.

The only thing it lacks really is highlighting - i.e. showing if a thread has new posts since you last visited. Otherwise you figure it out very quickly and there's nothing missing for non-mods.

Boards.ie: Neil

1. Mods can still find shills the exact same way as before, mods never used 'free text' search to find spammers/shills/whatnot. the only part of old search that has gone away is the free-text searching ability everything else is as is for mods/admins.

2. You don't have to use google, I found your thread within 10 seconds by doing the following:

1. www.boards.ie/search/advanced.php
2. Posted in forum(s): type in "motors" click "include subforums".
3. Posted by user(s): type in "the_syco" click "Just threads started"
4. Sort by: click "newest first".


*EDIT* god damnit Seamus...

seamus

Boards.ie: Neil wrote: »

*EDIT* god damnit Seamus...

Pfft. You newbies.

the_syco

seamus wrote: »

Posts by the_syco (just threads started)

Ah, cool. Missed that function completely. I used the following string in Google:

site:boards.ie "Originally Posted by the_syco" paint 2011 "motors"

GLaDOS

I quite like the new search Will this mean less slowing down/errors?