Forum Searching Questions
Submitted: Monday, Jan 23, 2006 at 18:47
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ExplorOz Team - David
Hi all,
I am re-writting the
forum searches right now and want some
feedback. The new system is very fast and really cool however I am trying to work out how you guys want to select what to search for. Basically I have developed the new system to take a keyword string and run a full text search on active and archive results and return everything weighted by rank and number of matches to the keywords. There is no more selection of topic/body/name it checks it all automatically and the resultant screen will have a mix of active and archive results. Now for the questions:
1. Do you want to be able to search the active or archive or both seperately or is a one time
check through everything the best?
2. If we
check everything a name only search will rank results based on the number of times the name appears in a thread and not just the latest threads that they posted in however it will rank the active higher than the archive. Does this matter or should we have a name specific search option that returns results as it does now?
3. If using keywords it will currently be difficult to have a start/end time selection with the keywords however start & end can remain they ust will not be able to be used with keywords, does this matter?
I guess the core of the issue is that adding a true search to the
forum will mean that current latest thread output will have to go away when keywords are used as the rank/matches results must take over from the latest thread type options. I think the results will be better in his mode however give me your
feedback overnight and I will take it all into consideration.
PS: Member last updated search will NOT change. You will still be able to search threads with a start & end date selection. The updates will only effect keyword searching.
Reply By: richopesto - Monday, Jan 23, 2006 at 19:14
Monday, Jan 23, 2006 at 19:14
Hiho David,
Hope these responses, as a new user and with some UI design experience, will help:
No1. A single search is fine. Highlighting clearly which are archived and which are active will be useful. Perhaps you could split the results visually between active and archived threads?
3. The keyword and date selection together has been very useful for me. - e.g. I want to find out about
the Tanami Track, but nothing older than 120 days ago?
outback users may be on slower lines, I find your pages load slow (~10 sec) on a dialup modem @ 49.2kbps, thus limiting search options (3.) is very useful to decrease response times.
cheers
Richo
AnswerID:
150387
Follow Up By: ExplorOz Team - David - Monday, Jan 23, 2006 at 19:23
Monday, Jan 23, 2006 at 19:23
Richo,
I will
check the search docs to see if I can specify dates as part of the string. Actually your post made me think that I could do this already so I may be able to incorporate dates into the base query and thus resolve your issue.
Leave this with me I will play around with the Search facitilies to see if I can add the date criteria easily - I think it may be easy (ish).....
FollowupID:
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Follow Up By: richopesto - Monday, Jan 23, 2006 at 19:24
Monday, Jan 23, 2006 at 19:24
doh. I missed the PS, which probably negates what I've said here if I read correctly.
sorry
richo
FollowupID:
403833
Follow Up By: richopesto - Monday, Jan 23, 2006 at 19:29
Monday, Jan 23, 2006 at 19:29
love a challenge? sorry if I keep you up all night :-)
whilst I have a blank screen - great site! Ive been following you for years (probably not long after you first started.) The base of knowledge here is phenomonal ! superlative...superlative....
well done
richo
FollowupID:
403837
Reply By: Truckster (Vic) - Tuesday, Jan 24, 2006 at 00:12
Tuesday, Jan 24, 2006 at 00:12
I tried searching for a thread on 2 words.
EG Koni AND truckster and it didnt work.
sometimes you can remember a few words out of the thread your lookin for, and maybe if your lucky by who..
These features would help.
or an easier way of searching for multiple words like an advanced google search.
Choices of
SEARCH FOR ALL WORDS
SEARCH FOR ANY WORDS
SEARCH FOR EXACT PHRASE
POSTED BY
Also something as simple as the results by DATE would be fantastic. I went thru 100's of threads, page after page that none were in date order trying to find one the other week.
AnswerID:
150493
Follow Up By: ExplorOz Team - David - Tuesday, Jan 24, 2006 at 01:49
Tuesday, Jan 24, 2006 at 01:49
The AND stuff is being done now.
Search All, Any and Exact will be supported at this stage using "Exact Phrase" AND "Another exact phrase" and words is just simply enter the words will alwasy default to this.
As for date I assume you were looking at the older archive search still in
site search. The new one is much different. let me get it installed and then we will see where to go from there. Day or two.....
FollowupID:
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Follow Up By: ExplorOz Team - David - Tuesday, Jan 24, 2006 at 01:53
Tuesday, Jan 24, 2006 at 01:53
BTW: Koni and Truckster using the new
forum search in development found 94 threads 7 active and heaps of archives. You will see the changes soon.
FollowupID:
403949
Follow Up By: Truckster (Vic) - Tuesday, Jan 24, 2006 at 11:56
Tuesday, Jan 24, 2006 at 11:56
No probs..
Will be magic when thats all up and runnin..
make life so much easier to save reposting the same things every few hours they are asked :P
FollowupID:
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Follow Up By: ExplorOz Team - David - Tuesday, Jan 24, 2006 at 12:37
Tuesday, Jan 24, 2006 at 12:37
It will only be a few more hours now - I have almost completed testing of the first round of search updates. This will currently be without advanced search options but will support all boolean queries and exact/all word matching.
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