Search feature working great

[AMD Snacks]

I used to use google to search for topics on this site, but now the search bar on the forum is way better. Just thought I'd share in case people were like me still googling things.

[AngryChris]

On 8/30/2017 at 6:14 PM, AMD Snacks said:

I used to use google to search for topics on this site, but now the search bar on the forum is way better. Just thought I'd share in case people were like me still googling things.

It's funny you mention that.  I had tremendous difficulty finding things using the search feature on this site.  I, like you, had to google it and search for what I was looking for ON vendiscuss that way.  When I used the website's search feature, I usually ended up with either very few (if any) results or so many results that it was impossible to find what I was looking for.  I'll try it out some day and respond, but I had that issue as well.

I think, for me, the problem has been that I am so accustomed to using google for all of my searches (which usually end up with very relevant content) that I simply did not know how to use a basic search feature for this forum.  In fact, I have had trouble with many forums in the past and I had to use google to find the content within the forums in question.  It seems like the old timers are better at using the search feature but not as good at googling.

[AMD Snacks]

I think before the search criteria was something strange. It'd try and find more recent items vs more relevant items. Now it's more about whatever you're searching, doesn't matter how old, I've been looking up info on the chicken vending machine and tomy gacha's and it's been great. 

[iwannaapple]

I actually think the search feature can be better. For instance, If I search "Southern Beaver", I do not want to find the terms "Southern", "South" or "Beaver". I want to find both terms in one sentence and not separate or at least make it easy to let me choose that option and explain that in ENGLISH.

The fact that the database is in best form already means that only a few lines of code is all it takes to provide exact term searching.

One more thing. The database should only bring up one result per search. What I am trying to say is, if it finds an article with your search term criteria, then it should not list it again! But it does! The loop it uses for sql queries is wrong or the database is not in best form. 

I would lean towards correcting the code first.

Hmm, and thinking about it more.. I would also then take another look at the tables in the database. It could also be that you data is listed more then once which is another sign your tables are not in good form and you code is not correcting for this when it calls for information.

[orsd]

11 minutes ago, iwannaapple said:

I actually think the search feature can be better. For instance, If I search "Southern Beaver", I do not want to find the terms "Southern", "South" or "Beaver". I want to find both terms in one sentence and not separate or at least make it easy to let me choose that option and explain that in ENGLISH.

The fact that the database is in best form already means that only a few lines of code is all it takes to provide exact term searching.

One more thing. The database should only bring up one result per search. What I am trying to say is, if it finds an article with your search term criteria, then it should not list it again! But it does! The loop it uses for sql queries is wrong or the database is not in best form. 

I would lean towards correcting the code first.

Hmm, and thinking about it more.. I would also then take another look at the tables in the database. It could also be that you data is listed more then once which is another sign your tables are not in good form and you code is not correcting for this when it calls for information.

This is not controlled by any admin or mod.

This forum uses IPboard which is a commercial forum software. As such any changes to the code can only be done by the devs.

In the mean time google works pretty good, type in “southern beaver site:Vendiscuss.net”

The “site:vendiscuss.net” part tells Google to only look on this site. You can also switch the website for another one if you want to use this trick on another site.

[iwannaapple]

42 minutes ago, orsd said:

This is not controlled by any admin or mod.

This forum uses IPboard which is a commercial forum software. As such any changes to the code can only be done by the devs.

In the mean time google works pretty good, type in “southern beaver site:Vendiscuss.net”

The “site:vendiscuss.net” part tells Google to only look on this site. You can also switch the website for another one if you want to use this trick on another site.

All of this can be done your self! You don't need to buy any licensing for that software. The database that you could use is free. You also don't need every thing on separate pages. That is more band width and more cost. All you need is to make it LOOK like it is changing pages.

One person with minimal skills could create all this in about 7-9 months.

This is a great site and I am surprised about what you told me. I thought something wasn't working well together and I guess that is it. But, more importantly, it is a great site and there are interesting features, from a programming point of view, that are really good.

By the way, I suppose you are aware that somewhere in your code you are missing quotes("") in whatever scripting language your using. It looks like you have a scripting language writing your html and it is showing to the viewers. Like this..   ....

And, I appreciate the trick. Always good to learn something new but the searching issue doesn't really bother me. I find things just fine. Just mentioning it so maybe it will be aware of and be better in the future. 

Ya'll are doing a great job

[orsd]

Lol, I'm not a mod, admin, owner, or in any way affiliated with this site. I'm just a random dude that occasionally shitposts.

But from what I understand, literally everyone that has a stake in this forum (mod, admin, owner) is kept busy by vending. So pretty much no one has the time to cook up forum software from scratch. 7-9 months worth of vending is a decent chunk of cash. And honestly, it would be more of a pain in the golpher than it is worth.

 

[The Mage]

I meant to respond to this earlier.

I use IP forum software, and also have them manage it, meaning if I run into an issue they will fix it for me. 

I run the forum of course, add the plugins, the skin that makes it all pretty, and apply the updates.  I can't remember the number of updates I have applied. At least 2 a month average. 

I do understand the urge people have of "do it yourself" yet the software already exists. Not only that, there is a team constantly working to improve it, as well as thousands of users who provide feedback on everything they experience who want all these things improved. Instead of me having to figure out how to build a forum from scratch, or spending a ton of money hiring somebody else to build me one, this option is so much cheaper, and also means I have a decent size company, with plenty of programmers constantly working on updating and upgrading the software. 

So the benefit is that I have a team working for me that I couldn't afford otherwise. I might pay the equivalent of an hour or two of an independent programmers time a month for a team of programmers, and people on call 24/7. The drawback might be that if there is an update or improvement that I would desire than I am just one person in a sea of requests. 

What's funny about this thread is that since the first post there was a major update that included a big upgrade to the search function released on April 17th. I didn't update immediately to make sure the plugins and skins were compatible. Since then there have been 3 more updates, mostly dealing with bugs, but nothing specific about the types of bugs they have fixed.

I just searched for Southern Beaver, and Southern and Beaver did come up. I didn't see any repeated results.

Below it offered the option to search for "Southern Beaver", so I clicked on it, and it changed the search to one in quotation marks. that only brought up the phrase search. It only brought up the combined Southern Beaver, and again I didn't see any repeating posts. I then clicked on the "southern beaver" in content titles only and that brought up only 5 results.

If you click on the + More search options it brings up quite a few options for modifying your search.