Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Searching Issues

PatrickMM

04:50 / 13.10.03

I've been having trouble searching the board. For example, I'll search for new x-men and nothing comes up, any reason why this might be? Also, maybe I'm completely missing something, but I don't see how to look at any of the search results that come up after 10. How is this done? Thanks

Tom Coates

09:24 / 13.10.03

The board's search functionality is - I'm afraid - a bit shit. Sorry. We keep meaning to look into it, but other work comes up.

Olulabelle

21:09 / 13.10.03

It could be absolutely *only* on Barbelith that you'd get such a wonderfully honest answer...

Rah rah Tom, rah rah Tom...

HCE

21:09 / 03.11.03

Not exactly a searching issue, but does anybody recall if there's already been a thread on autopoiesis? Nothing comes up in search.

thanks
f

at the scarwash

02:17 / 04.11.03

How exactly are topics indexed? Sometimes it seems only by title, and not at all by abstract.

Should be by both.

I have to agree that the search function is nigh on useless.
I've been bollocked before for posting a thread which has already been done but which I could never have known about because it didn't come up when I searched.

Spatula Clarke

11:06 / 06.11.03

Rubbish. The search function does have its uses and helps out quite often. It's absoultely fine when it comes to finding old threads without having to scour the forum as long as you know roughly what that thread was called in the first place or can remember some of the abstract. It's far from perfect, but by no stretch of the imagination is it useless.

Regrettable Juvenilia

12:55 / 06.11.03

I have to say, of the numerous times I've pointed out that there's an existing thread on something (trans. "bollocked"), the only way I've found it myself is the search function. Or even, quite often, scrolling down a bit on the first page of a forum.

spidermonkey

15:23 / 06.11.03

Maybe the problem is that I'm too new, I only joined this year so there is no way I could know about previous threads without searching for them.

Also as people tend to not give away the main subject of the thread in the title or abstract, and people can approach the same subject in differant ways often it doesn't come up. I've tried looking for threads of my own before and had trouble finding them!

What about a key word system where the mods (or maybe even the person who posts the thread) has to supply two keywords for indexing?

spidermonkey

15:35 / 06.11.03

By the way I didn't mean to "diss" the search function, it just came out all wrong sorry.

Tryphena Absent

17:51 / 06.11.03

Don't worry Spidermonkey, you just happened to run in to the crotchety old men of barbelith. They're scared of change you know! The rest of us know the search function's a pile of toss, it's just better than nothing. The other day I actually typed a word in to find a thread that apparently didn't exist. After trawling through the archives for bloody ages lo and behold I found the thread and the title was the word that I had put in to the search box.

If anyone bothers you about rehashing threads then tell them you couldn't find the original one. That's what I do, of course I don't usually look to see if there was an original in the first place but no one needs to know that!

Spatula Clarke

18:54 / 06.11.03

Seems to be case sensitive sometimes. Not always, which is odd.

Tom Coates

08:19 / 07.11.03

Yeah, the search engine's not very good. Sorry!

grant

16:20 / 11.11.03

E Randy - interesting you'd post that, since I just noticed this myself. I know in the past I've searched for things and not had the term used come up, even though it was there in the title or abstract.

I think the deal is that it's case-sensitive for titles, but not for abstracts. I just did a search for the thread on Tranquility Bay in the Switchboard. First, I used "bay" and got 0 results. Then I used "jamaica" and up it sprang. Both words are capitalized in the thread, "Bay" in the title and "Jamaica" in the abstract.

So. That's a bit confusing.

Quantum

11:44 / 13.11.03

How difficult would it be to add a criterion to the search facility i.e. search by title, abstarct and the person who started the thread. That way if you can remember (or are) the person who started it that would make life a lot easier, and you could get a snapshot of the sorts of threads people start if you wanted.
As the name of the person who started the thread is already displayed I'm thinking it can't be impossible, but (to steal a phrase) I'm as IT literate as Catweazle so I don't know.
Thoughts?

Tryphena Absent

13:06 / 13.11.03

Well if someone really hates you they could follow you around and piss on you really easily. On the up side if you generally like someones threads they'd be easier to find. On the down side you could end up with a thread stalker. On the up side you could end up with a thread stalker.

Olulabelle

13:12 / 13.11.03

[threadrot]

I think I'd quite like my own personal thread stalker. It sounds like it'd make a nice pet.

[end threadrot]

Quantum

14:46 / 18.11.03

Well if someone really hates you they could follow you around and piss on you really easily.
Not that hard now (cf. the barbefeuds)

Hell, I stalk (in the benign sense!) several posters 'cos I know they start good threads, I don't need a search function. (Olulabelle I'll be your thread stalker, or head talker, or red walker, your choice!)

I think the benefit would outweigh the problems, it would be another way to find a thread and a good way to get a feel for other posters. And a quick and easy improvement to the search function which needs it.

Add Your Reply