What's up with the search?

[LemonMelon]

Retrieving the months of missing posts in search

Just curious, but is there a way we could fix the search function so there isn't a giant hole from mid-March to early June 2008? I figure this occurred because of the server overhaul in the spring, and perhaps those particular threads weren't indexed properly or something. Thanks in advance.

 

[Sicy]

This is the first I've heard of this problem.. can you post an example?

 

[DreamOutLoud13]

No posts between March and June (or thereabouts) show up as results when you do a search. It's frustrating. I've had to take to Google to find certain posts.

 

[martha]

I needed to find a thread, so I did a search. No dice. I searched Google and it came right up.

The thread had the exact words I searched for, and it was only from March of this year.

Is this something than can be fixed?

 

[DreamOutLoud13]

I needed to find a thread, so I did a search. No dice. I searched Google and it came right up.

The thread had the exact words I searched for, and it was only from March of this year.

Is this something than can be fixed?

LM just asked about this in Don't Expect, Suggest (no answer so far)

There's a black hole in the search archives. No threads from a certain period got indexed, so they don't show up in searches

 

[Sicy]

I put an email in about this last week. That's pretty much all I can do.

 

[yolland]

Just yesterday I searched for an FYM thread from April. The first keyword combo I tried brought up nothing (even though those words really were in there); the second combo I tried, however, did work. Which has happened to me before. So it's maybe less that threads from that period aren't searchable at all, than that the indexing was somehow inadequate.

Not that that likely helps, just thought I'd mention it.

 

[Sicy]

Yeah I searched like 'u2 bono' and I got matches from the 'missing months'.
Maybe if you're too specific it doesn't work? No clue, but I'm sure it will get fixed.

 

[Andy R]

First off, vBulletin's search really sucks. It sounds like I need to rebuild the search index, this has to be done for the entire database which takes forever (a few days). So I'll do that this weekend. I will also look into installing a Google site search so you can search the site using Google which offers Boolean search and other ways to get more specific on what you are looking for. An example is the vBulletin search cannot find phrases but only looks for words, through Google you can search for phrases using parentheses (") around your search phrase.

In the meantime, you can search Google using the site:u2.interference.com com and with the search phrase you are looking for after the previous command. Here is a link where it searches for U2 Bono:site:u2.interference.com com u2 bono - Google Search

 

[martha]

There's a black hole in the search archives. No threads from a certain period got indexed, so they don't show up in searches

I didn't realize till just now that I was searching for something from that time period.

It sounds like I need to rebuild the search index, this has to be done for the entire database which takes forever (a few days). So I'll do that this weekend.

Thanks in advance for that! It sounds like a fun weekend.

 

[LemonMelon]

Damn, I knew I probably posted this in the wrong section. Oh well.

Thanks for taking the time to give this a look, and for the tips on searching with google, which DOL13 told me works quite a bit better, at least for now. This isn't the only vBulletin-based forum I've been on with a terrible search engine...phpBB works so much better in that area, though vBulletin is certainly more attractive.

 

[DreamOutLoud13]

Damn, I knew I probably posted this in the wrong section. Oh well.

Thanks for taking the time to give this a look, and for the tips on searching with google, which DOL13 told me works quite a bit better, at least for now. This isn't the only vBulletin-based forum I've been on with a terrible search engine...phpBB works so much better in that area, though vBulletin is certainly more attractive.

That girl DOL13 sure does everything right