Foo - All your SEARCH function feedback <- here please!

Hey all,

Quick intro here, my name is Mike, I work for InternetBrands.com, the company that manages bikeforums. To cut a long story short, we've recently chosen this site to be one of the select few to try out our new ibSearch function - ie. forum search that's alot faster (at least we hope:)). So I am really looking for your honest opinions here, please let me know, I am here to gather your input, be it brutal or not! If everything works just fine - let me know, if you think the search is sucking big time - please let me know as well. I work directly with the guy who made it and we are really looking to improving bikeforums, so obviously your feedback is a big gauge of what we need to do next. Post here or PM me, email me if you wish.

Thanks again and looking forward to hearing from everyone.

Mike A.
InternetBrands.com

http://www.stupidity.com/thumbnails/tn_parking_lot_bike_face_plant.jpg

Hi Mike, welcome to BikeForums! I'll start:

Why do we go through streaks where we can't find the last few days worth of posts?

East Hill

Hi Mike, welcome to BikeForums! I'll start:

Why do we go through streaks where we can't find the last few days worth of posts?

East Hill

Thanks for the welcome & the issue, I will check the "indexing" of new posts; perhaps we have the wrong logic behind it, that might actually be a fairly straight forward fix.

If i search for "ecco driving mocs" it does not tell me where I left them.

Wouldn't it be more simple and cost effective to pay for a google search function/box rather than developing your own?

Thank you for asking us this and welcome to Foo. (where everyone is welcome with open arms :))

I liked it when the old function went from last post (when you are searching another member's posts).

Search function? What's that?

All your search function are belong to us.

Wouldn't it be more simple and cost effective to pay for a google search function/box rather than developing your own?

Yes it would have worked - but it was on a different planet away from the cost effective galaxy. I am working directly with the programmer and he is a big forums guy, so we are trying to address any and all of the valid issues that are posted on the forum regarding the search. I mean, the bottom line for us is to get the search working well and improve the speed of the server for other functions. I know there might be some trade-offs, but I think we can find that really good balance.

Yes it would have worked - but it was on a different planet away from the cost effective galaxy. I am working directly with the programmer and he is a big forums guy, so we are trying to address any and all of the valid issues that are posted on the forum regarding the search. I mean, the bottom line for us is to get the search working well and improve the speed of the server for other functions. I know there might be some trade-offs, but I think we can find that really good balance.

Ok, thanks - well good luck. Apart from random "no results" which may be related to East Hill's post it seems ok. That is, as long as the search is very simple it seems to work.

Could you add in logic OR, AND, NOT, etc. and google type options? For example, bike OR bicycle "gearbox" to return every post about gearboxes that contains either bikes or bicycles.

If these are already present is there an idiots guide as to how they work for BF please?

All the good people left because bikeforums shuts off every day or so for about 6 hours.

All the good people left because bikeforums shuts off every day or so for about 6 hours.

The better people have stayed because they know that BikeForums is still the best cycling forum.

East Hill

Thanks for asking for feedback. This one drives me nuts...on "Sort Results by", I prefer to have my default be "post date" to "relevance". This should be no big deal because there is a "save search preferences" function, but it does not work. I change it to show my preference to be "post date", then I save my search preferences. The next time I go into search, the preference is once again defaulted to "relevance".

Older posts are not indexed either.

Thanks for asking for feedback. This one drives me nuts...on "Sort Results by", I prefer to have my default be "post date" to "relevance". This should be no big deal because there is a "save search preferences" function, but it does not work. I change it to show my preference to be "post date", then I save my search preferences. The next time I go into search, the preference is once again defaulted to "relevance".

Oh yes, that's a most annoying problem. I want the posts arranged chronologically, not by 'relevance'.

East Hill

Even when I search by thread, one thread will come up multiple times. It would be nice to have it show each thread only once for that option.

All the good people left because bikeforums shuts off every day or so for about 6 hours.

I guess that explains why you are still here.

Thank you for asking us this and welcome to Foo. (where everyone is welcome with open arms :))

*cough* Bullsh^t *cough*

Agree with what has already been said

1. The search function not working ie 0 results
2. One thread will come up multiple times
3. The constant server problems
4. Search results (When it does work) should be indexed by the date posted also

These are so frustrating and makes me at times avoid this site, I find it amazing how many simple problems this site has

PS Welcome to the BikeForums

*cough* Bullsh^t *cough*
You must be catching that awful flu that Donna has. Better take care of that cough.
((hugs))

^^^ Yep you're right. Arms are closed while giving out free hugs. :)

I guess that explains why you are still here.

I can't believe I resisted the temptation but Siu went ahead and said the obvious! :eek:

As of the time of this post, search appears to be down. That's a problem. Nothing returned for the word 'Shimano'. It was the beta search results if that makes a difference.

I was testing to see if quoted searches work, like "shimano shifters". I believe in the past it would ignore the quotes and search for both without requiring the words to be together. That's bad.

Also, boolean operators and exclusion functions are important to me. When I need to do those searches, I go to google and set up my complex search limiting the results to bikeforums, obviously that's not ideal.

You must be catching that awful flu that Donna has. Better take care of that cough.
((hugs))

^^^ Yep you're right. Arms are closed while giving out free hugs. :)

You dont fool me.

Wasn't trying to. ;) Now do you have any comments on the search function? (We gotta get this fixed!) :)

Okay...I'll give it a shot.

Frankly, I initially found the new search function confusing and kept trying to select options to make the results appear in the same order/appearance as the old search engine. The closest I've come is:

1. Input the key word or user name I want to use,
2. Select a specific period of time (I generally use 1 week), and
3. Sort my search results by Post Date.

This comes pretty close, but I still have two complaints.

1. If I want to modify one of the search terms and hit the "Back" button, some fields (like User Name) get reset, while others (like time period and sort results by) do not. I would prefer all fields not reset.
2. If one of your search hits is from a long thread, it is often difficult to tell were the specific post is located. It's typical in other engines to highlight the choice in some way or take you directly to that post (e.g., #25 of 200). Yes, you can display the results as posts (rather than threads), but that makes for a very busy screen.

I gave up on the search function a long time ago. If I want to find something on Bikeforums, I go to Google and use site search. Problems:
- Not sorted by date
- Multiple results from a single thread
- Misses lots of stuff; does not handle misspellings nor model names/numbers well (most good searches should account for the fact that users may or may not use spaces, dashes, etc. properly when looking up model names and numbers).


...however, it would be great if you could fix your site stability and response time problems, which are serious. In fact, it would be reassuring if you could just confirm that you're even measuring your site response time and stability; it's not good.

My main issue with the search is that the search results don't "stick", so to speak. If I make a search, and start browsing through a few threads on the first page of search results, and then a while later want to move on to the next, the search results have "expired", and I have to search again. I've never encountered anything like it on any other forums I've been on.

However, I usually use Google for forum searches.

Hey, thank you; seriously, you are really providing good constructive feedback for the development of the search tool. Keep 'em coming so to speak - be it a small gripe or something major, we are going to look into it.

Thanks again,
Mike

Dear Mike,

I am not sure what the different options for searches mean and how they differ from one another. Because I do not know what the terms mean, I do not know how to use them appropriately.

It would be nice if I could search for something with multiple words in the string, like "chain tool" and not get hits for "chain" only or "tool" only.

Sometimes I have searched for my posts during the past week and only a partial list is generated. Then I need to be clever and outwit the search engine by giving it something else that will return the post I am seeking. I do not know why that is.

Dear Mike,

I am not sure what the different options for searches mean and how they differ from one another. Because I do not know what the terms mean, I do not know how to use them appropriately.

It would be nice if I could search for something with multiple words in the string, like "chain tool" and not get hits for "chain" only or "tool" only.

Sometimes I have searched for my posts during the past week and only a partial list is generated. Then I need to be clever and outwit the search engine by giving it something else that will return the post I am seeking. I do not know why that is.

Thanks. Noted.

I gave up on the search function a long time ago. If I want to find something on Bikeforums, I go to Google and use site search. Problems:
- Not sorted by date
- Multiple results from a single thread
- Misses lots of stuff; does not handle misspellings nor model names/numbers well (most good searches should account for the fact that users may or may not use spaces, dashes, etc. properly when looking up model names and numbers).


...however, it would be great if you could fix your site stability and response time problems, which are serious. In fact, it would be reassuring if you could just confirm that you're even measuring your site response time and stability; it's not good.

Yes, the server is closely monitored, and actually as I am typing this message the db is overloading. The fact that it causes downtime and sluggishness, sporadic error pages even is known to us and I know that the server tech guys are working on fixing the situation.

All your search function are belong to us.

I can't believe you stole this before I had a chance to post it.:crash:

Couldn't help it. The title made me think of "All your base are belong to us"

Did anything ever come of this? I see that I still can't save my preferences.