"Forum Search" up the sprout?
May be ugly but much better van the old one. 
Which are people more sick of:
Could the temporary "plain" search page be linked from the "pretty" but useless main search page? Or even on the results pages... (Something like:- "Not seeing the results you expected, try this alternative search method <linky>").
I never usually get here via the home page, so the search link there isn't the most intuitive place for widespread use.
Mike
P.S. I personally like sprouts, especially mashed with cream and nutmeg!! I just know that for many sprouts is one of the continual struggles with this time of the year (something annoying to be endured!)... hopefully just as sprout season leaves us, so will the search bug!!!
I've taken the liberty of changing the OP title from "Forum Search up the spout" to "Forum Search up the sprout" in honour of the similarities both in spelling and potential to annoy many! Those of us "geeks" who love sprouts are of course already using the "plain" temporary search page now!
- Sprouts
- or this search bug?
Could the temporary "plain" search page be linked from the "pretty" but useless main search page? Or even on the results pages... (Something like:- "Not seeing the results you expected, try this alternative search method <linky>").
I never usually get here via the home page, so the search link there isn't the most intuitive place for widespread use.
Mike
P.S. I personally like sprouts, especially mashed with cream and nutmeg!! I just know that for many sprouts is one of the continual struggles with this time of the year (something annoying to be endured!)... hopefully just as sprout season leaves us, so will the search bug!!!
I've taken the liberty of changing the OP title from "Forum Search up the spout" to "Forum Search up the sprout" in honour of the similarities both in spelling and potential to annoy many! Those of us "geeks" who love sprouts are of course already using the "plain" temporary search page now!
Quote from: xpcomputers Which are people more sick of:
- Sprouts
- or this search bug?
<snip>
I've taken the liberty of changing the OP title from "Forum Search up the spout" to "Forum Search up the sprout" in honour of the similarities both in spelling and potential to annoy many!
Like it!
Why didn't you add a poll with the above options?
I want an option - I like sprouts - adding
Duly obliged
James, you've compromised the integrity of the whole survey now!
How can we get genuine results if people are allowed to vote for "something they like" in a survey of "which is more annoying" ? ? ?
It is an invalid option!!!
If you like sprouts, you can always say the forum search is "more" annoying.....
I was hoping that the results of the survey would help us definitively know which was worse... whereas now, I think there'll always be a level of ambiguity on this important issue.
We had once chance in history to set the record straight, and you wimped out by offering a 3rd option!!! grrrrrr
Shame on you!
Sorry 
It's OK James, I accept your apology....
Sadly the results of this potentially historic survey of worldwide significance will now be reduced to the lowly status of "just another forum poll result" and not even picked up by the major scientific journals, let alone the mainstream newspapers!
However, we can't go back now....
I look forward to seeing the result anyway!
Mike
P.s. I had to look up "FTW" in google, as the only thing I could think of was WTF backwards... which I (correctly) guessed wasn't the definition! For others wondering... I discovered it means "For The Win" and is a term to describe something you think people can't do without / is the best... (think "the bee's knees"!)
Sadly the results of this potentially historic survey of worldwide significance will now be reduced to the lowly status of "just another forum poll result" and not even picked up by the major scientific journals, let alone the mainstream newspapers!
However, we can't go back now....
I look forward to seeing the result anyway!
Mike
P.s. I had to look up "FTW" in google, as the only thing I could think of was WTF backwards... which I (correctly) guessed wasn't the definition! For others wondering... I discovered it means "For The Win" and is a term to describe something you think people can't do without / is the best... (think "the bee's knees"!)
I've tried to use the google tool a couple of times and found that I couldn't search for a post by a specific user. It searches across the whole displayed page so if the words appear in multiple posts on the same page you can't find a specific post, it gets totally confused by the NEW links on the indexes and you get results where the URL links to ...topic,12345.new.html which will only give the right result if you have viewed exactly the same posts in the topic as the search engine, you can't search on specific boards etc. etc. etc.
In other words, as a forum search tool it is totally and utterly useless.
What we need is the SMF search fixing!
In other words, as a forum search tool it is totally and utterly useless.
What we need is the SMF search fixing!
Also:
The google search results contain so little of the actual text of the posts it's impossible to guess which one might be the one you want.
The google search results contain so little of the actual text of the posts it's impossible to guess which one might be the one you want.
I've managed to find a way of getting forum search to work to a limited (but usable) extent.
Use Advanced Search and limit the message age to a number of days such as 0 to 50.
Doing that I've had 100% success on finding things in recent posts including today.
I think this points to either the SQL query timing out if the range is too big, or a limit on the number of rows the SQL query returns.
Use Advanced Search and limit the message age to a number of days such as 0 to 50.
Doing that I've had 100% success on finding things in recent posts including today.
I think this points to either the SQL query timing out if the range is too big, or a limit on the number of rows the SQL query returns.