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Old May 31, 2008 | 1:33 pm
  #10  
lin821
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Home
Programs: AA, Delta, UA & thanks to FTers for my PC Gold!
Posts: 7,674
It's Indexing, Just in a Funny Way...

Originally Posted by gleff
I thought this was the case in some of my searches, then I realized that the searches were still being categorized by relevance so I switched to sort by date and they still weren't actually sorting in proper date order...
Actually, I think the index is up-to-date. I tried searching my own posts last night when I saw this thread. Everything was current. It's just working in a funny way.

gleff, what you said was correct. But it seems the default behavior has switch from the useless "Relevance" to " Post date." Even by "Post date", the result is still not in the proper date order (because it's still supposedly based on the date of the last reply in the threads, instead of the timestamps of your posts). Most of these discussion is in the Master Search Problems Thread.

I don't know which sorting criteria are "acting out" but the way I found out whether "My Posts" were current, I sorted by "Author", instead of "Post date" (i.e. Quick Links > My Posts> Author). You will see all your posts from your 1st FT posting day. Now jump to the last page of the result, you should be able to see your most recent post in the index. For me, it was current when I tried it last night.

(BTW, this particular sorting structure doesn't make sense to me either. Since I am using "My Posts", which means "I" am the author. Why do I have to request sorting by "Author" for the 2nd time? What kind of logic is that?)

The sad thing for me is that we shouldn't have to jump through all the hoops to figure out why the beta search is acting the way it is. From a user's perspective, the more intuitive the search is (with good result of course), the more likely poeple will use and like it. If a search can't perform, what's point to have a search feature?

I am no programmer but my logic is quite good (I think ). Sometimes I really don't know how to follow the logic in IB beta search.

The last implementation of the IB search "fix" (late 5/28/08 and on) to the faulty fix (around memorial day weekend) is still not quite there. I think that's why we are seeing all the mushroom threads of "NEW" problems in Technical Issues the whole week, including indexes, BD errors, troubles logging-in & replying, system slowness, inaccurate time stamps,...etc. I'd voiced my frustration 3 days ago. Trust me, I am not alone.

If we have learned anything from Beta Search history (since Feb this year, I mean), the IB Beta Search & Index will more or less likely to malfunction, especially during the last and 1st weekend of each month. Yes, Baby, we are right on the mark, the last weekend of May 2008.

Let's start the search problems party!

edit to add: Confirmation of indexes being current
With two more posts minutes ago, I just performed my trick (Quick Links> My Posts> Author), those two posts were indeed in the last page of the search result. If I go by the default date sorting, the 1st thread under "My Posts" was from 5/30/08, which of course is not correctly indexed even by the beta search default behavior (last reply date).

Last edited by lin821; Jun 1, 2008 at 8:51 pm Reason: More clarification for the Author Sorting
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