More User Problem Report...
 

On 2/12/08, Kevin you said this following problem had been fixed (but both ed1 and I replied right back it hadn't. ed1 provided you with examples as well in post #135 as partially quoted below.):I didn't have the answer to ed1's question till this evening. ed1, yes, the deleted posts are viewable to both the OP and the rest of FTers (maybe I should just say everyone is seeing the ghost. :p).

I spotted a FTer newbie with post count 2 under the profile but I was allowed to see 3 posts (1 post being deleted, assuming from the trash icon to the far right of that post ;)). I simply left-clicked on the her/his FT handle--then "find more posts by XXX". The next screen I had three posts shown. Of course, if you clicked on the link within that deleted post, you wouldn't see this post at all. But you can see what's been said in that supposedly deleted post. You would be taken to the phantom post place holder in that thread.

All in all, as of today (3/9/08), all the deleted posts are still present under search and this problem hasn't been fixed.

Kevin, did anyone ever work on fixing this search bug?

Please excuse the long, inclusive quoting below. It's necessary to support my reply, in this case:
In a Search>Advanced Search>Search by user, you shouldn't be able to see who the last poster to that thread was, you should only see the posts made by that user. So, yes, what I described does indeed do what it's supposed to do.

This particular case never did what you're expecting it to do.

Now, as to how to do what I think you want to do:

Using the workaround (referred to by lin821):

If you subscribe to all threads to which you post (you can even select no e-mail notification, if the e-mailed updates bother you), then the drop-down Quick Links>(Miscellaneous)Subscribed Threads, will give you a post index style list of all the threads to which you posted, with the most recently posted to thread listed first and with the new mail icon, bolded title, and a link to the most recent post in that thread.

it seems like i cant get results by thread even for the first page now. :confused:

I just did a search by threads and got 11 pages with a total of 271 results.

well, it lists threads, and you can go to first or last post, but it lists threads over and over again, whenever there is a hit in a post..

i seem to recall seeing it list fine just the other day.

Excuse me, but I think you're rather missing the point.

The previous search functionality was useful because it allowed you to see whether there'd been activity on threads where you had posted. This is what bostonbali was talking about, and it's what I'm talking about.

Your judgment of whether it 'should' work that way isn't really very interesting to me - I mostly care that the primary method I used to track discussions I'd been part of has gone away; and I don't seem to be the only one.

I'm sorry, that's just wrong. You can go and look at another board that uses the original search software and you will find the exact behaviour that I talked about. I'm sure the webflyer staff will confirm it too if you ask them.

NickW, I can see where both of you are coming from. I think you misunderstood ed1. I believe he knew what you were talking about. and I know what you are talking about. Everybody in the "right FT search minds" knows your point. :D

And everyone on this thread knows what we want the beta search to perform the way you are describing. However, IB hasn't delivered it yet. Our "self-help" group from fellow FTers found the work-around. That work-around has been quite useful to folks who start using it. For the moment being, that work-around is the only way to see the result the way our classic search would have delivered.

As for the "the way it should work" part, I think ed1 was referring to the sorting logic of the software. Even though I am not a programmer, here's my take on ed1's explanation.

In this example (Search>Advanced search>Search by username>Sort by post date), the current bata search is using username as the higher sorting criteria, which happens before the "posting date" parameter. Hence you are seeing the result by the post day from the user, instead of the last post. The result is filtered through the say user first then sorted by the post day from that same user. That's why ed1 refers to "what it's supposed to do" and what you "should" see. (I know that stupid logic of the search. :p)

However, is that what we FT frequent want to see? Of course not. Does IB know what we like to have in search feature by now? I bet they do. They are just not there yet. :(

Tunnel your frustration to IB directly and let them hear it. I am not sure if they already have enough from us. ;)

here's another thing (this may well have been mentioned, but i couldn't find it in this lengthy thread...and you guys are talking waaay above my head now anyway). in the old days, after i did a search for something specific (say, asheville, in the 'south' forum) you used to be able to save the page as a bookmark with the results.

if you do that now, it brings you to a blank search page...not very helpful for future use. :(

I miss being able to bookmark/save as favorite the results page as well, but there is a rather complicated way to save the actual page to your computer.

BTW, it actually it goes to an error message above the search page. There isn't a simple workaround for the problem you've discovered, but there is a workaround:

I suggest first creating a folder on your desktop for these saved pages:
Right click a blank spot on your desktop>New>Folder and name it something like FTSearch Results.

When you get your search results:

In Firefox:
File (very top left of browser window)>Save page as:
In save as box that comes up: On the left side click on desktop and then on your folder you created (above). In the name field replace what's there (generic FT page title of the browser window/tab you're saving) with a specific title, and click save.


In IE:
File>Save as:
In save Save Web Page box that comes up: On the left side click on desktop and then on your folder you created (above). In the name field replace what's there (generic FT page title of the browser window/tab you're saving) with a specific title, and click save.

The saved page (which isn't an actual web page now, but a computer file), will have links which won't work the way they they are.

To use a link on the saved page:

It might really be easier to just search again, but if you really need to save it, this is the only way I can come up with.

Another caveat:
This will only save one page of results, to save more than one page, you'll have to save each one individually.

gosh, ed1, you're right--that's a complicated solution!
nevertheless, i appreciate all your efforts here.
seems you've taken on the role of someone trying to help--thanks. ^

you're also correct that it'll just be easier to search again in the future. :td:

I'm having difficulties with search...when I search a forum, it will show that there are several pages of results, but when I click to go to the next page, the next page is blank!

This has been reported before, but, as with the other times, it's working fine for me. Have you tried the search again?

Is there a way to make the default search return results for the key word from the both the titles and the bodies? I have found that when I do a search for a key word such as northwest it will only return finds from the bodies. If the key word in not in the body of the message but only the title it will not be returned. The only way to find the key word in the title is to do an advanced search for “search titles only”. Now to find all of the results you have to do two searches to find everything.

Doing an advanced search for "Search problems" using "search entire posts" and "Show Results as Posts" does show the posts with the title of "Search problems" which has to include all posts in the thread without a different title used in that post. Besides, the original post in every thread has to have the same title as the thread, so even if every other post in the thread had its own title, the original post would still have to show up in the search I described above.

This will still not find all posts with the key word..
Here is an example. Do a standard search for the key word “bumble bee” in the “Free Travel Contests and Sweepstakes” forum. Do it again as you suggest doing an advanced search for “search problems” using “search entire posts” and “Show Results as Posts”. These searches will only return one result. Do the search again but change it to “Search Titles Only” You will find that it will find my post on 3/8/08. The standard search is not returning posts that the key word is only in the title and not repeated in the thread. Do these searches again with the key word “zippo” in the same forum. When I do a search I want it to return ALL references to the key word.