There is definitely a problem there somewhere. That's why specific examples of a problem are helpful in duplicating the results.

Maybe we can get someone to fix it, as well as explain why it only shows up in the title only search. It's not working the way it should, perhaps it has something to do with only one post in the thread screwing things up.

IB: why doesn't the title update in search results?
 

As a mod for a hotel forum, I spend a fair bit of time searching out threads on the same property and merging them. I then update the title, and make the thread into a master thread for the property.

Last week, I created a master thread for the Westin Lombard. Today, I wanted to ask a question on that thread. I searched for "Lombard" in title only. I picked up:

"Groundbreaking soon on Westin Lombard (Suburban Chicago)"

which was a title for a thread that had been merged into the Master Thread, and no longer exists as a standalone. I did not pick up the title for the Master Thread, though clicking on the "groundbreaking" link takes me to the Master Thread.

We encourage members to use Master Threads in Starwood. Why isn't search returning the thread title?

SD1K, I have given up on using Master Threads, since I can no longer find them with the new search. It's a real shame since the volunteers who created all the master threads worked so hard on that project.

This may be due to the thread title vs. post title issues. In your example, the thread title has been changed to "Westin Lombard, IL, Yorktown Center [Master Thread]", however the post title of the 1st post is actually "Groundbreaking soon on Westin Lombard (Suburban Chicago)": http://flyertalk.com/forum/showpost....40&postcount=1

What's that got to do with it if the search was for "Lombard"?

Other than the fact that the new search engine appears to be searching by post titles (as opposed to thread titles, as SanDiego1K had expected)? :confused:

Unless I'm missing something, both the post title and thread title had the world "Lombard" in it. So why didn't the search return the thread?

It's either because the search engine has been programmed to search in post titles only, or because the thread renaming/merger took place recently and the search index hasn't been updated yet...

KVS, I see your point. It appears to not be searching the thread titles at all. Well, that's a fine how-de-do. That explains a lot of anomalies I've been experienced as I work on master threads - and why folks like Stimpy aren't finding threads they know exist. Hopefully that bit of enlightenment will help IB, hopefully to change the search to the THREAD TITLE and not the POST TITLE.

That might explain some of my search issues too. Searching by thread title is important for several of the FAQs/master threads I maintain. Since the change in the search function I have not been able to maintain these properly.

I've informed Kevin Sours about this most recent issue. Not sure what he's found yet, but I'm sure he's looking into it.

Thanks for the update, please keep us informed.

I remember fondly the old search function and the test that allowed three letter words. Ah, those were "the day."

Index Problem Again?
 

Why isn't the index catching up again? I don't think my posts in the last 36 hours are showing up under My Posts.

Indexer must be down again, wonder if those alarms worked.

More than a day, at least. I sent a PM to Mikel, but he's not online at the moment.

I've sent a notice to the tech team. Haven't heard back yet, but they very well might have already been working on the issue.

Thanks for posting about the problem ... always good to have a second, third, fourth, etc pair of eyes :)

Just heard back ... the indexer has been restarted and should be up-to-date now.

Thanks!

Great!

If you don't mind me asking, can you tell us what's causing the indexer out of sync (repeatedly), in plain English please? :)

I thought it should have been an automatic process. However, this is the 2nd (or 3rd?) time it happened since the end of Feb. The indexer was totally backup for about a week between 2/28 (or 2/27?) and 3/4/08. We were told it's due to the expansion of a new server back then. I doubt it would be the same cause after 5 weeks.

I had trouble finding a thread yesterday with Search.
There was a new Buffet thread in DiningBuzz and I wanted to quote the big thread (65+ post) Buffet thread but could not find it.

I did eventually, using advanced search (and my own handle as search terms) but it took a few tries.

Today I was getting a few 'no result' answers too, so even Advanced Search has a few bugs remaining. ;)

I get 500 errors on searching...

I just found out that there's new layout of My Posts (Under Quick Links - My Posts).

The new layout is more friendly & readable. It may take some getting used to though. The dates associated under the summary of "My posts" now reflect the dates of the newest posts in the say threads, instead of the dates when the say poster posts (hope I am making sense). You have to use the "jump to this post" to go to the exact post you'd posted.

Don't know when these "new" changes went into effect. I haven't had time to play with the newly added plug-in either. One thing I was able to notice is the deleted posts are still viewable under My Posts (which shouldn't be).

Maybe others can "test the water" a bit more to see what hasn't been fixed so far. :)

Every search I do today in any forum turns up this error: :(

eg. Search for "ambassador" in Coupon Connection, search for "raffles" in the Singapore forum.


Sorry, we were unable to fulfill your request

Cause: Your search terms confused me!

Please try revising your search terms and try again. If you believe your search terms should be returning results, please create a post in the user support forum, detailing exactly what you were searching for and an idea of what you feel it should be returning for results.

With your feedback, we can improve this search tool to be the best it can be!

I was able to search either logged in or not.

I just tried raffles in SQ Forum, I got 2066 results in 107 pages.

Showing results 1 to 25 of 2666
Search took 0.676 seconds

This is the 1st thread in the result: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=822007

I used both raffles and "raffles" and got the same result. Using Firefox here though, if it would make any difference.

I'm using Firefox as well...but still having the same problem, even now. I can't search for anything on any forum, simple or advanced :(

The only parts of the search function working for me are:
New Posts
Find all posts by user
Find all threads started by user

We have spent a lot of work creating master threads in the Starwood forum. We have a directory of the ones we've created, but we should all be able to find them on using search. Today, I attempted to find the master thread on the Westin Palace, Madrid, with no success. I searched both using Palace in the title field, then Madrid. Neither pulled up this thread.

A member responded to a 2002 thread on the Westin Palace Madrid and I wondered why that would be the latest information. Imagine my surprise to find two lengthy master threads, one for reports thru 2004, and one for reports from 2005 to present. Search found the older thread, albeit not with its proper title, and did not find the more recent one as detailed above.

All the search features have been working for me. I really have no idea what could be the problem with yours.

Which search did you use? I had tried using
1. Search in the top panel (i.e. the one next to New Posts and Quick Links). I type in the text in the dropdown box and it works every time.
2. Search This Forum, located to the upper right hand corner, right next to Forum Tools. Type in the text in the dropdown box and I get the result.

Maybe you can spell out the steps and which dropdown boxes you use when running into problems, so the tech support can try to duplicate your issues?

I just tried the search term "Westin Palace Madrid" and got 219 results:

Showing results 1 to 25 of 219
Search took 0.739 seconds

The 1st 20 results:
Starwood & TNS survey?

Has a Starwood hotel acknowledged your birthday?
dankyone

Report Your Platinum Upgrade Successes

Has a Starwood hotel acknowledged your birthday?

If you had 5 nights in any SPG Hotel in Espana...

How much does Alcohol cost at Westin's E & R/Venice?

Which SPG property has the best fitness center?

The Best View Of Any Starwood Hotel

Design Your Own 2008 SPG Card (merged threads)

New Policies: 1. Disposable Cups in Bathrooms? 2. Sheraton Now Has Westin's Coffee?

Best place to travel with starpoints - Chile, Spain, Italy, Argentina, or Greece

Status of W Hotel in Barcelona?

Discussion of changes in the Starwood forum

Extending stay - room types?

The Westin Palace, Madrid, Spain [Master Thread 2 of 2 - 2005 to Present]

What is the longest stay that you've been upgraded?

Dear Sheraton, Would You Please Get Rid of Your Cheap Pantene and Vaseline Products..

Is there a list of the hotels who have c&p since the web site is broken?

Value of Platinum Status

Discussion of changes in the Starwood forum

The part two master thread was the 15th thread that got pulled up.

Not sure if the indexer was out-of sync earlier this afternoon when you tried your search. If the last two updates happened to run between your attempted search this afternoon, that might explain why. It wouldn't be the 1st time the indexer falling behind. I am not tech-savvy enough to find the sync clock log though.

The two Westin Palace Madrid master threads were created some months ago. When I search using Madrid in the title line, 11 threads are pulled up. None of them have [Master Thread] in the title. Thread 1 of 2 shows up as Not so lucky with Palace Madrid :(. The current master thread does not pull up under any title.

Sorting a search by post date I get as the first few entries (in this order)

May 14 2008 10:32PM
May 14 2008 10:32PM
May 15 2008 12:19AM
May 14 2008 6:04PM
May 14 2008 7:30PM
May 14 2008 10:17PM
May 14 2008 8:54PM
May 14 2008 3:04PM
May 15 2008 12:19AM
May 14 2008 2:34PM
May 14 2008 3:04PM (again)
etc

Sure doesn't look sorted to me. (The other annoying bit is the time & date seems to be based on the servers, not my own time settings.)

Here's what doesn't work for me:

1. Search in the top panel (i.e. the one next to New Posts and Quick Links). I type in the text in the dropdown box and I get the following error message.


2. Search This Forum, located to the upper right hand corner, right next to Forum Tools. Type in the text in the dropdown box and I get the same error message.

3. If I click through to the Advanced Search at http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/search.php , type in the text in the Search by Key Word or Search by User Name fields, I also get the same error message.

In each case, I have used large (greater than 4 characters), uncommon words that I can see a result for on the first page of the respective forum, so its not the search terms I'm using thats the problem.

The search functions working fine for me right now are:

4. New Posts

5. If I click through to a member's profile http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/member.php?u=xxxxx and then click on Find all posts by xxxxx or Find all threads started by xxxxx, that works as it should.

This is really frustrating since I'm usually the one telling people that the search function is there to be used. I can't figure out an explanation for it. Maybe its my IP? I have no way of getting onto another network and back onto my current one to check this out in the near future, unfortunately.

Would you be willing to PM me your IP address and some sample search terms you used? I'll see if I can see anything in the logs. I don't know what's up because I can't reproduce on my end.
Kevin

PM sent! Thanks for looking into this.

This one is a little screwy and intermittent, but we're looking into it.


Kevin

Sorry, I accidentally edited the post instead of replying to it... I didn't even realize this account *had* admin privs.

Similar to KiwiFlyer's date weirdness above,

The dates showing up in post results aren't accurate as to when the post was actually made. I did a search on my username and got these results for the few posts(Sorted in posting date order):

Date reported by search........Actual post date
May 15, 2008 2:34 PM..........May 15, 2008 5:26 pm
May 14, 2008 9:45 PM......... May 14, 2008 4:53 pm
May 15, 2008 2:34 PM......... May 14, 2008 2:42 am
May 15, 2008 11:40 AM....... May 10, 08 1:53 pm

Recent posts might not yet be indexed. I did a search for 'Miley' in the title or in body text. No results, but I'd only posted a thread with that title and word in body text 48hrs before.

What lag time should be expected before terms are indexed? I'll try again now in case it is now indexed.

(My normal search method is 'search this forum'-> advanced search-> search in title, then search in body)

It looks like the update to the thread view to show the thread last post date leaked over into the post view... the displayed dates are the last post date for the thread.
Kevin

Dates from the Search Are Not The Dates of Your Posts
 

Those dates are accurate as far as the newest posts go.

Like I had pointed out in post#262, the search result dates now reflect the newest posts in the threads. Not sure if this is a good idea but at least those dates are now giving us some idea whether there are newer posts added since we last post in the say threads. The search result dates are not the dates of your posts. You have to use the embedded "Jump to the post" link to go to your own posts and see the corresponding dates.

As for the time stamps on the search results, it seems to be fixed on Pacific clock (PST time zone). Why have the search result default to a fixed clock anyway? I would think that should have been adjusted to the members' local time instead. At least it would have been less confusing and we don't have to do the time zone conversion in the head when ever a search is performed. :p

The indexer should only take a couple of minutes to update. There is something not quite right about the title search, which I think is the problem.
Kevin