Search problems
#121
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 54
Kevin
*There are lots of ways to add, deleted, and or move posts -- probably one of them doesn't correctly update the length.
#122
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Aug 2002
Programs: UALifetimePremierGold, Marriott LifetimeTitanium
Posts: 71,107
Speaking soley as a member and not as a volunteer moderator, I am a little disturbed by the lack of civility shown by some on this thread (and other related ones). I share everyone else's frustrations over the lack of a functioning search engine, but I don't see how name-calling and throwing general abuse at those working at fixing the problem is going to help any. If anything, I think it reflects badly on us. I do want to thank those who have posted constructive advice; I've found it to be of great help.
Totally agree with the above. Well said flyinhawaiian.
Cheers.
#123
Moderator: Flying Blue (Air France & KLM), France and TravelBuzz!
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Paris, France, AF F+ Rouge pour toujours, Flying Blue whatever, LH FTL, HHonors Gold, formerly proud SCC Executive, now IC Ambassador, BA down to nobody, Grand Voyageur Le Club
Posts: 12,403
#124
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2002
Programs: UA Platinum MM; DL Silver; IHG Diamond Ambassador; Hilton Gold; Marriott Gold
Posts: 24,249
The new search engine is virtually useless. Let me give you a quick example. I was trying to point another FlyerTalker to the recent thread in the NZ forum regarding the discontinuation of service between LAX and NAN. The title of the thread is "Air NZ terminates NAN-LAX." It was started on January 23, 2008. When I used the IB search and search the NZ forum where it is housed and query "NAN" and "LAX" as a title search, this is what I get:
The thread I want is nowhere in the results even though the search query should nail it and it is the most recent thread that should be responsive to that query.
Searching "NAN" in the title, limiting the search to the NZ forum, and asking the results to be sorted by date is no better. The search engine seems to think that the most recent hit is a thread from August 30, 2007, entitled "NAN/RAR route."
Without a useful and credible search engine, maximizing the vast knowledge accumulated and stored in FlyerTalk is a virtual impossibility. It is the equivalent of having an unabridged dictionary with entries that are ordered randomly rather than alphabetically.
Score Thread / Thread Starter Posted Forum
100%
Quick Review - Air Pacific LAX to NAN on NZ Code Share
Internaut
07/07/2007 23:19:35 Go to last post
Forum: Air New Zealand Air Points
60%
EK studies AKL hub, possible AKL-LAX/SFO/NAN/EZE route
jiml1126
02/22/2004 21:36:00 Go to last post
Forum: Air New Zealand Air Points
60%
How are the 763's on NAN-LAX ?
MAN Flyer
05/28/2004 15:06:11 Go to last post
Forum: Air New Zealand Air Points
60%
anz lax to nan
ualflier
06/12/2005 15:38:32 Go to last post
Forum: Air New Zealand Air Points
60%
LHR-LAX-NAN new interiors?
Frequent flyer 101
07/02/2005 23:02:45 Go to last post
Forum: Air New Zealand Air Points
60%
LAX-NAN arr. 3am? What to do? where to go?
me4tux
04/21/2006 23:52:19 Go to last post
Forum: Air New Zealand Air Points
60%
NZ21 LAX-NAN-AKL via HNL today?
Kiwi Flyer
07/27/2006 18:22:30 Go to last post
Forum: Air New Zealand Air Points
100%
Quick Review - Air Pacific LAX to NAN on NZ Code Share
Internaut
07/07/2007 23:19:35 Go to last post
Forum: Air New Zealand Air Points
60%
EK studies AKL hub, possible AKL-LAX/SFO/NAN/EZE route
jiml1126
02/22/2004 21:36:00 Go to last post
Forum: Air New Zealand Air Points
60%
How are the 763's on NAN-LAX ?
MAN Flyer
05/28/2004 15:06:11 Go to last post
Forum: Air New Zealand Air Points
60%
anz lax to nan
ualflier
06/12/2005 15:38:32 Go to last post
Forum: Air New Zealand Air Points
60%
LHR-LAX-NAN new interiors?
Frequent flyer 101
07/02/2005 23:02:45 Go to last post
Forum: Air New Zealand Air Points
60%
LAX-NAN arr. 3am? What to do? where to go?
me4tux
04/21/2006 23:52:19 Go to last post
Forum: Air New Zealand Air Points
60%
NZ21 LAX-NAN-AKL via HNL today?
Kiwi Flyer
07/27/2006 18:22:30 Go to last post
Forum: Air New Zealand Air Points
Searching "NAN" in the title, limiting the search to the NZ forum, and asking the results to be sorted by date is no better. The search engine seems to think that the most recent hit is a thread from August 30, 2007, entitled "NAN/RAR route."
Without a useful and credible search engine, maximizing the vast knowledge accumulated and stored in FlyerTalk is a virtual impossibility. It is the equivalent of having an unabridged dictionary with entries that are ordered randomly rather than alphabetically.
#125
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 54
I was trying to point another FlyerTalker to the recent thread in the NZ forum regarding the discontinuation of service between LAX and NAN. The title of the thread is "Air NZ terminates NAN-LAX." It was started on January 23, 2008. When I used the IB search and search the NZ forum where it is housed and query "NAN" and "LAX" as a title search, this is what I get:
Thanks,
Kevin
Edit: Indexing is complete and the thread you mentioned is now showing up for a search on "NAN LAX"
Last edited by KevinSours; Feb 12, 2008 at 11:30 am
#126
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 54
Kevin
#127
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: TPA, PHL
Programs: NW: SE & WC
Posts: 2,136
BTW, the default for this search should be changed to display the posts on this, as soon as they can get to it.
Is there a solution to this problem: When I search within a thread (e.g., the RA experience thread) for a specific keyword (e.g., Seoul), the results screen brings up the same thread, but not the individual posts that include the search word.
#128
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: TPA, PHL
Programs: NW: SE & WC
Posts: 2,136
The phantom page problem is unrelated to search. What happens is that VB stores the thread lengths rather than recalculate them every time they are needed. That means the stored length needs to get updated every time a post is added or removed from a thread. For reasons that aren't entirely clear to me the stored length can get out of sync with the actual length of the thread*. Paging goes off the stored length, so if that is larger than the actual length then there will be a page on the picklist that isn't really there. At least that's the usual cause of things.
Kevin
*There are lots of ways to add, deleted, and or move posts -- probably one of them doesn't correctly update the length.
Kevin
*There are lots of ways to add, deleted, and or move posts -- probably one of them doesn't correctly update the length.
We weren't speculating that the cause of it had anything to do with search, rather that the cause of it might also be the cause of search returning results in "My Threads" from our posts which were deleted from threads. Lin821 found the post count in "My Threads" didn't agree with that which is displayed with the user information under the user name to the left of posts in the forums.
The normal partially displayed posts that show up in "My Threads" included those that were "deleted" - each of which linked to the forum at the place where the deleted post used to be.
We were wondering why they were still showing up in "My Threads" and why they were included in the total post count in "My Threads" - also, even more importantly, if these "deleted" posts were visible to anyone using the search for all threads by that user.
#129
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 54
The normal partially displayed posts that show up in "My Threads" included those that were "deleted" - each of which linked to the forum at the place where the deleted post used to be.
We were wondering why they were still showing up in "My Threads" and why they were included in the total post count in "My Threads" - also, even more importantly, if these "deleted" posts were visible to anyone using the search for all threads by that user.
We were wondering why they were still showing up in "My Threads" and why they were included in the total post count in "My Threads" - also, even more importantly, if these "deleted" posts were visible to anyone using the search for all threads by that user.
However, we did have a problem with deleted posts showing up in the search. That should, at this point be fixed (note that moderators and others who can see deleted posts will see them in search as well). If people are still seeing deleted posts please let me know.
Kevin
#131
Moderator, Hilton Honors
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: on a short leash
Programs: some
Posts: 71,422
The change was made because the old search makes the board unusable -- see http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=775117. This is not a problem unique to flyertalk, BTW. After VB boards get to a certain size, the internal search starts having problems.
Kevin
Kevin
#132
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: TPA, PHL
Programs: NW: SE & WC
Posts: 2,136
The two issues are likely unrelated. I'm not 100% where the "My Threads" features you are referring to is located. The IB search shares almost no logic with the core VB application so it isn't likely to be affected by VB bugs.
However, we did have a problem with deleted posts showing up in the search. That should, at this point be fixed (note that moderators and others who can see deleted posts will see them in search as well). If people are still seeing deleted posts please let me know.
Kevin
However, we did have a problem with deleted posts showing up in the search. That should, at this point be fixed (note that moderators and others who can see deleted posts will see them in search as well). If people are still seeing deleted posts please let me know.
Kevin
#133
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 54
According to www.big-boards.com, FT is only 57th biggest VBulletin board listed, with the largest more than 10 times FT's size. How does search work on those much larger boards?
Do you actually know of a large VB board that uses the internal VB search?
Kevin
#134
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Home
Programs: AA, Delta, UA & thanks to FTers for my PC Gold!
Posts: 7,676
ed1 and I both weren't sure whey behave the way they are. I am not a IT person myself. I can only report to your tech team so you guys can examine and fix the problems. (Problem Reports in details: here, and here, or post#128 for ed1's summary post). Our logic was it was kind of a "sorting" feature from the posts/threads, so maybe was affected by the Search feature since it's not only reflecting inconsistent total post count from an individual user, but it also allows the deleted posts visible to say user.
The "My Threads" (or "My Posts") features are located within the dropdown menu from ""Quick Links." "Quick Links" is located at the top of every page, right next to the "Logout", the same place you see MyFlyerTalk, FAQ, Calendars..etc.
#135
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: TPA, PHL
Programs: NW: SE & WC
Posts: 2,136
EDIT: Okay, I found more deleted posts from other users that show up in search (but not in the thread) #9038636 and #9034040. This obviously isn't fixed yet.
EDIT 2: Searching for dallas airport westin give me 10 deleted posts, 7 in pg. 1 and 3 in pg. 2.
Here's a case of a duplicate post I asked to be deleted and the original post, both of which show up in succession on Quick Links>My Posts:
Both the duplicate (deleted from the thread) and the original (still in the thread) show up in the list, and both links take me to the same place in that thread.
I don't know if anyone else can see my deleted posts in the list of my posts or if, by design, the user only can see their deleted posts in this fashion, but this should be checked out.
EDIT 2: Searching for dallas airport westin give me 10 deleted posts, 7 in pg. 1 and 3 in pg. 2.
The two issues are likely unrelated. I'm not 100% where the "My Threads" features you are referring to is located. The IB search shares almost no logic with the core VB application so it isn't likely to be affected by VB bugs.
However, we did have a problem with deleted posts showing up in the search. That should, at this point be fixed (note that moderators and others who can see deleted posts will see them in search as well). If people are still seeing deleted posts please let me know.
Kevin
However, we did have a problem with deleted posts showing up in the search. That should, at this point be fixed (note that moderators and others who can see deleted posts will see them in search as well). If people are still seeing deleted posts please let me know.
Kevin
Sunday December 30. Flyertalkers and Randy on television
[icon=This post has been deleted]
dupl. please delete
[icon=This post has been deleted]
dupl. please delete
Sunday December 30. Flyertalkers and Randy on television
More MR in the news - [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHoaAsRcXOU&feature=related"]video on youtube.
More MR in the news - [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHoaAsRcXOU&feature=related"]video on youtube.
I don't know if anyone else can see my deleted posts in the list of my posts or if, by design, the user only can see their deleted posts in this fashion, but this should be checked out.
Last edited by ed1; Feb 13, 2008 at 9:24 am