Search problems
 

I seem to see only one type of search - IB Beta? Shows only posts started by me.

It seems that we are at least temporarily back to the absolutely useless Beta search.

Thanks for the feedback UA Fan.

The search option that was previously labeled as IB Beta Search was just implemented as the standard search on the forums. This has been done in an effort to improve the overall performance of the site. As you've already noticed, there might be a few bugs initially, but if it results in a much speedier site the tradeoff will probably be worthwhile.

The tech team is still working on adding in all of the features the original search provided ... I believe the expectation is that this will be completed, or at least nearly so, in about a week.

Regarding the problem you noted UA Fan, I was unable to duplicate it. Are you still seeing this happen and, if so, what type of search are you doing?

I found an interesting anomaly. I was searching for a thread in a forum I moderate. I knew the thread originator, and I knew a key word in the title. I had retitled the thread to clarify the content. Search pulled up the original title, rather than the new title.

That is a result of a bug with the old version of the IB search feature. It currently in the process of being fix, but the process needs to go through all of the posts on the forum. I started it after I upgraded the search, but as you might imagine, this can take a while. I expect it to complete some time tonight.
Kevin

The new search is freaking horrible. Why can't it actually display the results in the same way as the "classic" one did? IMHO, a search engine change should be able to occur entirely within back-end processes rather than impacting what the user sees.

The new search feature STINKS. I used to be able to click "Quick Links" and then "My Threads" and it would show, in date order, all the threads I had posted to. I want that back. The new method is not friendly! :(

Phil

The new search is not bringing back all the results :(

Threads I know to exist with the right keywords (that returned on the old search) do not get listed in new search.

What Phil said - major :td: to the new search. I'm used to reviewing threads I've posted on with the 'My Threads' quick link, but now the threads are ordered by original post date instead of last reply date. I can't also see at a glance anymore which threads have new replies - they're all bold.

Sorry, this is deeply weak. :td::td::td:

Sux big-time. 'Nuff said.

The new IB-only search feature is a giant step in the wrong direction. :td:

Was it really that bad to offer both the traditional FlyerTalk search engine and the IB search engine so that board members could chose whichever one they preferred? :confused:

I, for one, typically used the traditional FlyerTalk search engine, except when I needed to search terms of three words or less like airport codes.

As a mod, the new search isn't working for what I have to do. I got an RBP saying a member had posted the identical threads in 3 forums. I search to find the other threads. Normally, that's a highly successful search. Nope, I can't find the other threads.

What the last two posters said. :(

Another voice requesting the return of the "My Threads" function. As of last evening, it seems that it has been returning results identical to the My Posts" function.

If we get a decent search back in a reasonable amount of time, then it probably is worthwhile. But if it's a choice between the two, faster is NOT better than being able to search productively.

I completely agree... Accuracy is immensely more important than speed. What good is a lightning-fast return of the WRONG or at a minimum useless results?

If you don't like the new search, tell TB!
 

I started a thread over in Talkboard Topics in the hopes that our elected body of representatives will make a recommendation to the technical team about what kind of search helps us the best. It is here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...wpost&t=787503

I encourage you to voice your feedback over there as well as here. The TB exists for a reason, and this should be one of the areas they can help us.

I understand your frustrations and I believe I know what the people want and am the right person to help those people on Day One.

Oops, been watching too many primary debates :D

Seriously though, I just want to step in here and hopefully relieve a bit of the anxiety and clear up a few points.

The new search isn't yet a finished product (actually, I would go so far as to say nothing on the Internet is ever a finished product, but I digress). Kevin Hayes acknowledged in this post that this is a preliminary version of the new search, and that an improved version should be out next week.

As all of you likely are aware, the site has been experiencing some "performance" issues over the past two or three weeks. What Kevin and his team found was that these were at least partly caused by the load the original search feature placed on the system. The beta search was being developed to alleviate this problem.

Because the slowness of the site was becoming such a problem, it was decided to roll out the new search sooner than originally planned to help speed up the site as a whole, with the full understanding that the new search wasn't yet fully developed, but would be soon.

I understand this explanation won't immediately improve the new search option, but just want everyone to be aware that this is a temporary resolution and there is every intention to build out the new search quickly to include most, if not all, of the features that were available in the original search.

There is no intention to settle for an either/or result -- it won't be acceptable to anybody to either have a speedy site or a useful search. Both are a requirement, and that is the end goal here.

We do apologize for the frustrations this is causing, and you can be assured the team is working as hard as they can to get this worked out.

Thanks for your feedback all ^

This:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=775117

I'm afraid that the old search is no longer an option if you want a stable forum.
Kevin

I too dislike the new search. My use case used to be as follows:

- Open the forums
- Do an advanced search for posts by my username

This would provide me with a chronological list of all threads that had recent activity... Even if they started two years ago. I could also see if the last poster in a thread we me - If it was, there wasn't any point in opening it. If it wasn't me, then there was new activity, and I'd open the thread and read it.

It would also provide me a convenient list (on the right) of the forums I'm most active in, and I could open each forum.

It seems searching by thread starter is broken too. :(

I just ran several searches by thread starter and they seem to return correct results. Can you be more specific about what isn't working?
Kevin

Hi Kevin:

In support of member qasr, I also noticed that the search by thread starter was not originally working yesterday and earlier today, but it now seems to be.

Yesterday, a search by thread starter was returning the same results as if a normal search query had been run on the beta.

Thanks!

I'm afraid I have to add to all the complainers at the moment! I was looking at a particularly long thread, so I clicked on Search this Thread to find the post I was looking for. The result thanks to ibSearch from Internet Brands beta? A link to the the entire thread I was searching in the first place!!! Rather defeats the point, n'est pas?

The new "My Threads" is horrible.

It shows a useless "score" for every post. Some threads are shown repeatedly which is useless redundance. And no threads show the date/time of the last post; that defeats the whole point of "My Threads" because I can not tell which threads have had new posts since the last time I checked. So it becomes trial and error to see if a new post has been added.

Didn't we go through this a few months ago, and then after complaints the original "My Threads" was restored?

Can we have it so it defaults to IB search only when server load is excessive? I like the old search better.

(Bolding Mine)
I am with you, philemer. YES, bring that back!

I am also not sure what's the new (meaningless) scoring thing for. When I visit My Threads, meaning I want to see all those threads. Now the new search assigns the score of 68% to all of them. Does it mean I got a "D"? :p

Why not 100%, since all the threads fit my "My Threads" criteria?

Remove a fully-functional search (well, minus the 3-word search ;)) with a (malfunctioning) beta IB search with bugs, not a smart move in my book. :td:

Kevin,

While I work in IT and reading the above thread, there was a belief this was this problem, then all of a sudden a change was made, before it was announced it was to be made, is there any Change Control?

This seems a rather random approach to resolving an issue in a commercial environment.

May I ask, when the site was experiencing Time Out/Slow issues was the search function disabled for say 2 hours, to gather if this was the real cause?

I used the search function the same way, and it was extremely handy in keeping track of topics that you were interested in. And now it's gone! Please bring it back! :)

One workaround could be to add a subscription to the threads you are interested in... that way you do not have to ever depend on a search... and you immediately know when those threads have been updated.

I used to be able to type 'exercise blog' in the search box and the OMNI Exercise Blog would be the first thread returned. Now it doesn't even show up on the first page. :confused:

Also, in the old search I used to be able to jump to the last message directly. Now it takes me to the first message and requires another click to get to the last post.

Like those who have posted in this thread above me, I use the search function to check and see if there have been any new posts to any of the threads to which I have posted. I don't like the fact that I can't tell from the date sorting whether or not anyone has posted to that thread since the last time I checked - only sorts by the date that I posted. Sometimes - lots of times - I want to see if anyone has responded and the old way would show the LAST post to the thread, not just the date that I posted. I haven't had my coffee yet, so don't know if this makes sense, but I can tell you it is annoying!

I understand your frustration as I, too, am really annoyed by this change, even if it is temporary.

As mentioned above, however, a subscription to those threads would be a workaround for your issue. I have it set up to be automatically subscribed to any thread in which I post. Then all I have to do is click MyFlyerTalk and any threads with new activity show up.

It shows a useless "score" for every post. Some threads are shown repeatedly, when I search for a thread it should only show that thread once.

Also, there appears to be a javascript that when you roll over the thread title gives you a pop-up box that looks to be all content of the forum, but with no formatting or breaks, its useless and it takes up over 1/2 the screen.

As you might suspect, many people here are tech savvy and work on far more complex issues than one discussion forum. What you say make little sense unless you have really poor technical advice.

Most users have no interest in the internal algorithms of any search engine. They are talking about how the results are organized and displayed. I find it truly incredible if your staff is telling you that the results from the new search engine cannot be displayed in the old format or that this would reduce stability. That would be incompetence of stunning and staggering proportions.

I'd like to see the search results displayed like they used to be with the thread title, thread starter, last post, forum, etc. The new format is far less informative.

Why does something have to be fixed if it ain't broken? Keep both options please. I am finding threads that have been deleted and those that are very old.

Agreed- when I searched for all posts by a specific user name, the results came in with a score of only 90% relevant.:confused:

Including quotes in the body of the search results wastes a whole lot of space and makes it impossible to actually scan what the user posted. The old search somehow skipped a quote if there was one.

Defaulting the results to post by that artificial relevance score is annoying. I think post date carries a greater weight and it didn't seem to work when selecting it to re-sort.

Hopefully you can make a few improvements to get the functionality of the old search back.:)