Search Function?
 

I type a subject, such as "Chaos", into the "Search" box; and hit "enter". I get a list of threads that have absolutely nothing with "Chaos"! What am I doing wrong? [:@]

RE: Search Function?
 

Bob,
I hope you get an answer because the exact same thing happens to me.
Bob G

RE: Search Function?
 

why do you think the threads returned don't contain the word "chaos"? they do contain the word as I checked. try adding more words to your search to narrow the field perhaps

RE: Search Function?
 

I know what he's talking about... and it's a problem with a lot of forums' search engines.
For instance, in this search, the Capiche thread comes up. When you click on the link,
it takes you to the thread, but not to a post that contains the word "chaos".
Who knows how many of the 3,661 replies you'd have to go through to find that word?
(I can tell you it's not in the first 5 pages or 150 posts... but I didn't check further.)

A better search would be one that, when you clicked a result link, you ended up on a page
actually containing the word you searched for, instead of having to go 10 pages deep... looking.
(I know it's a limitation of the software, and table layout, as written... not slamming the RCU guys)


Marc's right though... a bit more narrow on the search, and it gets much better.
For instance, choosing just the word "chaos" as you did... but selecting "search terms in subject only"
returns 14 relevant, of 16 total records... instead of 203 records with only a fraction really relevant.

RE: Search Function?
 

If that is all he is talking about then we have the solution.

On the search page where it says "Search Only" change the drop down to "Topics and Replies" instead of "Combine topics and replies"

then it will show you the posts instead.

here..a direct link to show it works:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/sear...mitbutton=+OK+

RE: Search Function?
 

yah! i have similar problems.....

there is something VERY WRONG with this site, every time i come back here, some things that have been working fine suddenly don't work and without any reason (no setting changes i have made):eek:

frankly i don't understand this philosophy of random confusion! [:o]

i can't use the search engine any more.... its useless! (and it did work fine for couple of years untill now!?)

if anyone finds a solution to this problem, let me know

RE: Search Function?
 

nothing has changed with our search code in any way, shape or form. i need an example. I just solved the users example above which was clear what was happening if you read it

RE: Search Function?
 

Sweet.
It's nice to learn all the little nuances of the search engine.
I'd be willing to bet there are others who have problems, who are not as prone to ask or complain.

(ie... I grumbled to myself for six months, because "my search phrase" returned every single post
with "my", "search", OR "phrase" in it, instead of exact instances in order of "my search phrase".
I only recently discovered that the advanced search makes the quotes work properly. I do think it's a bit
odd that doublequoted items aren't searched for "exact phrase" matches by default, but hey, it works.)

RE: Search Function?
 

Yes I just did a check myelf and somethin is not working properly.

I went to the batteries forum page.

I typed in accucycle in the top left search box... It returned MANY results that did NOT contain the word accucycle.
Also after clicking on a result I couldn't get back to the results page. I got this page saying "warning this page has expired"

So I went back to the batteries forum page and typed in accucycle in the lower right box that only searches that forum and everything works just fine.


Something is wrong with the upper left search box.

RE: Search Function?
 

Good Morning Marc:

Thank you for your input. The "Search Page" does seem to work somewhat better. The fact remains that the "Upper Search Box" does not function properly.

I went to "Kit Building", typed in "Glue", and received a string of results beginning with "How will joining the AMA help me?". What this has to do with glue escapes me at the moment, but I will work on it.

RE: Search Function?
 

the upper search box needs to be recoded. I am aware of the issue but had put it off because we will be doing a major upgrade which has the fixes already in the new code.
when in doubt use the full search page and not the ones on the individual forum pages

RE: Search Function?
 

Marc,

Thank you for all of your hard work in maintaining RC Universe. This site is one of the greatest things to ever happen to our hobby. It is difficult to describe the enjoyment and knowledge that is generated by your efforts. Thanks again! :D

RE: Search Function?
 

thank you for the very kind words. Myself and the entire team here appreciate it!

RE: Search Function?
 

There's a lot more wrong with the search engine than has been discussed. Despite C_Watkins' statement, finding a phase by enclosing it in quotes does not work, anywhere on the site. For instance, searching for "Super Tiger" (using the quotes), in subject only, finds a thread entitled "thunder tiger super decathalon 40 ?" (with NO replies), and an thread entitled "Good first speed plane" with no replies containing the word "Tiger". In general, you can't search for a phrase. This is further compounded by the aforementioned shortcoming of the results linking to the thread, as opposed to the specific posting.

A pet peeve of mine connected with this is the inability to search for two character words at all (no, you can't find "my". Or YS, or ST, or OS, or JR, or many other useful two letter combinations). This is a fairly severe limitation in my opinion.

I would also like to suggest removing the ability for changing the subject line on a reply. This causes all manner of mistaken matches, and makes it more difficult to find exactly what you want when just searching bodies (the poster frequently doesn't repeat the subject words in the body).

Is there a help page describing how to use the search facility? If there is, I haven't been able to locate it. What does that "Less precise match" box do, anyway? And just how (and where) does wildcarding work?

Add all that to the goofy errors that commonly occur (no, I can't think of the specifics of one right now, but I'll post again the next time one occurs), and you have a pretty brain-dead search facility. Since RCU uses "forum matter as a future reference" requirement as a defense for strictly enforcing off topic deletions and thread moves, I'd think that a top notch search facility would be the number one priority. In my opinion, the current search facility prevents RCU forums from being a great reference.

FYI, see the GoogleGroups search facility (http://www.google.com/advanced_group_search) for an example of a good search facility. There is nothing personal or malicious intended in this reply; I think RCU forums could be the absolute final word in R/C information if a good search facility were in place.

RE: Search Function?
 

Rick,

Your statements are incorrect. The main problem you are having is that you are not using the full power of the search function. Go to the search page by clicking on the search button.

Now..forget the quotes. Our search does not use quotes to match phrases. Instead use the drop down that says "Return top 300 results that match ALL WORDS...." and change ALL WORDS to PHRASE. That is how to search phrases.

When searching for 2 letter words use phrase match to get results. Here I did OS 90 and got results no problem.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/sear...mitbutton=+OK+

To compare our search to google's is a like comparing a mouse to an elephant. RCU is not a company with a billion dollars in revenue that can invest the development that Google has been able to do. They got 100's of millions in VC dollars to do one thing well which was search. They have a billion in revenue. I can pretty much guarantee that our search facility will never come close to googles. However for $36,000 per year we can get a google search appliance dedicated to RCU and spidering our site. The only problem with that is that we don't generate enough cash to afford $3,000 per month for search functionality comparable to googles.

I'd say our search is well above almost all other forum software out there today. One just has to look at the options and use them properly when searching. If in doubt try some of the pull downs and see what results it brings. You can't break anything. Notice what differences occur when you select different options. Look at every menu option. Explore the search and the entire site. There are goodies and functionality everywhere.

RE: Search Function?
 

Marc,

Thanks for the pointer - that makes a great deal of difference. I admit to having been lazy to this point, and not having tried everything out on the search page. I stand by my statement that there should be a search help page (linked from the search page), though. If that had been there, we wouldn't be having this conversation. ;)

As to the Google Groups search, yeah, you're right, they're now a billion dollar corporation. However, the "groups" portion of Google is actually the former DejaNews, which I have been using since the week it launched in 1995. I can tell you that the search facility there has changed very little from the original one, and all the major features were there to begin with. At that point, it was garage business, not a Wall Street tycoon. A little effort and some programming expertise is all it takes.

RE: Search Function?
 

rick,

we are limited to the search capability which is built into MSSQL so without doing some complex proprietary stuff it would be difficult to go too far beyond what we have here.

One thing to do always is use the full search page rather than the ones in the forums. the ones in the forums are a bit limited and won't give you the best results always.

the phrase search is key and at some point we will code to make the quotes work. we have a major upgrade in a month or two and then I'll look at the quotes. I am a big google user like you so I appreciate the power of their search and how it works with things such as quotes.

RE: Search Function?
 

In reply to the above, I nearly always used the full page search, and never the forum page search. Although I dearly miss the "Search this forum" feature that was at the bottom of every thread page in the OLD RCU...

The reason I am posting now is because I promised before to relate when I came across a search anomaly. From the full page search, if you search for the terms "9ZAP gear" (results that match all words), you find a thread "9ZAP Gear travel adjustment" in the results. However, if you go back and search for "gear" (results that match all words again) in the "Futaba Radios - Direct support from Great Planes" forum only (selected from the pull-down), the thread above is NOT in the results. ???

RE: Search Function?
 

I have duplicated your find above. I hope the next version upgrade addresses this as it deals with some of the per forum searches and single word searches a bit differently.