Search disabled, maintenance, and other changes

[ZDPhoenix]

As a new poster, this lack of being able to find posts from users... including myself is quite painful.

It's definitely making it harder for me to see if something's been posted a dozen times before.

[Xondoure]

Originally Posted by ZDPhoenix

As a new poster, this lack of being able to find posts from users... including myself is quite painful.

It's definitely making it harder for me to see if something's been posted a dozen times before.

Don't worry about that too much. Everyone gets ninja'd from time to time.

[Rafinius]

Will the Search function be permanently disabled or do you plan on restoring it after some major update? Because stalking fellow TW players was my main way of finding new interesting games. As was searching for a specific type of game recruitment (like Lords of Creation for instance) ordered by topic creation date (not possible with google search).

[oblivion6]

Originally Posted by Rafinius

stalking fellow TW players

haha, figures you secretly stalk all of us...

[Rockphed]

Originally Posted by ZDPhoenix

As a new poster, this lack of being able to find posts from users... including myself is quite painful.

It's definitely making it harder for me to see if something's been posted a dozen times before.

If you cannot find a thread on something after a couple searches using an outside search engine and checking the threads viewable on the default settings, then the thread you want to create probably doesn't exist*. As such, posting a new thread is the proper way to start a discussion on your topic of choice. Just be sure to put a bit of thought into new threads. I have found that even the most interesting topic produces poor results if it is presented in a haphazard manner.

If you are trying to decide if something has already been mentioned in a thread, reading the thread in its entirety is probably the best way to find if something has been mentioned.

Oh, and finally, welcome to the playground.

*There is probably a level of due-dilligence I missed here.

[Rawhide]

Originally Posted by ZDPhoenix

As a new poster, this lack of being able to find posts from users... including myself is quite painful.

It's definitely making it harder for me to see if something's been posted a dozen times before.

This is why disabling the search feature is the absolute last thing I want/wanted to do. For now, please use DuckDuckGo, Google, Bing, Yahoo, or your search engine of choice.

[satorian]

Is this lack of thread and term search the same as my seeming inability to search for posts by a particular author, or is that a separate issue?

[Rockphed]

Originally Posted by satorian

Is this lack of thread and term search the same as my seeming inability to search for posts by a particular author, or is that a separate issue?

Searching for posts by an author uses the search function. So yes, it is caused by that.

[ZDPhoenix]

Originally Posted by satorian

Is this lack of thread and term search the same as my seeming inability to search for posts by a particular author, or is that a separate issue?

It's the same issue. Every manner of searching is disabled.

And sadly google isn't a great alternative for searching by posts.

[Jay R]

Originally Posted by Rafinius

Will the Search function be permanently disabled or do you plan on restoring it after some major update?

After eight days, this question has not been answered, so I'll try again. Will the Search function be permanently disabled or do you plan on restoring it after some major update?

[Zherog]

Originally Posted by Jay R

After eight days, this question has not been answered, so I'll try again. Will the Search function be permanently disabled or do you plan on restoring it after some major update?

From the very first post:

Originally Posted by Rawhide

In order to improve the stability of the current forums, as well as to prepare for an upgrade in the future, I switched the forums off to perform some maintenance tasks.

...

If stability and speed is greatly improved, I may start the process of reindexing the forums, in order to reenable search. This will take several days and have the effect of slowing the server right back down during this time.

This seems to imply (at least to me) that it's temporary, but possibly long-term. In addition, every time it's been switched off in the past, it has been brought back eventually.

[Roland St. Jude]

Similarly, Rawhide's most recent post in this thread both expresses how regrettable disabling the search function is and what you can do "for now."

[Rawhide]

Search? We don't need no stinkin' search!

[Hawkflight]

Yeah, thanks for the hard work and all, but what are we supposed to do if we need to, y'know, actually search for something? What if we need to find that one specific piece of homebrew for our DM, or what if we want to find a specific type of game? What if we want to find any piece of content relating to phoenixes?

Originally Posted by Rawhide

Search? We don't need no stinkin' search!

YES. Yes we do.

Postscript: Sorry if this has been asked before. There was no search function available for me to use to find out.

[C'nor]

Originally Posted by Rawhide

This is why disabling the search feature is the absolute last thing I want/wanted to do. For now, please use DuckDuckGo, Google, Bing, Yahoo, or your search engine of choice.

*Directs you to this*

[tuggyne]

Originally Posted by Hawkflight

Yeah, thanks for the hard work and all, but what are we supposed to do if we need to, y'know, actually search for something? What if we need to find that one specific piece of homebrew for our DM, or what if we want to find a specific type of game? What if we want to find any piece of content relating to phoenixes?

It's not perfect, but appending "site:giantitp.com" to search strings in your engine of choice is generally a fairly effective stop-gap. Judicious use of "intitle:" or similar, or phrase-quotes to indicate forum name, may also be helpful.

[Kumori]

Originally Posted by tuggyne

It's not perfect, but appending "site:giantitp.com" to search strings in your engine of choice is generally a fairly effective stop-gap. Judicious use of "intitle:" or similar, or phrase-quotes to indicate forum name, may also be helpful.

I didn't know about the "intitle:" command-line for searches. That'll be useful, so thanks.
Any other useful things like this?

[SiuiS]

Originally Posted by Hawkflight

YES. Yes we do.

Postscript: Sorry if this has been asked before. There was no search function available for me to use to find out.

Now, be reasonable friend.


http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=264215

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=265150

Finding both of these took a third of the time necessary to copy/paste the URL. All I had to do was scroll down the forum issues page. Searching manually, within reason, is always possible.

[willpell]

Originally Posted by SiuiS

Finding both of these took a third of the time necessary to copy/paste the URL. All I had to do was scroll down the forum issues page. Searching manually, within reason, is always possible.

"Reason" has a highly flexible definition here. Just sayin'.

[Kobold-Bard]

Originally Posted by Hawkflight

Yeah, thanks for the hard work and all, but what are we supposed to do if we need to, y'know, actually search for something? What if we need to find that one specific piece of homebrew for our DM, or what if we want to find a specific type of game? What if we want to find any piece of content relating to phoenixes?

YES. Yes we do.

Postscript: Sorry if this has been asked before. There was no search function available for me to use to find out.

The in-built search was rubbish anyway, when it was active there were endless threads about it not working and people always suggested site:giantitp.com on Google even then because it was usually more accurate and definitely more flexible when searching keywords.

If you know a piece of homebrew well enough that you want to use it, then you will be able to successfully Google up the title/keywords from it. You're just whining about nothing.

[Serpentine]

Not about nothing. There are things the search function could do that a Google search can't - like finding every mention of a word in a post in order of most recent, for example. As such I really look forward to having it back again.
But yeah, abusing the mods about it is hardly going to get it fixed any faster.

[Hawkflight]

Originally Posted by tuggyne

It's not perfect, but appending "site:giantitp.com" to search strings in your engine of choice is generally a fairly effective stop-gap. Judicious use of "intitle:" or similar, or phrase-quotes to indicate forum name, may also be helpful.

Well then ... why not just put a Google search par right in the site itself? I've seen it don before.

Originally Posted by Serpentine

Not about nothing. There are things the search function could do that a Google search can't - like finding every mention of a word in a post in order of most recent, for example. As such I really look forward to having it back again.
But yeah, abusing the mods about it is hardly going to get it fixed any faster.

Whoa there, hold on. I am not abusing anybody. I am engaging in legitimate conversation, asking questions and receiving answers.

[SiuiS]

Originally Posted by willpell

"Reason" has a highly flexible definition here. Just sayin'.

This is true. However, it is noticeably easier to do one thing, than to do another thing. If both achieve the same results, then the first thing is more reasonable.

If you spend five minutes looking for a remote instead of ten seconds hitting a button, for that five minutes you're a sucker. I also find it funny how people always open threads about the search function with "I looked and couldn't find anything on the topic", which means they didnt bother scrolling down the very page they had to go to to start the thread. It's an automated response, almost, not one with critical thinking applied.

Originally Posted by Hawkflight

Whoa there, hold on. I am not abusing anybody. I am engaging in legitimate conversation, asking questions and receiving answers.

Not you, specifically. But a thread about the search function pops up roughly every week. It's continuous, and some of the people don't have any reason to have done so, having the opportunity for reading the prior incarnations fo the Search Disabled threads. I actually applaud you, for coming into ane xisting thread on the topic and making your case.

[The Bushranger]

Originally Posted by Hawkflight

Well then ... why not just put a Google search par right in the site itself? I've seen it don before.

vBulletin: "I don't believe I can do that, Dave."

[lothos]

Hi,
I don't post that often and I am preparing to post something to the Monster in the Darkness thread. Before I do so, I wanted to properly prepare by searching the thread and it's 5 predecessors to see if it's been previously discussed. There's no point posting a "new" idea I've had if it's already been discussed to death.

I know there is the first post on that thread, maintained by Grey Wolf, but I just wanted to be thorough. I was really surprised to find I can't search any more... so eventually I found this thread.

So this post isn't a "please can we have the search back" request. I've read the relevant posts here and I understand the situation.

However I would like to suggest that perhaps the F.A.Q should be changed, if the absence of the search function is going to persist long term.

At the moment, there is a specific topic in the F.A.Q called "Can I Search the Forum", here http://www.giantitp.com/forums/faq.p...b_board_search

It might be good to put something in the FAQ saying that search is unavailable for the time being.

[willpell]

Originally Posted by SiuiS

It's an automated response, almost, not one with critical thinking applied.

Automation is a very good thing.

[The_Jackal]

Searching the forums is incredibly easy, just use Google:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=optimization+si...w.giantitp.com

[dethkruzer]

Originally Posted by The_Jackal

Searching the forums is incredibly easy, just use Google:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=optimization+si...w.giantitp.com

that does work, to an extent. one feature google really can't provide, that the orignal search function could, was listing items found through search in order of... "freshness"

[Roland St. Jude]

Originally Posted by dethkruzer

that does work, to an extent. one feature google really can't provide, that the orignal search function could, was listing items found through search in order of... "freshness"

After you run your search, go to the link for "advanced search" at the bottom of the page. It will allow you to limit your search to certain time spans like last week, last month, etc. It's not precisely in order of recency, but it helps narrow things down.

[SiuiS]

Originally Posted by willpell

Automation is a very good thing.

It can be, but is not by default. A boxer automatically puts up a guard when startled. That can be good. A range-shooter puts their brass in their pocket while firing, that can be bad.

Are you playin devil's advocate, going off on a tangent, think my point is wrong or just want the last word?