Search function could be better

[zakelwe]

Your forum software is a load of crap. I've said this constantly over a period of time and nobody at PH ever listens.

Take the search function for example, this is a bone of contention because there are so many posts on PH that you need good software to stop reposting, does the software help?

Here is a thread called "Post photos of your dogs"

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a... photos of your dogs

now if you do a search for that exact phrase then you get as top example

"Does anyone have a spare Xbox lying around"?

What a load of rubbish, you can't have that sort of thing when so many posts are being done. Interestingly if you just type in "dogs" then you get the right result top of the list .. how can that be? It shows the search engine is not very effective.

Go get vbulletin for godsake and stop this madness. Your forum is the most frequented of any car forum in the UK so you should not be doing a diservice by providing a forum built on second rate software, even if it free or whatever.

This is the 3rd time I think I have complained about this, do you guys think I am just a crackpot? I guess so ... or you just don't care
Andy

[miniman]

zakelwe said:

Go get vbulletin for godsake and stop this madness.

This statement alone shows the extent of your ignorance of the sheer scale of this forum and the smouldering remains that would be caused should one try to scale vbulletin to support it.

Nonetheless you are right about the search, it is st.

[Furyous]

Search IS shytte, but in comparison with Vbulletin, its something Google could build empires on.

[V8mate]

I use Google to search PH.

Just type 'site:www.pistonheads.com' ahead of the search terms.

[Old Gregg]

A very large forum that i used to frequent on a daily basis switched to vBulletin and it turned into a f*cking nightmare from that moment on.

[Slinky]

miniman said:

zakelwe said:

Go get vbulletin for godsake and stop this madness.

This statement alone shows the extent of your ignorance of the sheer scale of this forum and the smouldering remains that would be caused should one try to scale vbulletin to support it.

Nonetheless you are right about the search, it is st.

I'm with Miniman, you have no idea..

[Kinky]

I'll quote FWD from the last time you told PH that they move to vbulletin immediately. His response says it all.

FourWheelDrift said:

vbulletin?

Do you realise the large number of concurrent users PH gets? vbulletin forums would fall over and grind to a standstill if only 1% of the traffic that PH gets is on it.

[Kinky]

And as Big Al said on that same thread - If you are dissatisfied with the website or any content or materials on it, your sole exclusive remedy is to discontinue your use of the website.

[Kinky]

And just to close ...... RacingPetes response from your previous request to move to vbulletin still stands

[Mr Will]

zakelwe said:

Your forum software is a load of crap. I've said this constantly over a period of time and nobody at PH ever listens.

Take the search function for example, this is a bone of contention because there are so many posts on PH that you need good software to stop reposting, does the software help?

Here is a thread called "Post photos of your dogs"

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a... photos of your dogs

now if you do a search for that exact phrase then you get as top example

"Does anyone have a spare Xbox lying around"?

What a load of rubbish, you can't have that sort of thing when so many posts are being done. Interestingly if you just type in "dogs" then you get the right result top of the list .. how can that be? It shows the search engine is not very effective.

Go get vbulletin for godsake and stop this madness. Your forum is the most frequented of any car forum in the UK so you should not be doing a diservice by providing a forum built on second rate software, even if it free or whatever.

This is the 3rd time I think I have complained about this, do you guys think I am just a crackpot? I guess so ... or you just don't care
Andy

vBulletin is a no-go for the reasons that have been stated before, but we are not ignoring you about the search, we just have a very small dev team with a very long list of things to do.

The main problem with the search at the moment is that it only searches posts, not the titles of the threads. As the "Post photos of your dogs" thread does not have a post in it containing the phrase "Post photos of your dogs", it will not be returned as a result. It does however contain the word "dogs" lots of times, so it is the top result for that search.

I will take a look and see if I can fix the title search, but I hope this explains things in the mean time.

[Arese]

Mr Will said:

The main problem with the search at the moment is that it only searches posts, not the titles of the threads. As the "Post photos of your dogs" thread does not have a post in it containing the phrase "Post photos of your dogs", it will not be returned as a result. It does however contain the word "dogs" lots of times, so it is the top result for that search.

I didn't realise that, but it explains a lot. I'm sure you know it's not a great way for a search facility to function. Good luck with the fix!

[Mr Will]

Arese said:

Mr Will said:

The main problem with the search at the moment is that it only searches posts, not the titles of the threads. As the "Post photos of your dogs" thread does not have a post in it containing the phrase "Post photos of your dogs", it will not be returned as a result. It does however contain the word "dogs" lots of times, so it is the top result for that search.

I didn't realise that, but it explains a lot. I'm sure you know it's not a great way for a search facility to function. Good luck with the fix!

Well, the "Just in titles" button is still broken, but I have managed to expand the regular search to cover titles now, which is a vast improvement!

[Arese]

Mr Will said:

Arese said:

Mr Will said:

The main problem with the search at the moment is that it only searches posts, not the titles of the threads. As the "Post photos of your dogs" thread does not have a post in it containing the phrase "Post photos of your dogs", it will not be returned as a result. It does however contain the word "dogs" lots of times, so it is the top result for that search.

I didn't realise that, but it explains a lot. I'm sure you know it's not a great way for a search facility to function. Good luck with the fix!

Well, the "Just in titles" button is still broken, but I have managed to expand the regular search to cover titles now, which is a vast improvement!

Ah, excellent!

[Original Poster]

Mr Will said:

Arese said:

Mr Will said:

The main problem with the search at the moment is that it only searches posts, not the titles of the threads. As the "Post photos of your dogs" thread does not have a post in it containing the phrase "Post photos of your dogs", it will not be returned as a result. It does however contain the word "dogs" lots of times, so it is the top result for that search.

I didn't realise that, but it explains a lot. I'm sure you know it's not a great way for a search facility to function. Good luck with the fix!

Well, the "Just in titles" button is still broken, but I have managed to expand the regular search to cover titles now, which is a vast improvement!

That will help massively in the short term, thanks!

[PetrolTed]

Nice one Will!