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Thread: Can the search system be improved?

  1. #1

    Can the search system be improved?

    I find it extremely annoying when I search for, for example, the name of a certain lens, and the result I get is a list of topics. Some of the topics have tens and sometimes hundreds of pages, so to find the post mentioning the lens I would have to look through and read page after page after page after page...

    In my last search I wanted to see photos taken with a certain lens. Found a thread and had to scroll through over 50 pages until I found the post, and since it being old of course the photos attached to that post were gone. That was a waste of time.

    Why not have a search system that can show the relevant posts instead of only the topics in where they are hidden? That is possible in most forums, and you just tick a box if you want to see the results as posts instead of topics.

  2. #2

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    Re: Cand the search system be improved?

    Patric, use Google Advanced Search. I put instructions in the list.

  3. #3
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    Re: Cand the search system be improved?

    Dan is right—use Google with appropriate modifiers, including a site parameter.

    https://support.google.com/websearch.../2466433?hl=en

    The search engine in the forum comes from vBulletin and it is rather minimalist.

    Rick “Google is your friend” Denney

  4. #4
    Jac@stafford.net's Avatar
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    Re: Can the search system be improved?

    Quote Originally Posted by gypsydog View Post
    I believe the op is referring to this forums search.
    Understood, but just jumping to the URL bar in any browser is not much trouble.

  5. #5

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    Re: Can the search system be improved?

    I agree with the OP and thank my fellow LFers for the Google suggestion.
    Peter Collins

    On the intent of the First Amendment: The press was to serve the governed, not the governors --Opinion, Hugo Black, Judge, Supreme Court, 1971 re the "Pentagon Papers."

  6. #6
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    Re: Can the search system be improved?

    Quote Originally Posted by gypsydog View Post
    I believe the op is referring to this forums search.
    Yes, but I was providing an alternative. The search engine in vBulletin is what it is, and using Google reduces the need to replace it, not that we have any control over that.

    I did look to see if there were features we had not turned on, but to no avail.

    Rick “just include ‘site:largeformatphotography.info’ in your Google searches” Denney

  7. #7

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    Re: Can the search system be improved?

    Google is fine, but it's nothing more than a hack to get around a broken system.

    We shouldn't excuse the poor functionality of the forum software.

  8. #8
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    Re: Can the search system be improved?

    To be clear:

    1. It is not practical for us to re-engineer the vBulletin search function.
    2. Because of software maintenance issues, as a matter of policy we do not do custom programming such as embedding Google tools directly into Forum pages.
    3. For the time being, we are not in a position to transition to other Forum software.
    4. Those who need a more reliable search function are best advised to use Google or other external search tools as Dan and Rick have described.

    Let us know if that leaves any unresolved questions.

  9. #9
    Jac@stafford.net's Avatar
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    Re: Can the search system be improved?

    Quote Originally Posted by Oren Grad View Post
    To be clear:

    2. Because of software maintenance issues, as a matter of policy we do not do custom programming such as embedding Google tools directly into Forum pages.
    Is seems elementary to parse vBulletin search arguments to insert: site: largeformatphotography.info perhaps as an option. No?

  10. #10
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    Re: Can the search system be improved?

    Quote Originally Posted by Jac@stafford.net View Post
    Is seems elementary to parse vBulletin search arguments to insert: site: largeformatphotography.info perhaps as an option. No?
    To intercept arguments fed to the vBulletin search tool, pipe them to Google along with the appropriate scope qualifiers, then pipe the output from Google back to the vBulletin search tool, or to a newly-created output page? No.

    If not that, what do you have in mind?

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