Posted on 02/29/2008 11:26:48 AM PST by CedarDave
This is better than just a post that "FR search is not working"
The FR search function has a serious flaw that is not readily apparent to casual users. I will detail it and suggest a fix for users until the management fixes it. In the meantime, you are free to throw cheese and find a moose for me.
When a search for a name in an article is made (examples: Bush, Clinton or sheriff), 20 titles are brought up with the search parameter. If the title sought is not seen the user can "Click to show more articles ... " and another 20 titles appear.
The problem is that the next 20 titles shown do not start with article 21 but with article 51. Try it for yourself with the word "sheriff" and observe the break in dates from January 2008 to September 2007. There are thirty missing articles.
No change in personal preferences will bring up the correct order but there is a way to fool the computer code if you are really, really interested in finding all the posted articles. Use the word "sheriff" in the article title as an example and follow along:
1. Do a quick search and notice the break in dates between January 2008 and September 2007. There are thirty articles that are missed.
2. At the bottom of the second page, "Click to search older articles ... " This will bring you into the archive search and again the most current article appears at the top of the page. For the search word "sheriff", the last article on the page is dated January 2008.
3. At the bottom of the page COPY the link location and post in the browser. Scroll to the end of the link and you will see x=50. Change that to x=20 and click go. The difference between entering x=50 and x=20 brings up the thirty missing articles.
4. For each subsequent page, repeat step 3, but add twenty, i.e. x=40, x=60 etc. and you will get all the missing articles.
Commence throwing cheese and show me the way to the shower.
PING!
For your information.
Your sister called, she asked if you can watch the moose this week-end.
(ducks)
If the search function actually worked, the Self-Appointed Posting Police would be looking for something else to do and that scares me. What a quandry.
That’s the way I do it. I just wish they’d make author searches available. The author information must reside in the database since there is an author field we fill out every time we post something.
Sort of off-topic, but as for another programming suggestion, when there are duplicates (or multiples) of a thread, and the extras are deleted, is there some way to shift the comments from the deleted threads to the comment section of the surviving one?
The search function has let me down repeatedly over the past couple of years, and as I a result, I’ve taken some pretty big public beatings from the double-posting police.
Hey, I’ve got another bug report while we’re at it:
Whenever I post something after the third or fourth Bourbon, and then go back and review it the next day... it reads like it was written by a twelve-year-old. But it was brilliantly put the night before. Clearly something is wrong there. Anybody else notice this?
I always thought it was weird that FR mods didn’t have merge abilities. They also can’t edit the content of replies— they can only delete them totally.
I’ve taken some pretty big public beatings from the double-posting police.
—
and done it with a certain panache and gusto, I must say.. ;-)
Usually it’s the cat that has the hair raised ,.. lolol
There are other issues with it, such as you can’t do a keyword search using the “search” function. You have to click “Forum” to get “search site” or the first go to individual forums. Also, you are better off putting just one or two words from the title in the search box rather than the whole title. I’ve known those tricks for some time. But this morning I got PO’d at not being able to locate the missing articles, took a little time to look at how “search” functions, and came up with this method to locate the missing threads.
LOL
Aw Dave, I’d rather just whine about it.
Lay off the Ten High and use Booker's. The problem will go away.
Why thank you! I do try to take my beatings as dramatically and awe-inspiring as possible!
Agree. And glad you figured out how to access the missing articles, also.
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