Topic: Search not working properly!!

[realisticwordweaver]

I am not sure if someone has reported this, but I have had some problems with the "Search" functionality. I would not say it does not work, but it stops displaying results after a specific date or time.

To give you a simple example, I am from India, and naturally I am on the lookout for role-players from my part of the world. For that, I normally go to the Introductions thread and do a simple search of "India". Not that I do not get any results, but the results I get are ALWAYS the same. Recently when I was going through the intros I came across at least 2 profiles that had mentioned they hail from India, but these 2 never figured out in my search.

I also recall another forum maintained by Vekseid (Blue Moon), where the search does not work at all.

Considering the huge population, rectification of this functionality would help greatly.

[Autumn Sativus]

It is relatively widely known that the search function is broken right now. It would take Vekseid a (half?) day of having the site offline to fix, so he is waiting for the new CMS before it will be fixed.

There is another thread about the search function problem where Veks himself has commented here.

[realisticwordweaver]

Thanks Saffron. As mentioned, in another site maintained by Vekseid, this is a problem since forever. In order to ensure we get connected to like minded people, half a day offline is a very small price compared to going through each and individual thread to find out your match.

I fully understand the problem and am not saying Vekseid does not care, but my concern is that this is pending for a LONG time.

[Autumn Sativus]

The Players Search is a relatively decent method to ensure you get connected with the people you'd want to write with in the meantime.

[realisticwordweaver]

Thanks again Saffron, but I beg to differ there.

Simple things like gender and nationality are not enabled. Moreover, it would take me just 15 minutes to go through that whole scroll. Not worth my time compared to a simple text search, I am afraid.

[Autumn Sativus]

Well the options are there for you, as Vekseid has already stated we will be waiting for the new CMS for the search function to be active again. It is a very frustrating situation I understand quite well as the search function is very useful for things like Mentoring as well. Still, we all have to wait and make due with what is available until things are changed.

Good luck finding what you're looking for.

[Caeli]

You can also state clearly in your request threads (like the title, for example) that you're specifically looking for people in your time zone, or with +/-(insert number of hours here) of your time zone.

These are not perfect solutions, but there are ways to find the right partners. It's certainly a little harder than simply pulling up a search, sure, but with some time and dedication, I'm sure you'll see results.

[Caehlim]

It is relatively widely known that the search function is broken right now. It would take Vekseid a (half?) day of having the site offline to fix, so he is waiting for the new CMS before it will be fixed.

There is another thread about the search function problem where Veks himself has commented here.

Ah, thankyou. I was just coming in here to report having some trouble getting the search to work in the avatars for other people thread.

I was wondering why I could find other people's names in the thread, but not my own. This has made the situation much clearer. (Search must have been bringing up the older posts which were before I joined that thread).

[Vekseid]

Not sure if it's going to wait until the new CMS, it does need to happen rather soon.

[realisticwordweaver]

Am sorry for bugging everyone, but the current search is just too complex for anyone to use.

Do we have any timelines to fix this issue (I am asking since the same issue has been there forever on Blue Moon- another site for which you are the admin)? What is needed to fix this? (I am aware of many such forums, where this is not an issue)

[Trieste]

So sorry that you're having so much trouble. There is not a definitive timeline right now.

Elliquiy has several difficulties of scale; we have outgrown SMF software many times over. Part of what is needed to fix this is, as mentioned, several hours of downtime. Downtime for any site is an undesirable thing - many US sites can have downtime during hours that are very late at night for US users, but Elliquiy has a population that is not all based within the US. This makes it difficult to determine when downtime should be to fix a problem that is only a peripheral use of the forum's functionality.

As others have suggested, the players search and posting request threads looking for people in your time zone are still options.

[realisticwordweaver]

Why not schedule a downtime, say, a couple of months in advance, and fix this issue once and for all? I am sure, the members can wait for 2 days, and have this tiny niggling problem resolved rather than wait indefinitely.

[Trieste]

Because currently we are trying to get new software live that will accommodate the forum's size and fix more than just the search issue. The programming efforts are currently directed toward a more widespread and hopefully more permanent fix rather than temporary stopgap solutions to scattered problems which all stem from the fact that we are using ill-suited software.

[Trieste]

The person who has been writing the software has been rather unavailable to work on it actively; updates are usually posted in On Topic or Rules and Announcements.