Forums

The forum search has two modes: OR with keywords, and AND without keywords.

Most of us are used to Google-style searches which are always AND. I'd prefer for the default setting to be this, especially for the search box at the top-right. In fact, I'd be happy to delete the option for the OR/keyword since almost nobody searches for "x OR y AND NOT z", and OR searches are pretty much as useless as Altavista in 1997 without typing + before each word. But I digress.

Add a note next to the author search box that it will not find old posts or guest posts.

I don't think the Category selection is useful. Nor is choosing what to sort by (relevance would be nice, but without that, I'd say time descending is the only sensible alternative).

Search time period: I'd say remove it and default to all time. It might be a higher server load than a date-restricted SELECT but I doubt anyone ever chooses anything else, and having used a forum where the search defaulted to 1 month, it was extremely annoying because it would return "no posts found" when I was searching for one I knew was there.

Search message title+text or text: remove the choice, just search both.

Keep the topics/posts results option. Remove the "how much" selection; I think 200 is OK (it's a bit like Google's result context preview).

Make the Search button a lot more visible! I keep clicking on the "Go" button at the bottom by mistake.

Overall, the more it looks like Google, the better :) I suggest:

Search the forums

[ ] [Search]

--------------------------------------------------------
Advanced search options:
Forum: [All |v]
Author: [ ]
Results as: (-) titles ( ) posts
--------------------------------------------------------
Advanced search tips:
- You may use * as a wildcard
- Author names may not be matched in imported old posts
(before 2005).
- search terms must be at least 3 letters/numbers

That 3 letter limit is a bit annoying, you can't search for "port 3e" or "port $3e".

Maybe offer a Google search for the forums too. Google offers this here and it might be worth offering it while we aren't rich enough to buy a dedicated Google rack-mounted search appliance (ie. forever). Personally, I use Google with a site: parameter rather than use a site's own search engine, most of the time.

Edit: Google doesn't allow selection of a directory for searching, but that could be solved by moving the forums to a subdomain like forums.smspower.org, although that would break all the old posts using relative URLs. New posts require full URLs

Edit 2: in the stylesheet, "border-color : #FFFFFF;" on the form elements makes them appear with ugly 3-D borders. Either remove that (getting the system default setting) or set it to another border style (eg. "border:1px solid #004477" to match the buttons).

Mister Maxim has made and applied the above suggestion today.
We choose the remove the top form temporary, because it is confusing compared to the regular form that should lie there and that you can see on early database tests. It'll be back later. Clicking on SEARCH shows a simplified search page with pertinents options.

Author	Message
Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14735 Location: London	[Forums] Search improvements Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 11:09 am
	The forum search has two modes: OR with keywords, and AND without keywords. Most of us are used to Google-style searches which are always AND. I'd prefer for the default setting to be this, especially for the search box at the top-right. In fact, I'd be happy to delete the option for the OR/keyword since almost nobody searches for "x OR y AND NOT z", and OR searches are pretty much as useless as Altavista in 1997 without typing + before each word. But I digress. Add a note next to the author search box that it will not find old posts or guest posts. I don't think the Category selection is useful. Nor is choosing what to sort by (relevance would be nice, but without that, I'd say time descending is the only sensible alternative). Search time period: I'd say remove it and default to all time. It might be a higher server load than a date-restricted SELECT but I doubt anyone ever chooses anything else, and having used a forum where the search defaulted to 1 month, it was extremely annoying because it would return "no posts found" when I was searching for one I knew was there. Search message title+text or text: remove the choice, just search both. Keep the topics/posts results option. Remove the "how much" selection; I think 200 is OK (it's a bit like Google's result context preview). Make the Search button a lot more visible! I keep clicking on the "Go" button at the bottom by mistake. Overall, the more it looks like Google, the better :) I suggest: Search the forums [ ] [Search] -------------------------------------------------------- Advanced search options: Forum: [All \|v] Author: [ ] Results as: (-) titles ( ) posts -------------------------------------------------------- Advanced search tips: - You may use * as a wildcard - Author names may not be matched in imported old posts (before 2005). - search terms must be at least 3 letters/numbers That 3 letter limit is a bit annoying, you can't search for "port 3e" or "port $3e". Maybe offer a Google search for the forums too. Google offers this here and it might be worth offering it while we aren't rich enough to buy a dedicated Google rack-mounted search appliance (ie. forever). Personally, I use Google with a site: parameter rather than use a site's own search engine, most of the time. Edit: Google doesn't allow selection of a directory for searching, but that could be solved by moving the forums to a subdomain like forums.smspower.org, although that would break all the old posts using relative URLs. New posts require full URLs Edit 2: in the stylesheet, "border-color : #FFFFFF;" on the form elements makes them appear with ugly 3-D borders. Either remove that (getting the system default setting) or set it to another border style (eg. "border:1px solid #004477" to match the buttons).

Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 8649 Location: Paris, France	Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2005 8:35 pm
	Mister Maxim has made and applied the above suggestion today. We choose the remove the top form temporary, because it is confusing compared to the regular form that should lie there and that you can see on early database tests. It'll be back later. Clicking on SEARCH shows a simplified search page with pertinents options.

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