« search_talk.php » does not search topic titles; it soearch only the message content

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« search_talk.php » does not search topic titles; it soearch only the message content

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1gangleri
Jan 24, 2010, 5:25 pm

re: « search_talk.php »

Found this bug by coincidence: /search_talk.php?searchbox=add+anchors did not list

add anchors as wherever possible == (add anchors wherever possible (meaningful))) before the second post there.

2lilithcat
Jan 24, 2010, 9:41 pm

I don't believe that this is a bug, as searching in talk has always worked that way.

3AndrewB
Jan 25, 2010, 3:04 am

It is searching titles, in the results that you linked to, you can see the matching search terms are being highlighted in bold font, including a couple of thread titles. The thread/post you linked to is in the results, so I'm unclear as to what the issue is?

4gangleri
Edited: Jan 25, 2010, 11:51 am

>3 AndrewB: It is there now. It was not there before the second post.

5AndrewB
Jan 26, 2010, 1:14 am

Sounds like a cache/index issue then which worked itself out. A lot of the site is cached to speed things up and balance processing power, so you'll find information in various places isn't always the latest.

6gangleri
Jan 26, 2010, 8:50 am

>5 AndrewB:: Please try yiurself:

In this group you will see some topics as:
a:
/search_talk.php?searchbox=Books+in+series+that+are+not first post: Jan 15, 2010, 4:07pm
b:
/search_talk.php?searchbox=notice+disappears+without first post: Jan 19, 2010, 9:35am

7gangleri
Jan 28, 2010, 2:24 pm

additional note: the topic was:
« search_talk.php » does not search topic titles; it searchs only the message content

addition: It does neither search the topic title nor the user name.

In simple words: If users do not sign their topic (mentioning their user names) their own topics would not be included in a search
search_talk.php?searchbox=own user name+other search words

example:
discrepancy about common knowledge that should be inherited
will not be listed at the search link
search_talk.php?searchbox=gangleri+inherit

8jjwilson61
Jan 28, 2010, 4:25 pm

That was discussed and the consensus was that allowing someone to find all of the posts of someone else was too much like stalking.

9gangleri
Edited: Oct 10, 2010, 7:42 pm

The topic title was intended to be:
Topic:« search_talk.php » does not search topic titles; it searchs only the message content

Imagine you want to post at a place which is related to "the topic of your interest". How can you identify the most relevant topic?

I assume that in the last few year a "post preview" was addressed several times and reffered in dozens of topics.

This is a request about a feature which would help to avoid a lot of "noise" pollution.

Please look at the result for search_talk: post preview and let me know if the most relevant topic is identified.

If a change will be implemented one should also add the ability to resize the editing box.

PS. edited typos and html as allways

10jjwilson61
Oct 10, 2010, 9:42 pm

But would searching the topic title in addition to the content really help find threads that are missed when only the content is searched? I imagine that if a phrase is used in the title of a thread that the phrase will probably turn up in the body of the posts to that thread as well, so not much is really added.

It seems to me that what you really want is some sort of intelligent algorithm that finds the most relevant topics. Perhaps allowing a search for "post preview" would help as well (I just tried it and I suspect it's returning every thread).

In the meantime, the workaround is to use Google search with the site option to limit it to LibraryThing.

11gangleri
Oct 10, 2010, 10:33 pm

>10 jjwilson61: I used to work using MoZilla and Jira for years. Searching topic subjects is a basic feature in "Bug tracking".

12jjwilson61
Oct 10, 2010, 11:21 pm

Within a group of developers that mostly use the same terms for things, searching topic subjects probably works. But people reporting bugs on LibraryThing are non-technical users and the words they use to describe the parts of LT are going to vary too much to be very useful. For example, I might have used the term "thread subject" for what you called "topic subject".

13brightcopy
Oct 10, 2010, 11:51 pm

Being able to search subjects is a key features of just about every kind of search. There's a reason for that. It's not a bug, but it should be on the feature list.

14gangleri
Oct 11, 2010, 9:35 am

>13 brightcopy: Thanks!
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Please see / follow the feature request http://www.librarything.com/topic/100322 for this discussion