Search all Forums?

[Inspector507]

Gary,
When I use the Back button on my browser, I have the search term still there, just have to change the forum to search in.

Jerry

 

[Muhammad]

Some browsers will keep it, some lose it when you change screens.

The suggestions are good. Ultimately, we want to offer a comprehensive search of all forums... it just might take a little while. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[DocHeb]

Nothing I'm going to say should be construed as a complaint. I get much more than I pay for from this forum. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I asked one of our Information Services Priests (aka DBMs - DataBase Managers) "how can Google search 3,000,000,000 Web pages - that's full web pages, not posts - so quickly?". He got pretty excited and went on & on and I really didn't understand most of what he said, but one interesting point he made is that searches on historical data are easier since you don't have to worry about current activity affecting your search data. He said that most big database searches are done on a companion server on a duplicate image of the database. This allows active forum participation to be unemcumbered by searching demands on the CPU, since all searches are done on the replicated database on a separate server. The duplicate database could be generated daily at a low usage time. Searching on the "search server" might be slow, but it wouldn't affect active forum use.

I really miss the all-forum searches. This forum serves as a social outlet for many, yet the combined knowledge stored within your databases is even more useful. Not having easy access to that knowledge diminishes the value of your wonderful forum.

Thank you again, and I hope this doesn't seem like a complaint.

 

[rambler]

Chris has a good concept there. To keep this database for this long, you have backups somewhere. Searching the backup can make the backup slightly more fragile, but would allow a search without shutting down the database. Searches would be 24 hours old or so...

Another way to deal with searches is to build a complex index - often as big or bigger than the original data base, but provides very quick results and doesn't disturb the original database usage. Index can be maintained in off-peak times. These can be kept fairly current.

Of course, it's easy for me to spend _your_ server space costs. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif As the others say, no complaint. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Just, as this resource grows in size, it is _increasingly_ important to the users to be able to search the data for all the valuable info. What is the point of storing 300,000 messages, if no one bothers going back to them any more? Elimating such features can do long-term harm to the userbase, new-user retention, and 'warm-fuzzy' factor, all of which is needed for a strong & growing web site. Discussion forums such as this depend on a core group of people willing to answer questions with good info, and if they are over-taxed with too many repeat questions (geez, I just answered that question last week, I'm getting tired of this place!) because the search feature doesn't help any one, then you will lose a lot in the long term - and not realize it until it's too late.

Obviously, it's always a balancing act, and for this site to be around as long as it has & as good as it is, the operators know what they are doing, and will keep the needed features as they can. I would think a comprehensive search engine on a growing data base of this size would be a very big priority! Long term, it could be a deal-breaker to go without - I've seen other discussion sites drift away for the above reasons. Again, no complaint, just observation.

--->Paul

 

[glennmac]

There has been sufficient diplomacy and genuflection.

Allow me to get to the point: the current search capability stinks.

It is devolutionary. It is retrograde. It is a functional "takeaway" from all those who have long participated here and who dimly recall the apocalyptic knowledge revealed here by the Founding Fathers during the Golden Ages.

The current search function is un-TBN-ish, un-IMC-ish, un-American, and uncivilized.

All TBN posts should be retained until the heat death of the universe. Wouldst thou advocate burning one- or two- or five-year old books shelved in the Library of Congress? Of course not. Knowledge is power; and tractor knowledge, in particular, is sacred scripture.

All must be kept; and all kept must be globally searchable. Nothing less is acceptable for the internet's best and funnest knowledge forum. Global retention and search must be axiomatic and is non-negotiable.

Of course, global search should not come at the expense of significantly degraded response time. But, surely, these capabilities are not mutually exclusive; surely, we can have both via the technological magic of the digital universe. C'mon, a few more bytes here, more bytes there, more clock speed, more parallelism, more vectorization .... more whatever ... and we're all happy.

Oh yeah ... more money. Technology costs, you say. So, let's pay it. How? I dunno ... I'm just a greedy citizen consumer here ... but the alternatives seem obvious and threefold.

1. The Administration opens its personal wallet, because the reasons (whatever they are) that have animated the Administration to create and maintain this universe should logically extend to keeping this site on the cutting edge, and as the digital avatar, of complete, up-to-date, friendly, fun, and EASILY ACCESSIBLE tractor knowledge.

2. Seek and soak advertisers.

3. Tax the greedy, consuming TBN citizenry. That is ... me ... us. Offer a fee service that includes full search capabilities along with other functional goodies you can cook up and sell to TBN addicts and patriots. Cripes, and no bull: TBN has been more valuable to thousands of us, in real dollar terms, than many of the expensive implements we buy and projects we undertake. If the Administration gets all wobbly at the thought of such a grubby idea, please refer back to options 1 and 2 above. This is a zero sum game.

Too bad I spent so much time composing this persnickety diatribe, and too bad you are reading it, because six months from now we won't be able to find it.

 

[TonyC]

LOL...Quit beating around the bush, Glen. You've got to come out of that shell once in a while!! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I'm afraid I have to agree, though. I miss the "search all" real badly. Now when I want to search something, I try a couple of forums and quit out of frustration. Sometimes there are good threads on a topic in multiple forums so to get it all you need to keep looking.

But I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is. If Muhammad and company repel from a monthly fee (which would be fine with me but perhaps not everyone) then I'll be first in line to kick in a donation to help resolve this. Hopefully they are making a few bucks on this for all the work and investment involved but I'm betting Muhammand doesn't have a Rolls Royce parked in his garage where a tractor should be.

So if some dough will fix it, count me in.

 

[Muhammad]

Actually today Ibrahim came up with an interesting plan that might make restoring the search possible. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif We're pretty busy, but just so you know, we're figuring things out.