WTF is wrong with this forum's search feature?

[cyberjock]

So I know I made a post a few days ago and I know I used the word "SMART". So I did what I always do.

(I recommend you do this in a separate window so you can see for yourself!)

So I clicked the "Advanced Search" in the upper right corner.

For search types I checked "All Types"(wanted to cover all of the bases).

For keywords I entered "SMART" without the quotes.

I know it was my post so I typed in for username "noobsauce80" without the quotes.

Clicked search.

Ok, I get 5 threads as results. NONE from 2013. I was willing to bet mega bucks I had made the post this year, and certainly since last Wednesday. So I did more hunting and found my post in this thread:

http://forums.freenas.org/showthrea...atus-state-quot-online-quot-when-disk-failed-!

Gee, post #2 has my exact word with the exact same capitalization but it doesn't show up in searches.

So what is going on? I watch plenty of people fail to use the search(either correctly or laziness.. not sure which) but now I'm really starting to question if my time here is well spent if people can't even search for their answers using the forum's search feature.

Please, someone fix this and post back that this is fixed. If I'm really going to be trying to help people in a forum and they can't even search I think it'll be time for me to move on. If there's one thing that a good forum MUST have, it MUST have a good search feature.

Maybe this explains why alot of us are getting tired of answering the same questions day after day. Nobody can actually find stuff even if they try....

 

[ben]

And on top of that your post got spam filtered. WTF.

 

[larrylandboarder]

I gave up using this forums search feature and use google to search the site instead.

TBH Ive noticed the same behavior on other forums search features too.

 

[ProtoSD]

Its a screwed up vBulletin thing. ALWAYS choose "Single Content Type" or you'll get garbage results. Like Larry says above, searching with Google is much more reliable, for example:

smart noobsauce80 site:forums.freenas.org

 

[cyberjock]

I totally agree with everyone that has responded. But that is complete BS that you have to workaround the forum search feature.

This is so far beyond unacceptable. This is almost obscene. The one thing that absolutely MUST work and doesn't!

At the least the forum search should be fixed so that it forces you to chose 1 content type.

 

[cyberjock]

And on top of that your post got spam filtered. WTF.

No kidding. I figured that by the time you rack up 100+ posts either you've been banned for wtfbbqroflcopter or you have decent language. The filter should not be triggering every 5th post I make. Some of the posts I couldn't even figure out what 'might' trigger it.

 

[Stephens]

All I can say is larrylandboarder is correct about it being common on other forums too, and protosd is correct about why and how to get around it. It's one of the reasons I've advocated here several times that people just search using Google (who make a lot of money on making search work right) just using "FreeNAS " followed by your search. ProtoSD's advice to use the site directive also works, but I'm usually lazy and just type "FreeNAS " followed by search term(s).

 

[cyberjock]

I've never had a forum search be messed up like this before.

 

[jgreco]

Look, man, it's vBulletin, what the heck do you expect?

 

[cyberjock]

I expect the search feature to work :P

Is that too much to ask? I've been on several vBulletin forums and they've worked fine. I'm confused as to why you think that means that this is expected.

 

[cyberjock]

You know, now that I know people may not be able to search for answers to their own questions before posting yet-another-question-about-the-same-topic I'm rapidly losing interest in even posting to the forum.

I mean, if the forum admins can't even get searching to work why should I even bother posting? Why not just handle everything by PM or IRC? Wasn't the whole reason for a forum setting to allow many to share from the experiences of one? That sure doesn't sound like we're doing a good job with a broken search engine.

Edit: Not to mention I just had 1 or 2 posts flagged for "review". This is getting nonsensical. I'd think that by the time you rack up even 100 posts the spam filter should figure you are trustworthy to not post bad stuff or whatever.

 

[HolyK]

Look, man, it's vBulletin, what the heck do you expect?

Ah cmon, it's not "bacause it is vBulletin" ... I am an forum admin of one project and "my" vB is working fine. Search engine, plugins, overall main functionality are fine, also i have several custom hacks and mods and guess what ... they are fine:] Yea, we are facing several minor bugs, some of them are vB related, another are our own mistakes, but these are minor issues, nothing critical.

Thing here is, that this installation of vB is somehow broken. Search engine is not working properly at least. I offered my help with this couple of time ago, but without response.

BTW: That search engine should be easily fixable if the problem is what i think it is. So if admin is interested, just send me a PM, i will reply with IRC where i "sit", also i will provide references of my work, if needed :)

There is so much thing which should (and can!) be improved and several cool features which will make the forum a bit better ( thread / section filter is perfect thing, for example :] )

 

[cyberjock]

I've noticed recently that any post I make that involves a link to anywhere(even forums.freenas.org!) is automatically flagged for review by a moderator.

If someone is actually paid to maintain the forum software they should be forced to fix this stuff(assuming they are even capable of such a feat) then shown the door. There's no way this level of incompetence should be allowed. It didn't flag every post I made with a link for moderation 2 months ago and it shouldn't have started whenever it did.

So forum admins.. anyone actually looking into this or should I start spending my free time elsewhere? I'm fairly sure that Ben(who is the only person with any rank above "Moderator" to respond) isn't responsible for the forum's software or I think he would have said something.

Yes, I do expect an actual informative response from someone with "Administrator" in their name that actually has authority. Is this falling on deaf ears? Am I crazy for thinking someone cares?

 

[cyberjock]

Edit: ^^^ That post was moderated. Why was it moderated?

 

[Stephens]

"admin" also sometimes posts. If you don't get a response from this public thread, you might want to try PM.
http://forums.freenas.org/showgroups.php

 

[HolyK]

I've noticed recently that any post I make that involves a link to anywhere(even forums.freenas.org!) is automatically flagged for review by a moderator.

Hell you right ... my thread in HW section was sent also into moderation.

Since i like FreeNAS project and it would be nice to have friendly and powerfully community here, i'm sending PM to admin, thats all what i can to right now :(

 

[James]

Guise, I think the auto-moderation problem is solved. We changed the settings to the following:

* Users with less than 25 posts are considered "newbs"
* "Newbs" that post more than 2 links will be auto-moderated
* ONLY "newbs" will be auto-moderated from now on.

I'm still unsure how to proceed with the search function. HolyKiller, any suggestions?

 

[James]

Okay, and thanks to HolyKiller: Advanced Search now appears to be operational. Thanks for pointing this out to us Josh!

 

[cyberjock]

And I have confirmed that it works! Woohoo! /Cheers!

 

[HolyK]