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Well, I have to say the board is proving very stable and efficient since the recent improvements. Congratulations to all involved. And thanks.
Still, I find two things bugging me. Recently, the number of topics in The Woodshed has gotten so long that I have to click the “more” button at the bottom to see them all. Surely quite a few of those threads could be archived. Many have been idle for three or four months or longer.
The second is less of a nuisance, but a more important problem. Maybe it’s me, but I think the search engine is extremely limited and inconsistent. If I enter “The Origin Of Consciousness In The Breakdown Of The Bicameral Mind ” it returns the post from July where I mention that book. If I enter “Rings Bicameral Odyssey Enough” I get the same post. This seems great and powerful.
But if I enter “I’m a carpenter considering beoming a tile installer” I get no matching items found. That is the first sentence of a post from Dec 18, 98. If I search for “tile price” I get only twelve items back, the oldest dating from Oct 99. But the thread from Dec 98 should clearly be included here. (The thread is “pricing tile installations”) Entering “pricing tile” gives similar results.
If I just searched for “tile” I got many items that when clicked on, gave me a page on which the word “tile” did not appear. < Obsolete Link > This thread for instance. After hundreds of items, I finally found the “pricing tile installations” thread I was looking for. That search would have been a lot quicker if “tile price” worked. It would also have been quicker if I had been able to stipulate that I wanted to start the search in, say, July of ’99, or maybe with the oldest posts first.
I think that people coming to look for answers to FAQ would be a lot more likely to find them without having to ask again if the search engine worked better (or if there was a better explanation how to use it?) (or if it was easier to find that explanation?) (just in case I’m using it wrong and haven’t found the instructions.)
Thanks.
Rich Beckman
Replies
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David
Re the quantity of Hubcap, I mean threads in the Tavern. . . the new delete thing doesn't work any better than the old one. . . no matter how hard I try to delete the never ending blather threads, they keep comin back like a bad stink. . . I'm gonna try to unsubscribe from the Tavern and see if it will finally go away.. .this is cruel and unusual punishment.
-pm
*Patrick, you cow tipper, you! You're trying to hijack my thread! I may have egg on my face, but I can still see!Rich Beckman
*HeyWhat's a guy supposed to do. . . the sysaps must've archived all the bitchin-about-technical-stuff threads, and no-one responded to an email that I sent awhile back and your's showed up all timely like, seein as how I was tryin to expunge Hubcrap and it just wouldn't go away!!!!!About the search engine.. . I've had little trouble the few times I've used it. . .just lucky I guess.Aren't those wipes I sent ya awesome. . . great for egg, will-knots, maple syrup in the beard etc. . . -pm
*Yeah, the wipes are great. I think I just about got all that egg off (sticky stuff, eh?), and even have a wipe or two left.Don't feel too picked on, Doug and Luka are all over CookTime (and God knows where else), too.I've always had problems with the search (I still especially enjoy the returned items that do not contain the keywords), but I wanted to wait for a nice stable period of time to bring it up.Rich Beckman
*RichMake no mistake. ..I don't feel picked on.. I can take a ribbing or a shot. . . I've handed out my share. .. it's the subject material of the threads... it bores the shit outa me and takes up space in my new messages folder. I finally bit the bullett and deleted my subscription to the Tavern, now I have to check the Tavern list to see if anything new comes in that I might wanna check out, the old way was more convenient but no longer tolerable. Happy searching. . . good luck with getting a response. They either fired David or he's on holiday...no longer closely monitoring stuff apparently.-pm
*Rich, Just wanted to let you (and the sysop) know that I have the same problems you do with the search, I generally give up. It shouldn't be that way.John
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Well, I have to say the board is proving very stable and efficient since the recent improvements. Congratulations to all involved. And thanks.
Still, I find two things bugging me. Recently, the number of topics in The Woodshed has gotten so long that I have to click the "more" button at the bottom to see them all. Surely quite a few of those threads could be archived. Many have been idle for three or four months or longer.
The second is less of a nuisance, but a more important problem. Maybe it's me, but I think the search engine is extremely limited and inconsistent. If I enter "The Origin Of Consciousness In The Breakdown Of The Bicameral Mind " it returns the post from July where I mention that book. If I enter "Rings Bicameral Odyssey Enough" I get the same post. This seems great and powerful.
But if I enter "I'm a carpenter considering beoming a tile installer" I get no matching items found. That is the first sentence of a post from Dec 18, 98. If I search for "tile price" I get only twelve items back, the oldest dating from Oct 99. But the thread from Dec 98 should clearly be included here. (The thread is "pricing tile installations") Entering "pricing tile" gives similar results.
If I just searched for "tile" I got many items that when clicked on, gave me a page on which the word "tile" did not appear. < Obsolete Link > This thread for instance. After hundreds of items, I finally found the "pricing tile installations" thread I was looking for. That search would have been a lot quicker if "tile price" worked. It would also have been quicker if I had been able to stipulate that I wanted to start the search in, say, July of '99, or maybe with the oldest posts first.
I think that people coming to look for answers to FAQ would be a lot more likely to find them without having to ask again if the search engine worked better (or if there was a better explanation how to use it?) (or if it was easier to find that explanation?) (just in case I'm using it wrong and haven't found the instructions.)
Thanks.
Rich Beckman