Search Behaving Badly

[casportpony]

Just now I was trying to find some posts made by HEChicken and this is what happened.

This search only found one message when I clicked here:

Then I tried this and got the same thing.

These also produce just one item.

But if I search in just threads I get what I think is probably correct.

 

[azygous]

I'm a cranky old woman and use that information to discount what I say. But I think the BYC search feature has always been and still remains one of the most disappointing things I endure about this website. Second only to the BYC store, which is a torture chamber that I will not subject myself to until a major revamp has made it customer friendly. (Note to James: take a hint from Amazon.)

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Just now I was trying to find some posts made by HEChicken and this is what happened.
This search only found one message when I clicked here:

Looking into it, thank you for the great details and screenshots.

But I think the BYC search feature has always been and still remains one of the most disappointing things I endure about this website.

Sorry you're having a bad experience with search. In order to improve it, we'll need much more details, examples, etc. of what you are searching for, what you expected to see, etc.

 

[aart]

I'm a cranky old woman and use that information to discount what I say. But I think the BYC search feature has always been and still remains one of the most disappointing things I endure about this website.

Another cranky old woman....the search has never been great here, since I joined in 2012.
Now it's easier to just use google than explain the deficiencies.
I've found some work-arounds, mostly just adjusting my expectations.

 

[azygous]

Sorry you're having a bad experience with search. In order to improve it, we'll need much more details, examples, etc. of what you are searching for, what you expected to see, etc.

The search is simply a non-starter. I'll ask it to search for "chick chairs" and I get irrelevant mish-mash. It's like asking a lazy husband something, and he might respond, "huh?"

I just use my browser search. BYC could have a splendid search and it could be an immense help when we need to refer folks to past helpful threads, but they're buried deep in the web site never to see the light of day again.

Sorry to hammer this, but BYC search is worthless. Worthless, in case you didn't get that. But I adore the rest of BYC. Except the store which is a torture chamber. I've had a combative relationship with it for years.

 

[aart]

"chick chairs"

I've found using + between words helps.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/search/88050/?q=Chick+chair&t=post&c[title_only]=1&o=relevance

Google search without the + get a bunch of BYC results:
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1...hUKEwj0iayT2rHnAhVQYs0KHT49AfQQ4dUDCAs&uact=5

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

We're working on the initial issue that @casportpony reported, and hope to have that fixed soon.

Regarding general search issues. It looks like the issues are with the default BYC search.

I'd like to request that @aart @azygous and any other members having a bad search experience do the following:

1. Go to the Threadloom search: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threadloom/
2. Type in your search query and get the results
3. If you didn't get what you wanted / expected, please reply with:
   1. The search phrase
   2. What you were expecting (maybe a specific thread, etc.)
   3. If Google or whatever other search you use instead, provides a better result for BYC, and what it was.

We can't do much to change the default search, but I know the developers of Threadloom and they are very open to feedback... but to even begin to start improving things, they will need as many specific examples as possible... otherwise, it's like going to the Dr., and when he/she asks you what's wrong, all you say is, "It hurts" and then walk out the door

 

[aart]

So if I have threadloom clicked here, then go to advanced search, is it using threadloom?

If I click 'make default' here, will it always use threadloom from the other pages?:

Or do I have to use this link every time I want a supposedly better search?

Go to the Threadloom search: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threadloom/

Not sure I have the energy to document all you ask.

 

[azygous]

Threadloom is a bit better than plain search. I'll give it some exercise and see how it does.

 

[threadloom]

Hi everyone, we're grateful to power search on BackYard Chickens. This is an amazing community, and we love keeping up with what @Nifty-Chicken is doing here.

I realize the above examples were about native forum search, but wanted to chime in on the Threadloom-specific questions.

@aart:

• Advanced Search always goes to native forum search (XenForo).
• If you click "Make default" on the search results page, it will change your default search engine from the dropdown. Other functions that use search, like recent postings on the member profile page, will continue to use native forum search.

@azygous: A few differences between native forum search and Google, vs. Threadloom Search:

• Threadloom searches over all posts, whereas Google and native forum search only search over a smaller set. For example, Threadloom will find, rank, and let you filter amongst 1.4M posts for the search [coop], Google finds 216K, and native forum search finds ~500.
• When you use the forum filter, the forums are sorted by the most matches, and the numbers next to the forum names are the number of results in each forum that match your search query.

• Image search, which will also try to analyze the image even if the word you're searching for isn't in the name of the file or the text of the post.

• And spell correction, which for fun also works with brand and celebrity names.

Happy to provide more detail, but don't want to take up too much airtime, so will wrap with the following link which details search features for power users:

https://support.threadloom.com/hc/e...at-types-of-searches-does-Threadloom-support-
Thanks!

Paul at Threadloom