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The Site => Site Suggestions & Support => Topic started by: Serack on March 30, 2012, 04:37:14 PM

Title: Search full of empty
Post by: Serack on March 30, 2012, 04:37:14 PM
With searches limited to 25 hits now, it has become more significant to me when search results have responses that don't actually have what I searched for in them and are therefore blank in the results page.

Today is the first time I got 25 hits that were empty when I searched for "Feynman" though.  Something is odd with the search algorythm...

P.S.  The results for that search might change with the generation of this topic and the one I am about to make in the "Other Media" section.

Edit:  Some changes for clarity
Title: Re: Search full of empty
Post by: DragonEyes on March 30, 2012, 05:55:45 PM
Quote from: Serack on March 30, 2012, 04:37:14 PM
With searches limited to 25 hits now, I have noticed more and more when search results have responses that don't actually have what you searched for in them and are therefore blank in the results page.

This is the first time I got 25 hits that were empty though when I searched for Feynman.  Something is odd with the search algorythm...

P.S.  The results for that search might change with the generation this topic and the one I am about to make in the other media section.

Not likely to change by much, I'd guess. I had put a Feynman quote quote in the Bar only a week ago.
Title: Re: Search full of empty
Post by: Serack on April 02, 2012, 09:45:37 PM
This is getting bad.  I just did a search for "Doylist" and narrowed it down to 30 days and just the spoilers section and still got 25 hits without the word doylist in them.

What's the google method if searching within a website since the native one is becoming rather unproductive?
Title: Re: Search full of empty
Post by: DragonEyes on April 02, 2012, 09:47:47 PM
Site:www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/ (Your search terms)
Title: Re: Search full of empty
Post by: Serack on April 02, 2012, 10:02:01 PM
Quote from: DragonEyes on April 02, 2012, 09:47:47 PM
Site:www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/ (Your search terms)

Darn that doesn't return the post I am looking for.  Someone recently used the terms Watsonian vs Doylist and I really like the terminology (and said so in thread) and I want to credit them for the term in my new doylist theory.  But I can't remember who it was.
Title: Re: Search full of empty
Post by: DragonEyes on April 02, 2012, 10:03:27 PM
Here you go. It's not reason, but it is from this website.

http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,27767.msg1186535.html#msg1186535
Title: Re: Search full of empty
Post by: Serack on April 02, 2012, 10:38:16 PM
it was wyltok

http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,31428.msg1346227.html#msg1346227

I found it by narrowing the in sight search to "watsonian doylist" (putting in "vs" gave me no topics) within 60 days, and only in the spoilers section.

Title: Re: Search full of empty
Post by: iago on August 25, 2012, 03:33:58 AM
Quote from: Serack on March 30, 2012, 04:37:14 PM
Today is the first time I got 25 hits that were empty when I searched for "Feynman" though.  Something is odd with the search algorythm...

I suspect part of what's going on has to do with the aggressive retiring (deletion) of old threads on a number of boards. That's done via a back-end script I wrote, which doesn't engage the forum software directly, just the database -- so it doesn't necessarily do it in the cleanest fashion. This may result in search keywords that point to posts that no longer exist, still sitting there in the database turning up hits when you go searching.

I try to do a maintenance run in the software every now and then to clear out broken/confused bits like that, but there's always some hang-time during which you can run searches that get results pointing to nowhere.

A theory, at least.