[unsolved] search title only, NOT search message text only!

The behaviour described in the bug report is either by design, or would be far too complex/time-consuming to be changed

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chrizoo
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[unsolved] search title only, NOT search message text only!

Post by *chrizoo »

This is a bug in the forum software, but in lack of an appropriate forum section, I report the bug here.

There are two search options:
  • Search topic title and message text
  • Search message text only
But the second one should read "search title only".

As a result of this is the only forum, where I often abandon the search and just post because I can't spend 30 minutes wading through 10+ pages with coincidental results when on any single other forum I can do the same in 30 seconds via a title search.

It just does not make any sense to search in "message text only" while excluding search terms in the title.

But restricting search term matches to the title only yields more pertinent results (as search term matches in the message text are sometimes coincidental by nature, i.e. you wouldn't find someone saying he has "cleaned the windows of his house today" in the topic title), particularly when search terms are general and cannot be improved on.

I have seen countless of forums on the web in my life, but not a single one with this problem. It's always search in title only and search in title + message.
Last edited by chrizoo on 2011-09-08, 05:01 UTC, edited 4 times in total.
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chrizoo
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Post by *chrizoo »

this was classified as "behaviour which will not be changed".

Why? What is the reason for that?
It's very obviously a bug in the forum search.
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nn1k3
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bump

Post by *nn1k3 »

Could the moderator please reconsider Chrizoo's suggestion?
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Post by *Balderstrom »

It might be related to the version of phpBB used - though I don't know for sure, but looks like it's on a pretty old version (going by the copyright line at the bottom) ---
Using phpBB © 2001-2005 phpBB Group
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Post by *Hacker »

nn1k3,
Could the moderator please reconsider Chrizoo's suggestion?
How can a moderator help?

Roman
Mal angenommen, du drückst Strg+F, wählst die FTP-Verbindung (mit gespeichertem Passwort), klickst aber nicht auf Verbinden, sondern fällst tot um.
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Post by *nn1k3 »

How can a moderator help?
I was hoping that you would think about the issue and how best to address it.

It must be a bug, as the present search options seem illogical and are certainly abnormal. Searching by title alone will help when a search gives too many hits to sift through.
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Post by *Hacker »

nn1k3,
Well, I am sorry, I really have no idea if it's a bug or some other kind of issue and neither can I influence the forum software or its configuration; only the administrator can do that.

Roman
Mal angenommen, du drückst Strg+F, wählst die FTP-Verbindung (mit gespeichertem Passwort), klickst aber nicht auf Verbinden, sondern fällst tot um.
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Post by *ghisler(Author) »

This is indeed a misfeature of the forum software (phpBB). I have never understood why they would offer a search in the body only.
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Post by *nn1k3 »

Maybe the new version of phpBB corrects this. I suggest that because at this website I see more search options than what we have here:
http://www.phpbb.com/community/search.php

Post subjects and message text
Message text only
Topic titles only
First post of topics only
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Post by *ghisler(Author) »

Possible, but I'm still not convinced that I should update because there will be no way back. The new one is
1. More complex, so there is a higher risk of security holes and slowdown
2. Quite different, so all my extensions like quick reply will stop working - it would take many weeks to get back to where we are now
3. The themes will of course not work any more too, and I don't like the new theme (the contrast is bad)
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Post by *Balderstrom »

Does anyone use the default theme? I'm on cobalt :-)
Plus a couple user-css fixes in Opera, including, Quote-block backgrounds dark-grey and Code-block backgrounds black.
1. Has numerous security fixes since 2005.
2. phpBB out of the box does quick-reply.
3. Current-day phpBB has a plethora of themes to choose from.

phpBB • Blog • phpBB 3.0.6
Quick Reply wrote:Well, we will add quick reply as an option. This will be a forum-specific setting and connected to the “can reply to posts” permission. It will only be shown in topics and not used for new topics. The quick reply option will be turned off by default for new forums. Option-wise the quick reply implementation will be a bare-bone text area with no buttons, no options, no smilies. For this the posting page is there – a quick reply feature should be used by people who know how to use BBCode and how to properly format their posts.
Current phpBB version: phpBB 3.0.7-PL1

How to upgrade phpBB2 to phpBB3.

All 3 of the reasons listed are addressed (as well as the OP's concerns) with the newest version of phpBB. As well one can install a second forum in test mode, alongside the current one, import the current MySQL DB and when everything is working as expected, shut the forum down momentarily and import the most-recent DB so as to not lose posts.

So here's a reason that isn't addressed by the most recent phpBB.
4. I don't want to.
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Post by *chrizoo »

ghisler(Author) wrote:This is indeed a misfeature of the forum software (phpBB). I have never understood why they would offer a search in the body only.
Many thanks for confirming this problem, Mr. Ghisler.
Balderstrom wrote: 1. Has numerous security fixes since 2005.
2. phpBB out of the box does quick-reply.
3. Current-day phpBB has a plethora of themes to choose from.

All 3 of the reasons listed are addressed (as well as the OP's concerns) with the newest version of phpBB. As well one can install a second forum in test mode, alongside the current one, import the current MySQL DB and when everything is working as expected, shut the forum down momentarily and import the most-recent DB so as to not lose posts.
Balderstrom, thank you for having gone out of your way to offer solutions to every particular concern Mr. Ghisler has raised.
nn1k3 wrote:Maybe the new version of phpBB corrects this. I suggest that because at this website I see more search options than what we have here:
http://www.phpbb.com/community/search.php

Post subjects and message text
Message text only
Topic titles only
First post of topics only
thank you for confirming, nn1k3
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