Search Fault 13/03 - Finally solved after 6 weeks

One-Eye

redux said:

Sometimes searching a thread for a word that is definitely in it (to go back to a previously read post) doesn't work.
e.g. search this thread for any single one of the words Report behaving Sometimes work
No results

Good point - I never really considered "Search Within Thread" so I have had quick look:
1) Search within thread only appears when there is more than one page in the thread - as it appears to the right of the "go to page" buttons which are suppressed until there is a second page. This isn't really a problem as Ctrl+F works for a single page.
2) Search within thread works for threads with all replies before Wednesday 26th February.
3) Search within thread does not work for threads created after Wednesday 26th February.
4) A thread started before Wednesday 26th February, but with some replies after then - Search finds occurrences before 26/02 but doesn't find occurrences after 26/02.

thingamaBob

redux said:

Sometimes searching a thread for a word that is definitely in it (to go back to a previously read post) doesn't work.

e.g. search this thread for any single one of the words Report behaving Sometimes work

No results

Search is not including any threads started since about 8:30 pm on 26/02. Although this thread shows as being started on 25/02, the vast majority of it is actually a part of a thread that was started on 27/02 but then merged with the one started on 25/02. I'm no expert but it could well be that searching this thread for anything posted from 27/02 onwards will not give any results or perhaps the search function is treating the whole thread as started on 27/02.

webkn

Still not working. So disappointed as this has been going on for a long time now and is a pretty big problem not only to compers but anyone searching the forum. I would of thought it would be a priority but doesn't look like it is! 

chocoholic123

This has search problem has crippled the Comps Board - you can not search for competitions and this means that there are also duplicates which may cause entries to become invalid. Is there any hope of things being fixed any time soon, so many compers are leaving this forum because of this.

Coupon-mad

The search error has also crippled the private parking fines sub-board.    We will drown in queries because we can't keep up and nor can we point people to similar threads.

We can normally tell people how to beat private parking firms in court and by simply searching, for a similar thread - for example 'VCS Airport no stopping' used to find all threads including those words (as you'd expect) with the most recent first - but the mishmash of results that comes back is from years ago and not in date order and is worse than useless.

I can't even find things I know I posted two weeks ago.  I tried 'Equality Act' on the parking fines board only and got 2014 results and nothing recent, despite knowing I'd posted about that Act in February.  I can't trawl through my own replies to find things I posted, because I reply to more than 30 queries most days.  I rely on the search function.

Some of us on the parking fines board have had to revert to Google to find recent threads.

This will ruin our (three-year consistent) 99% win rate in court v parking firms and will cost newbies money.

One-Eye

Coupon-mad said:

Some of us on the parking fines board have had to revert to Google to find recent threads.

Unfortunately, for some reason Google is NOT indexing all MSE forum threads like it used to before the upgrade.
eg: "Fault is now over a week old and 33% of all live competitions" site:forums.moneysavingexpert.com
returns no results. (it is in this very thread near the bottom of page 2)

webkn

Are they ever going to fix this problem? so many are quitting the forum now. I just wish they would revert back to the old green forum...at least it worked!  
The search was working before! 

rugmaker

The lack of engagement and updates from MSE on this and other threads about forum problems is very, very poor. I don't mean that to be unkind, but to point out that forum users deserve to be treated better than this even if we don't pay anything to use the site.

thingamaBob

Search now seems to be working OK.
And posting this has not prompted a "New" marker for me on this thread.
I wonder what else may have been fixed.

MSE_Ben_H

Hi everyone. This should now be resolved. We’re monitoring closely and, as ever, let us know if you spot any more issues.

Sorry it took a while - we’re still getting used to our new home and, even at the best of times, search problems are quite complex and a delicate balance to put right.

Thank you for sticking with us.