Page 1 of 1
Excluded Search Keywords
Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 4:37 pm
by ArtShapiro
I understand that, and why, certain keywords are ignored in search enquiries.
But "KEYBOARD"???!!!
I just searched to see if a T31 keyboard happened to be for sale, and search politely excluded "keyboard", thus giving me every post that mentioned the T31.
I'd opine that this ain't particularly user-friendly.
Art

Re: Excluded Search Keywords
Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 4:40 pm
by Neil
I've run into similar exclusions before, when trying to search for something with a very common word in it. Frustrating to be sure.
Re: Excluded Search Keywords
Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 9:03 pm
by GomJabbar
The following words in your search query were ignored because they are too common words: keyboard.
You must specify at least one word to search for. Each word must consist of at least 3 characters and must not contain more than 14 characters excluding wildcards.
I have to agree with you. I don't have the power or the knowledge to do anything about it though.
What often works when the forum search engine is wanting is to use Google Advanced Search. Enter in
forum.thinkpads.com for the site to search, along with the appropriate keywords or phrase.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&as_q ... nkpads.com
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en
Re: Excluded Search Keywords
Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 11:44 pm
by JaneL
GomJabbar wrote:I have to agree with you. I don't have the power or the knowledge to do anything about it though.
Same here - I've rummaged around in the admin panel, and there don't appear to be any search settings that can be changed. Well, any search settings period, actually.
Searching "common" words??
Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 7:28 pm
by crushedumblr
wont let me search for topics with "wireless" in the title! it says its too common a word or something, which is strange. Idk what other word to search for lol.
kind of infuriating when your trying to search the database for help on wireless connectivity for your thinkpad!
Re: Searching "common" words??
Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 11:02 pm
by RealBlackStuff
Re: Excluded Search Keywords
Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 2:37 am
by Harryc
RBS...you linked to the same thread that you posted in....classic

Re: Excluded Search Keywords
Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 7:26 am
by RealBlackStuff
Re: Excluded Search Keywords
Posted: Sun Jan 23, 2011 12:13 pm
by StarGehzer
I was about to post about this very issue but had a look & saw I'm not the only one scratching my head.
I searched for x31 wireless, and apparently wireless is too common, (but not x31???) and yes, I did specify the correct forum to search.
I noted the suggestion to use Google search. Perhaps the sites search function should be removed, or changed to a link to Google.
Ah well, one day the internet will be perfect, just not today.
Re: Excluded Search Keywords
Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 8:55 pm
by Mike Blake
Although I highly recommend the Google search of forum.thinkpads.com instead, there is (as I have posted elsewhere) a workaround to search for the "too common" words like "wireless."
The search here accepts * as a wildcard character, so you could search for "wireles*" and have it work. But consider using the search options to limit the search as much as possible, by a limited number of forums as an example. My search for "wireles*" in just the T4x forum found over 800 hits!
And be as explicit as possible. A search for something as common as say "wire" would be useless in finding useful results and might slow the board to a crawl (slowing the thinkpads.com server is why I suggest a Google search instead).
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q ... om&num=100
Re: Excluded Search Keywords
Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 8:07 am
by StarGehzer
JaneL & GomJabbar wrote: I have to agree with you. I don't have the power or the knowledge to do anything about it though.
Same here - I've rummaged around in the admin panel, and there don't appear to be any search settings that can be changed. Well, any search settings period, actually.
The fix.
http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopi ... &t=2112386
Re: Excluded Search Keywords
Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 9:16 am
by JaneL
The common word threshold was already disabled, so I'm rebuilding the search index. Says it could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours, so we'll just see how it looks when it's finished.
Re: Excluded Search Keywords
Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 11:49 am
by sarbin
thanks, Jane!

Re: Excluded Search Keywords
Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 3:12 pm
by JaneL
I wouldn't thank me yet. It's been running for 6 hours so far. I just hope I haven't broken anything.
Re: Excluded Search Keywords
Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 3:17 pm
by sarbin
thanks for making the effort.
i understand all too well what's required in systems management. can't tell you how many times i spent days (and nights) babysitting database update/upgrade jobs. mind-numbing!
Re: Excluded Search Keywords
Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 12:17 pm
by StarGehzer
Re: Excluded Search Keywords
Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 12:19 pm
by JaneL
Glad to hear it!
Re: Excluded Search Keywords
Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 1:13 pm
by Harryc
The search index doesn't seem to be all there yet. A search for 'wifi' on our forum search engine returns 13 results. It returns 12,700 results on an advanced google search of the forum. The other thing is, that search throttle is there for a reason. If the forum performance starts to suffer once this ramps up then we need to put it back on. It's one of those 'you can't have your cake and eat it too' scenarios ... unless StarGehzer wants to pay for a better server and more bandwidth

Re: Excluded Search Keywords
Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 9:37 pm
by JaneL
I've been re-running it today, and after 12 hours, the count for wifi is up to 23. I don't think the index building is working correctly.
On the bright side, one of the settings that is turned on is "Updating of fulltext indexes when posting, overridden if search is disabled." Since search is enabled, I assume that means that the index is constantly being updated as messages are posted.
I'll leave it running overnight and see where it is in the morning.
Re: Excluded Search Keywords
Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2011 4:12 am
by BillMorrow
not that i could do any better but it might be a good idea to let me know when something like this comes up..
so i can at least backup the db.. or start praying..

Re: Excluded Search Keywords
Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2011 2:31 pm
by JaneL
<quirks brow>
Re: Excluded Search Keywords
Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2011 4:25 am
by Puppy
Currently you can not search "X1" because there is a validation that: Each word must consist of at least 3 characters
Re: Excluded Search Keywords
Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2011 1:58 pm
by rkawakami
In that case use the advice previously mentioned in this thread and put Google to work. Enter whatever terms you are looking for and include this:
site:forum.thinkpads.com
Re: Excluded Search Keywords
Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2011 8:03 pm
by ozzymud
and if you want a particular forum...
site:forum.thinkpads.com X1 "f=62"
that search in google current shows 4 of the 7 topics in that forum (upto May 31)
the f=62 in quotes is for the X1 forum... you can find it for whatever subforum by going to it and looking at the address bar.
Also google recognizes the OR keyword... so to search for X1 in X1, general hardware, & Windows 7 forums...
X1 "f=62" OR "f=18" OR "f=57" site:forum.thinkpads.com
So while google won't find newest posts... shouldn't be a big deal cause newer posts are still on the 1st page of each forum, it is a lot more advanced then forum search & saves Bill some bandwidth
