Forum Search function

[SAS_Storebror]

Hi guys,

 

Maybe I'm a bit old fashioned that I'm still using the search function.
Either way, what's slightly annoying to me is the fact that whenever you search for a certain term, and your desired result isn't found on the 1st page of returned search result but (maybe) on subsequent ones, I find myself unable to proceed to page 2/3/4... without having to wait 50+ seconds between each click.

Is it just me?

Am I doing something wrong?

 

I'm sorry if this issue has been raised before. I've tried to search for it, but "search function" didn't return any good result on 1st page and I didn't have the additional hour to spend to proceed through subsequent result pages (see issue above).

 

Mike

[Asgar]

I think this is the main reason we have so many duplicate threads. People just don’t bother after the first search attempt and I don’t even judge them ?

[AEthelraedUnraed]

1 hour ago, SAS_Storebror said:

Hi guys,

 

Maybe I'm a bit old fashioned that I'm still using the search function.
Either way, what's slightly annoying to me is the fact that whenever you search for a certain term, and your desired result isn't found on the 1st page of returned search result but (maybe) on subsequent ones, I find myself unable to proceed to page 2/3/4... without having to wait 50+ seconds between each click.

Is it just me?

Am I doing something wrong?

 

I'm sorry if this issue has been raised before. I've tried to search for it, but "search function" didn't return any good result on 1st page and I didn't have the additional hour to spend to proceed through subsequent result pages (see issue above).

 

Mike

Yeah, the forum search function is far from perfect. Can't blame them though; writing a working search function is no piece of cake and they've got more than enough other things they need to spend their Dev time on (if developing in-house) or money (if buying).

 

My advice would be to use google. If you write site:il2sturmovik.com in front of your query, Google will only show results from this website. So, let's say you want to find out how the German radio navigation equipment works in-game (my latest search), you search for site:il2sturmovik.com german radio navigation and Google will show you the matching results.

[SeaW0lf]

2 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

My advice would be to use google. If you write site:il2sturmovik.com in front of your query, Google will only show results from this website. So, let's say you want to find out how the German radio navigation equipment works in-game (my latest search), you search for site:il2sturmovik.com german radio navigation and Google will show you the matching results.

 

You beat me to it. I just write what I want before site:il2sturmovik.com. Is there any difference before or after?

 

With Google you can refine the search by date, language, etc. Also useful, you can use quotation marks to isolate a keyword, let's say "fuel load" bombers site:il2sturmovik.com. This way, results with "fuel load", specially related to "bombers" will come first. Otherwise you can get "fuel" or "load" results that aren't related to fuel load per se. So play with quotation marks at will. Search some Google tips, because you have several of these tools to refine the search.

 

I never use any search engine online. Just Google.

Edited April 24, 2022 by SeaW0lf

[VBF-12_Stick-95]

3 hours ago, SAS_Storebror said:

Hi guys,

 

**snip**

 

I'm sorry if this issue has been raised before.  **snip**

 

Mike

 

Ya, I brought this up before but you obviously didn't find it with the search function.  ?

 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

36 minutes ago, SeaW0lf said:

You beat me to it. I just write what I want before site:il2sturmovik.com. Is there any difference before or after?

Nope, I don't think so.

 

Also, thanks for mentioning some of the other settings. Yes, Google indeed has some useful options.

[Lusekofte]

What I do is scrolling and scrolling and scrolling

I never got that search thing to work

[Jade_Monkey]

I think the wait time is to prevent bots from overloading the forum/site, but yeah, it can make things more inconvenient for users.

[sniperton]

On 4/24/2022 at 6:24 PM, Jade_Monkey said:

I think the wait time is to prevent bots from overloading the forum/site, but yeah, it can make things more inconvenient for users.

From the user's perspective it's a "pain, but no gain" situation. I know there are workarounds (as suggested), but still it's weird that we have to rely on workarounds rather than on proper solutions. There are plenty of sites out there where this doesn't seem to be a problem.

[AtomicP]

I can understand there being a limiter for users that are not logged in, because they could be bots, but the likelihood of logged in users being bots seems small. Seaching the forum is a pain without using external search tools.

[Dragon1-1]

On 4/24/2022 at 11:00 AM, AEthelraedUnraed said:

Yeah, the forum search function is far from perfect. Can't blame them though; writing a working search function is no piece of cake and they've got more than enough other things they need to spend their Dev time on (if developing in-house) or money (if buying).

They're using IPS, the search function is standard, costs nothing (because it comes with the forum software) and only needs to be configured right. Sure, IPS is crap, but it's entirely on them that this stupid delay is still a thing. It doesn't actually solve anything and annoys genuine users (particularly if you're trying to refine your query step by step). 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

39 minutes ago, Dragon1-1 said:

They're using IPS, the search function is standard, costs nothing (because it comes with the forum software) and only needs to be configured right.

...and even if configured right, still requires either massive SQL lookups (can slow down website and makes it vulnerable to DOS attacks, unless more time=money is spent to prevent that), or a separate server (requires time=money to setup and maintain).

 

The search delay on the other hand is a quick, cheap and easy way to prevent server overloads.

 

39 minutes ago, Dragon1-1 said:

Sure, IPS is crap

As is its search function. IMO, the Devs should just disable Search completely, or simply link it through to Google.

Edited May 3, 2022 by AEthelraedUnraed

[Dragon1-1]

6 minutes ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

The search delay on the other hand is a quick, cheap and easy way to prevent server overloads.

An even better way is to threaten to ban any account that DDOSes the server, which would include blocking searching as the banned user. Problem (assuming it actually exists, and I don't think so) solved. Guests can keep the delay. No legitimate user is going to deliberately overload the server, nor is it going to happen by accident during normal usage. The only scenario where it's plausible is a human registering purely to attack the forum, or a hijacked account. In both cases, a ban is the best solution (in the latter case, the user can contact the mods and get their account back with a new password).

 

I don't like Google because it's not a simple keyword search anymore, it prioritizes results based on an obtuse algorithm which don't always map to relevance very well. It's only reliable on simple stuff, or if you have a very specific query. Plus, when used like you propose it boots you to Google page for results, and if you forget to enter the site restriction when trying to refine the search (or look for something else) from there, it searches the whole web. 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

44 minutes ago, Dragon1-1 said:

I don't like Google

Then use Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, DuckDuckGo or any of the many other ones.

 

45 minutes ago, Dragon1-1 said:

I don't like Google because it's not a simple keyword search anymore, it prioritizes results based on an obtuse algorithm which don't always map to relevance very well. It's only reliable on simple stuff, or if you have a very specific query.

Are you seriously implying that the IL2 website search outperforms Google? 

 

The IL2 search engine uses long-outdated technology. It couldn't find a tree if you'd dump it in a forest. And yes, I've tried the IL2 engine. Even without the 60s timeout, you're usually much better off using a dedicated search engine.

[jollyjack]

DuckDuck is quite good .....

[Dallas88B]

Just type this into Google "search-term site: https://forum.il2sturmovik.com"

Then bookmark the resulting page that comes up

Click that bookmark when you need, just replace "search-term" with whatever your looking for and hit return.

It will find what your looking on the forum site.

Works on other search engines too.