Bug in forum search feature?

English Forums Feedback
1

Hi,

I was looking for a particular thread that I participated in about a month back, but search results did not find it – I found it by manually going back through my posts.

Thread in question is this one: http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/install-boot-login/478942-splashy-bootsplash.html

Search was conducted as:

  • keyword: “bootsplash”, username: “Tyler_K” … thread not in list of hits
  • keyword: “splashy” and username: “Tyler_K” … thread not in list of hits

Very clearly you can see that it should produced a hit: http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/install-boot-login/478942-splashy-bootsplash.html#post2491205

Any thoughts ? Or, for that matter, is this reproducible for others?

2

> Any thoughts ?

imho the forum search function is severely broken and has been for years
(it is part of the vBulletin forum software and, afaict is unlikely to
ever be fixed)…

i’d suggest you use google, BUT when doing so to search the forums
always use google’s “site specifier” switch…as you see it used in
this productive forum search:

http://tinyurl.com/bsw3fpr

–
dd

3

Or you could use this one :
Search - openSUSE.org

It can search Wiki, forums, lists or of them at the same time. Works really well for me.

4

IMHO it’s not a bug. When entering the username, AFAIK the search function will search for threads started by $username

5

Addition after some testing: entering your username indeed only gives threads started by you. Now back to finding the mentioned thread, try searching for “splashy or bootsplash” (with double quotes around it) and leave out the username. Conlusion: no bug.

imho the forum search function is severely broken and has been for years
(it is part of the vBulletin forum software and, afaict is unlikely to
ever be fixed)…

Please, support with facts. Facts that illustrate the “broken” aspect of VB’s search function. Facts that support the idea of an assumed/presumed bug not going to be fixed.

6

> Facts that illustrate the “broken” aspect of VB’s search function.

those facts were in evidence–supplied by the OP…

anyway, i clearly labeled my assertion as opinion, and opinions need not
be based in fact, but merely in perception…

further, it is my opinion that when searching the openSUSE forums,
google out performs the vBulletin engine in most every way imaginable…

–
dd

7

Okay, thanks for the feedback and suggestions. (That’s kind of disappointing that the VB feature set doesn’t support such … oh well, there’s always google, as has been pointed out)

8

“Broken” is not a perception, nor an opinion

9

A FYI - Not a search, but if you’re searching on threads you’ve posted, you can open your own User Profile and various pre-configured searches/lists are there for you, inlcuding

Any threads you’ve participated in
Threads started by you
Latest posts

Too bad I don’t see a simple way to modify the pre-configured searches…
I took a quick look at the HTML code, looks like there are some pre-configured PHP searches used but it doesn’t necessarily mean that a custom search string might not also work.

TSU