I've just been reading a thread in this forum titled 'Car kit issues with WM6' I read it and decided to do a search for similar threads by using the 'search this forum' text box. I typed in "car kit" (without the inverted commas) and it returned no results even though a thread exists with my search query in its title. I also tried the advanced search and selected 'search titles only' to no avail.
No wonder noobs get shot down in flames or am i missing something???
I'm only guessing, but it may just ignore search terms with 3 letter words or less. Many forums do this to stop the inevitable lag and problems when someone searches for "a" in an attempt to slow the forum down, which it does.
There are many people out there who run meaningless searches on forums to eat bandwidth or grind it to a halt, this is one of many methods to stop it.
I've got the admin's attention on this problem. Thanks.
Meanwhile, if you want to do a search, you can try using google and use the 'site:' feature. Example, if you want to search 'car kit', type this
"car kit" site:xda-developers.com
UPDATE:
It seems that it is known that the site can't do search on 4 letters or less words. Use one of these
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=304582
Related
Hello!
In the past few days (might be since the new forum is online, haven't been here for a while), the search function is acting strangely. For example, do a search for "ssa". It doesn't return anything, but I knew it was mentioned in at least one thread - and there it is, on page 9 of this thread. "Search this thread" doesn't find it either.
Is there some known problem with the forum? I would have searched, but...
Oh, and, erm, another nice one: search for "xda" and see a friendly message saying "Sorry - no matches"...
Search function doesn't work for words less than four letters long.
Try Googling with xda-developers as one of the search criteria. Also try Google's advanced search option; it has a Field for searching only a particular website. Just enter forum.xda-developers.com and go....
Also, don't forget that with Google you can search for posts by a particular user by including the user name as one of the search words.
Hope that helps.
I've been using:
site:forum.xda-developers.com search query
in google.. however the inbuilt vbb has some nice features. If the server can hack it, can we set the min length to 3 and rebuild the index please?
partly covered
please note that the search dialog box (after "New Posts" is clicked) is partly covered by the advertisement.
Hello,
I don't know how to set up mms service for my mini s with wm6.
I can't search for mms or wm6 or anything else.
You should disable search in your forums completely, it's not worth it with this restrictions.
It's the first time xda-developers were not able to help me, just because stupid admins are EVEN NOT ABLE LET THE USER BE WARNED that 3-letter-searching is not working!!! THAT'S HALF A YEAR NOW! ARE YOU DEAD???
I know this has been covered before and the answer was to use Google search. The problem I have with the solution is that it is overly broad.
If I want to search a particular forum only for a 3-letter word, is there a way to do it? For example, how do I search for the term, 'GPS' only in the Kaiser ROM development forum?
If I enter 'Kaiser' and 'GPS', I get all sorts of results that I don't want.
Also, may I suggest that if a user enters a search term with only 3 characters, the forum presents a message why it will not search, rather than the generic 'no reuslts found'?
Thanks.
I have a post on this forum: http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1714
It fell off the first page so, to find it, I entered my screen name into the 'search this forum' box. It returned nothing and brought me to an advance screen.
I then entered my user name into the search box on the advanced form labeled "SEARCH BY USER NAME".
Again, no results found.
Search isn't broken.Change the search term to something more general and try again...
POTATO!!!!
Right now, I keep seeing a cat reading a book when I try to search... :silly:
Prawesome said:
Search isn't broken.Change the search term to something more general and try again...
POTATO!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So when trying to find posts with my name in them, I should search for "General Synpax"? I was unaware of this promotion; I'm flattered.
The real problem is that the author field isn't included when the search is run, and it should be.
Really, why even bother having a site search functionality if it's going to be this bad. Just use Google.
synpax said:
So when trying to find posts with my name in them, I should search for "General Synpax"? I was unaware of this promotion; I'm flattered.
The real problem is that the author field isn't included when the search is run, and it should be.
Really, why even bother having a site search functionality if it's going to be this bad. Just use Google.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can search by author in Advanced Search.
synpax said:
So when trying to find posts with my name in them, I should search for "General Synpax"? I was unaware of this promotion; I'm flattered.
The real problem is that the author field isn't included when the search is run, and it should be.
Really, why even bother having a site search functionality if it's going to be this bad. Just use Google.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is by design - the vast majority of users want to search for keywords. If a user happens to share username with a keyword, they don't want to be inundated with their mindless musings in off topic...
If you want to find a post by a specific user, just hit the little cog for advanced search, where you can search based on username.
XDA has 4.6 million users, and 21 million posts, so search needs to be a little bit more specific to ensure that you can actually find things.
To find your own posts or threads, use the link to your own profile There's a button there to show all your posts and/or threads.
pulser_g2 said:
This is by design - the vast majority of users want to search for keywords. If a user happens to share username with a keyword, they don't want to be inundated with their mindless musings in off topic...
If you want to find a post by a specific user, just hit the little cog for advanced search, where you can search based on username.
XDA has 4.6 million users, and 21 million posts, so search needs to be a little bit more specific to ensure that you can actually find things.
To find your own posts or threads, use the link to your own profile There's a button there to show all your posts and/or threads.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your answer.
As a web developer myself, we recently had this same issue come up. We shifted all the search to Bing. This both got us better results and eliminated one target for a DDoS attack.
I tried searching earlier today for: Zenithink (the brand name of my tablet), and didn't get any hits. At the time of this post there did seem to be a problem with the search, but it seems to be working now.
k.
Also, keep in mind that search results can be delayed up to 10 minutes:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/faq.php?faq=searchlight_search#faq_recent
Hi all. I would like to ask something please if any one else have the same expierence:
When I search something and I get some results, I have a problem when i chooose the link (Thread) .... I dont see the thread that i have clicked on, but I am lead to a different page...
Can anyone help me?
Thank you in advanced
It happens with me too.
Sent from my GT-I8160 using Tapatalk 2
It has been a couple months since I've been on the site and quite often I am directed to what I want to find via a google search.
However when trying to access the forums today from the top banner bar, the options seem extremely limited.
It lists things like "Top Phones" "New Phones" "Root Tools" "Top Apps", etc. and each of these has a small sub menu of choices.
However I can't find a way to just access the General discussion forum...the one I'm posting in now.
In order to get here I needed to google "XDA general discussion" and then clumsily navigate to this "About XDA" sub section.
Am I missing something with how this site has been updated and how one is supposed to navigate it?
thanks.
TraderJack said:
It has been a couple months since I've been on the site and quite often I am directed to what I want to find via a google search.
However when trying to access the forums today from the top banner bar, the options seem extremely limited.
It lists things like "Top Phones" "New Phones" "Root Tools" "Top Apps", etc. and each of these has a small sub menu of choices.
However I can't find a way to just access the General discussion forum...the one I'm posting in now.
In order to get here I needed to google "XDA general discussion" and then clumsily navigate to this "About XDA" sub section.
Am I missing something with how this site has been updated and how one is supposed to navigate it?
thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=72689104&postcount=2
sd_shadow said:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=72689104&postcount=2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, that does give me a little bit more control.
However (to anyone listening who cares) - this still has problems. In order to search for a forum to jump to, I must first know its name to search.
In my case, since I've been here a while I know/knew there were general forums, so I typed "general" and I was able to pull some of them up.
But for new users, or anyone unsure of where to post a topic that doesn't have to do with a specific device it still obscures the entire forum structure from them.
Also, unless I was referred to the link above, there is really no way for me to know that typing in that box is how I find a forum, since it says "Type device...& more"....that "more" is pretty broad.
Wouldn't/couldn't it be a good idea to both write somewhere up there that the box is how you are meant to navigate to a specific forum rather than just search? Also couldn't there be a link within the list of results that always shows that allows one to view an entire structured list of the forums?
Part of the issue as I see it is that while many thinks are device based, there are certain issues that have the same solutions across a wide array of devices. For instance I just had an issue with APN settings being grayed out (non editable) on my wife's Galaxy S5, but I saw similar posts and partial solutions scattered throughout device forums for dozens of devices. I know that there will never be full consolidation into one "general" topic for these, but I think having a "general" forum (or forums) as the first landing page for these types of questions is more beneficial than forcing users (simply by the current design) to post in their specific device.
Anyway, I might be late to the party and these discussions may have already beat the horse dead, I still love the site for the wealth of information it provides but IMHO the redesign in this aspect borked functionality/ease of use when it comes to "finding" the right place to go to post a new thread.
/
TraderJack said:
Thanks, that does give me a little bit more control.
However (to anyone listening who cares) - this still has problems. In order to search for a forum to jump to, I must first know its name to search.
In my case, since I've been here a while I know/knew there were general forums, so I typed "general" and I was able to pull some of them up.
But for new users, or anyone unsure of where to post a topic that doesn't have to do with a specific device it still obscures the entire forum structure from them.
Also, unless I was referred to the link above, there is really no way for me to know that typing in that box is how I find a forum, since it says "Type device...& more"....that "more" is pretty broad.
Wouldn't/couldn't it be a good idea to both write somewhere up there that the box is how you are meant to navigate to a specific forum rather than just search? Also couldn't there be a link within the list of results that always shows that allows one to view an entire structured list of the forums?
Part of the issue as I see it is that while many thinks are device based, there are certain issues that have the same solutions across a wide array of devices. For instance I just had an issue with APN settings being grayed out (non editable) on my wife's Galaxy S5, but I saw similar posts and partial solutions scattered throughout device forums for dozens of devices. I know that there will never be full consolidation into one "general" topic for these, but I think having a "general" forum (or forums) as the first landing page for these types of questions is more beneficial than forcing users (simply by the current design) to post in their specific device.
Anyway, I might be late to the party and these discussions may have already beat the horse dead, I still love the site for the wealth of information it provides but IMHO the redesign in this aspect borked functionality/ease of use when it comes to "finding" the right place to go to post a new thread.
/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you try the Search Plus feature?
Wood Man said:
Did you try the Search Plus feature?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've looked at it, but it doesn't really remediate the issues I mention above.
While it can help you "find" answers to questions, google is just as capable in most cases of directing you to the relevant threads on XDA.
The problem is not really where to go to find answers, as much as it is to ask a question.
It seems the way the site is now structured as far as indexing/lookup is concerned is more of a "knowledgebase" then a forum.
I'm not sure if that is necessarily a bad thing - but it is different from how things used to be and for long time users it makes things a bit more difficult to adapt.
This is going to be a moaning post, which falls in line with the topics of discussion in the forum description.
Like many of you most likely, I've been lurking, contributing if it makes sense, and relying on XDA for a long time. It feels like a decade by now. This is the most frustrated I've ever been with the Search functionality of the website. It's so bad, I'm writing this post, but also I feel like competing sites (there are none in reality) could lure forum users away with nothing more than an intuitive, easy to use search functionality.
For example, every single time you go to search something, XDA for some reason defaults to searching Everything. If I'm in a specific forum, and sought out that forum (which is the only way to get to something that you specifically need given the search won't produce it), why would I need to search the entire site seconds after entering that particular forum. I have not found a setting to allow me to set the default search to search specific forum and recall the previous site iteration as having the ability to easily within a click or two, search the forum itself for a specific thread.
Secondly, searching for items that have more than a single word is pointless. The query results are from all over the site, and largely not related. Additionally, the search results apparently don't believe in offering sort or filter capabilities post submission of a search query.
Third, do you really not follow a boolean logic? Taking the aforementioned example, if I use double quotes to signify a specific string or phrase, the query result is blank.
I'm going to keep adding to this because later because I need to go, but I loved this site, and I want to ensure this feedback is out there. Please for the love of god, do something about this.
Unfortunately, I tried to search for the ability to provide feedback directly and was unable to come up with anything. I shouldn't have to build a Google CSE or run a 'site:' search to produce a specific result on this website.
Just a couple of years ago, I could come into the site, enter a model number or SKU or something specific like that and immediately be able to access specific forums or threads. I just tried to search for SM-990 and nothing but Motorola results were produced. What?