Not sure when this started but I can no longer seem to search thread titles correctly.
Previously I could search for some keywords like 4.3, MIUI or MJ5 or other such thread identifying marks to filter our the rom threads I wanted. I can no longer seem to do this as it just brings up no results, even though the threads are there.
Any ideas?
TheATHEiST said:
Not sure when this started but I can no longer seem to search thread titles correctly.
Previously I could search for some keywords like 4.3, MIUI or MJ5 or other such thread identifying marks to filter our the rom threads I wanted. I can no longer seem to do this as it just brings up no results, even though the threads are there.
Any ideas?
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Click to collapse
Same here. Something is wrong with searching titles. I searched for "stock" in the Sprint Galaxy S3 Development forum and could see several posts with "stock" in the title, but would not show up when searching. I've since tried other searches for words I verified in several titles, and the posts do not show up in the search.
Related
Have a look at the form here:
http://support.catalyst2.com/index.php?_m=tickets&_a=submit
1. Submit the first page with any option (doesn't matter).
2. Type a few words like "email settings".
3. Notice the suggestions which pop up at the bottom, allowing to you find the solution without even having to actually submit your query, thus cutting down on questions which could easily be answered by the questioner themselves with a little research.
I'm not saying it will be easy, and it may very well reduce the site to a crawl, but you could have a pre-fetch on the articles held in the Wiki which would provide common solutions to a lot of threads which pop up with simple questions.
What might this require?
1. An up-to-date, correct, and well-referenced Wiki
2. Presumably a lot of server horsepower!
What will this prevent?
1. Easily answered questions like "Where can I find links to all the WM6 ROMs?
What will this not prevent?
1. Idiots who don't even read suggestions as they type their question
2. Recently solved problems in threads that get swamped by meaningless posts
3. Posts like "Thanks <insert name>, downloading now..."
Looks Good, BUT...
Looks good, but if you can't get a noob to search the forum using the provided search tools or to even correctly (correctly, being the operative word) google the site, we won't be able to get them to use this form...
Now, I do believe that you are on to something... IMHO, the search function should also include a link to google with the advanced search part already populated for searching in xda-devs... I know that there have been threads with the google links already posted, but they aren't stickies anywhere...
You are on the right track... Maybe all of the more knowledgeable members that are bother by this noob thing (like myself, since I am still a noob...) can simply add a link to the google search function in their sig, it will make it easier for newcomers to the site to locate the information they require...
Sorry, I didn't make myself clear -
The Create a thread, or Reply to thread, message box would have this feature implemented - so even as the person was typing in their mundane question, it would provide a link to the answer right in front of them which they would hopefully click before actually posting their question.
I think the search function on this forum is partly to blame, as any search under about 5 letters simply doesn't work. To make it better there are a few options:
1. Make it search Google by default
2. Make it default to replying with Posts rather than Threads (as some threads are hundreds of posts long)
3. Make it search both the Wiki and the Forum (solved with Google)
IMHO, the search function should also include a link to google with the advanced search part already populated for searching in xda-devs... I know that there have been threads with the google links already posted, but they aren't stickies anywhere...
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There is a google sticky alread. It just so happens to be 3 threads above this one
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=304582
1. Make it search Google by default
2. Make it default to replying with Posts rather than Threads (as some threads are hundreds of posts long)
3. Make it search both the Wiki and the Forum (solved with Google)
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I think you have a valid point Oli. I haev seen many posts with ppl voicing concerns about the search function, and I would tend to agree that it would help if it could be re-structured. Especially with the rate that this site is growing, some search function upgrading would be a good suggestion. However, just like finding any other type of info on the net, its all about your search skills. After spending enough time using the search tools, you find tricks and techniques to narrow your results. Im happy to see this thread, and hopfully the mods will combine their powers to find a way to simplify finding info here.
I am glad that there are ppl here that realize there is an issue with the search function... I also agree that there should not be a lot of stickies, but the BEST place for it, would be in the Search FAQ.... Have any of your read it... It is not that good and as a noob, doesn't show me the best way to implement it... It just says to use the search function... If I were top dog, I might change it a little, just to alleviate some of the darn stupid posts... maybe have it come up as a precursor to registering... Not that everyone will read it, but they will see it...
Just my .02 again... I'm gonna have to get some credit around here... these two pennies are gonna start to add up...
Hello, this is the only vBulletin forum that I browse(I'm more of a SMF guy, I use it and develop for it) and I can't find the place where I can see new topics in which I have participated(Tapatalk does this for this forum). Is there a link where I can see the new topics?
Dragooon123 said:
Hello, this is the only vBulletin forum that I browse(I'm more of a SMF guy, I use it and develop for it) and I can't find the place where I can see new topics in which I have participated(Tapatalk does this for this forum). Is there a link where I can see the new topics?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A couple of things you can do:
1
Subscribe to threads you are interested in and receive email notification of new posts being added.
2
Bookmark your profile page http://forum.xda-developers.com/member.php?u=1153710 and in there go to the statistics tab>Find all posts by. Then by clicking on your posts you can see if there have been any replies.
Not sure if these links might work also:
Find all posts by Dragooon123
Find all threads started by Dragooon123
Mike
im using subscription witout email, means i can go to my user cp and i see all threads i subscripted that have new posts
so i dont get too many emails but see all new replys..
The question is,
why does the XDA app offer this feature,
but the full version of the board does not?
I could theoretically run an emulator, run the XDA android app, and use this forum MORE efficiently than actually turning on a laptop. I use the 'participated' area every single day.
That seems backward. There has to be a way to pull this data to a web browser, if it can be pulled to an Android phone.
pkopalek said:
The question is,
why does the XDA app offer this feature,
but the full version of the board does not?
I could theoretically run an emulator, run the XDA android app, and use this forum MORE efficiently than actually turning on a laptop. I use the 'participated' area every single day.
That seems backward. There has to be a way to pull this data to a web browser, if it can be pulled to an Android phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should set your usercp so that it will automatically subscribe to threads you reply to (without notification)
Then go to http://forum.xda-developers.com/subscription.php?do=viewsubscription&folderid=all to view them.
MikeChannon said:
A couple of things you can do:
1
Subscribe to threads you are interested in and receive email notification of new posts being added.
2
Bookmark your profile page http://forum.xda-developers.com/member.php?u=1153710 and in there go to the statistics tab>Find all posts by. Then by clicking on your posts you can see if there have been any replies.
Not sure if these links might work also:
Find all posts by Dragooon123
Find all threads started by Dragooon123
Mike
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry to dredge up an old topic, but I haven't found an answer to the same question, and this is the only time I have seen it have replies. Finding threads posted by a user will not do the same thing, the participated thread button in the tapatalk or xda app does. One should not have to subscribe to every thread either, that would be pointless considering that is for threads you REALLY want to follow.
The information is accessible to the app, which means ultimately it would be easy to implement on the website, and it is counter productive you can only find it in app. The best answer I have is find the posts in the app, but if I have to post something longer, or with links, I have to find the thread on the website.
As popular as this site is, this feature would improve quite a bit.. people(maybe more noobs) would actually follow threads they've posted questions on, so the replies aren't a waste of time. How many threads have multiple people asked for more details and the OP never replies.. Subscribing to threads would only work on any new posts, and some of my oldest ones I would still want to know activity for. This all seems obvious.
I'm not very good with MSPaint, but I mocked up something I think could help a lot of people navigate this site a little easier. The search function works, but why shouldn't you be able to see a list of ROMs at a glance? A lot of the development forums here have several sticky posts, and things become difficult to navigate.
When threads that just list ROMs contained in a forum have to be stickied, it shows that a change is necessary because people aren't able to locate the one they're looking for. There are several threads in the same dev forums that have the same keywords, and this makes searching very aggravating sometimes.
Let me know what you think about this mock-up. I know it looks kind of ****ty, but try to see what I was getting at. Instead of drilling down into the forum to find an official thread about a specific ROM, just click the icon at the top of the forum page... or you could put this type of list on it's own page separate from the actual developer forum.
generic.imitation said:
I'm not very good with MSPaint, but I mocked up something I think could help a lot of people navigate this site a little easier. The search function works, but why shouldn't you be able to see a list of ROMs at a glance? A lot of the development forums here have several sticky posts, and things become difficult to navigate.
When threads that just list ROMs contained in a forum have to be stickied, it shows that a change is necessary because people aren't able to locate the one they're looking for. There are several threads in the same dev forums that have the same keywords, and this makes searching very aggravating sometimes.
Let me know what you think about this mock-up. I know it looks kind of ****ty, but try to see what I was getting at. Instead of drilling down into the forum to find an official thread about a specific ROM, just click the icon at the top of the forum page... or you could put this type of list on it's own page separate from the actual developer forum.
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Click to collapse
They are currenty working on a Dev tool, that will make finding Roms much easier, plus lots more features, so your idea is a good one, just they are already on it.
I don't knock anyone who has an idea, good or bad. At least it shows ppl are thinking and want to share their idea
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!!!!
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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.
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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
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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.