# empty results page; search within a post/thread; statistics?



## siares

Hi Mike,
it's time for the regular siares vs. search feature.

I'd like to have a possibility: to search for several words contained within 1 thread, rather than within one post. Is this possible to do, please?
If post 1 contains word seldom, and post 22 contains word anyway, I'd like to get the thread in results when I search for keywords seldom anyway (without quotes).

Report on anomalies:
Sometimes search says there are results but doesnt show any.
For example in EO, searching for seldom anyway (with 'display results as threads) brings up no results but says there is 3 pages of them.

Might be helpful for some*:* It is better to click 'display results as threads' when looking for punctuation marks. (Edit: there is similar thing with phrases without any punctuation).
When searching for "either of us's" posts within EO(not clicking 'display results as threads'), there is 82 results. About 81 of them do not contain the us's.
When clicking 'display results as threads, there is 1 result only - my thread where I did use the us's. (But the forum says there is 2 pages of results, altogether 58 of them.)
Same thing with "he were!" searching within CS - post search brings up 4 posts, 3 of which contain 'he were' without exclamation mark.
Thread post brings up only one result which does have exclamation mark.

Searching same in 'All forums' is probably too exhausting for server - brings up 0 thread results (but says there is 38 pages of them).

Would you please give some statistics - are there people using the in-forum search more than the dictionary search?

Thank you.


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## Peterdg

You should get a job as a software tester.

Strange indeed!


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## mkellogg

siares said:


> search for several words contained within 1 thread, rather than within one post. Is this possible to do, please?


If "show results as threads" doesn't work, I guess Google is your best bet.



siares said:


> Sometimes search says there are results but doesnt show any.
> For example in EO, searching for seldom anyway (with 'display results as threads) brings up no results but says there is 3 pages of them.


This search for "seldom anyway" gave me 23 results.  Is that the wrong search? Or do you get very different results.  (I see one deleted thread in the 23 that you will probably not see.)



siares said:


> Same thing with "he were!" searching within CS - post search brings up 4 posts, 3 of which contain 'he were' without exclamation mark.
> Thread post brings up only one result which does have exclamation mark.


"Thread post"? I get 5, 4 if I put "display results as threads".  What do I need to do to see just the one?

I will try to dive into this next week to see if I can find the source of the problem.


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## siares

I take the punctuation marks back (I'll cross it out from above post): results are exactly the same without them.
There is simply no thread results shown in EO for the phrase "to be or not to be"; the thread with this title doesn't come up in the post search with 'search titles only' either. This seems to be a new mistake.

Edit: sorry Mike, I had to delete my post above cause it uploaded un-cropped printscreen.


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## mkellogg

I just made a change. Is it fixed now?


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## siares

Yes, thank you!! It was hard without search working.
The results before were very interesting: for one term the results only showed one thread - mine (when I was logged in)
For another term, there were 2 results altogether with 'most replies' search, and higher numbers but completely different for each 'most recent' and 'most relevant'.


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## mkellogg

Siares, we ran into some problems, but as best I can tell, our search issues have been fixed again. I know that you will let me know if you see otherwise.


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## siares

The whole problem is back.
The search malfunctions in the same way it did before the fix, the only thing which does work is one can see a list of threads by members (which was before broken along before with the main search).
So the fix has only worked to remove the tip of the iceberg.

Wanted to add printscreens but it says uploads are not available.


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## mkellogg

Siares, please email me your screen captures. Just send it to the forum07 email address that you get email notifications from and I'll get it.


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## siares

mkellogg said:


> email address that you get email notifications from


I don't get email notifications. Mike or fellow foreros who are reading this, please PM me the email address email notifications arrive from. I'll post back when I've gotten it.
I,ve got it now, thanks!


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## Dan2

Hi Mike,

I don't know if this is a recent problem only, but lately upon searching for words in titles only I've been seeing a lot of empty results pages that nevertheless have the caption (for ex.) "Showing results 1-6 of 6".

Looking for an example for you, the first randomly-selected search I tried failed in this way.  There is currently a thread in EO entitled "under the firm or style".  When I search for "under the firm" (with the quote marks), "titles only", "this thread forum only", I get "showing 1 of 1", but no link.  When I search for "the firm", with "titles only" checked but NOT "this thread forum only", I see a blank page but "Showing results 1-33 of 33".

Yet other, similar, searches work fine.

As always, apologies if I'm overlooking something obvious.

Dan

EDIT: I meant to refer to the "this forum only" box, not the "this thread only" box.  Thanks Peterdg.


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## mkellogg

Thanks, Dan.

"under the firm", searched for as a title, just worked fine for me.  I see the one thread there.  If you click on that link and don't see the thread, let me know.  Also, links to your searches help, too.

Still, we are investigating these issues.


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## Peterdg

Mike,

This is what I get when searching for "under the firm" (with the quotes) and "search title only" checked. As you will be able to see, it says "Showing results 1 to 1 of 1", but there is no link to the thread/post.

PS. I don't know what Dan means with "this thread only".


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## Dan2

Peterdg said:


> I don't know what Dan means with "this thread only".


I meant "this *forum *only"!  I've edited my post.  Thanks for catching that!

And thanks for the screen capture.  That's exactly what I see.


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## mkellogg

Yes, I understand. Please do it again and send me the link.

This is helping, but I need the link.


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## siares

Mike,
but won't you see different results in the link, because of you being the admin?
In your link I see nothing.

This is search for under the firm *without quote marks*,
search titles only
this forum only
display results as threads

there the thread is visible.

Search Results for Query: under the firm | WordReference Forums[title_only]=1&c[node]=6

Before, 'display results as threads' seemed to be the problem, and here it is the quotes.

@Peterdg, which user-friendly site do you use for uploading printscreens?


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## mkellogg

siares said:


> but won't you see different results in the link, because of you being the admin?


Maybe, that is what I am testing. 

In this case, we both saw the thread, so it doesn't tell me anything.  If you give me a link where you can't see the thread, I can test to see if we see anything different.


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## siares

Here it is! (isn't)

Search Results for Query: "under the firm" | WordReference Forums[title_only]=1


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## mkellogg

Thanks, with that link (fixed link), you see nothing, but I see the one thread.

So, basically, as I suspected, the filter that hides threads that you shouldn't see if being overly aggressive.  you should see this one, as far as I can tell.


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## siares

That aggressiveness is inconsistent, too:
Search for "under the firm" under any criterion *in CS* works fine!

But search for "firm" + display results as threads doesn't - there the results are missing/invisible again.
Search Results for Query: "firm" | WordReference Forums[node]=7
(Only one result visible from results 1 to 21 - this very thread, when I'm logged in)

Zero results visible out of 21 when I'm logged out:
Search Results for Query: "firm" | WordReference Forums[node]=7


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