Finding old posts

[JohnGriffiths]

Has anyone else noticed that some forums don't show previous pages? Tonight it wouldn't show me previous pages of content for the Technical and Towing safely (etc) forums. After logging in the previous pages appeared for Tech but not the other category. Moreover, the search facility is rubbish. Click "Advanced Search" and it just produces another button marked "Advanced Search" which then shows exactly the same as a normal search. How do I find the posts regarding stickers for units > 3.5t ??????

 

[JohnDuncan]

Indeed, the forums only show the last two months' posts (off the top of my head), the point being that you should be able to search for anything earlier. However, taking a quick look I think that advanced search only really works after you've done a simple search - after which the advanced search options are much better. Bit daft, agreed - have added it to the list!

 

[JohnGriffiths]

Thanks for your reply but I think the problems I'm seeing are more than just a 2 month limit. e.g. I can see 10 previous pages for technical (covering over two months) but zero for towing, driving safely (much less than two months). Even after doing a simple search the advanced search button does absolutley nothing. Maybe I've a setting on my IE not quite right so not to worry if others are seeing it correctly.

 

[JohnDuncan]

1) it may be three months, I forget - will check
2) it's possible that posts in those forums are sparse in that period
3) not sure about that - what browser and OS are you using?

 

[JohnGriffiths]

1 and 2) Maybe it is 2 months, I can see back to Jul 28th on some, Jul 25th on others so perhaps you are right there just aren't any earlier posting available.
3) Just bog standard XP and IE 8

 

[ValA.]

Like John I find the 'Search' facility most frustrating. Searching for something such as 'Camping Cheques' brings up pages of replies, not sorted in any way, either by date, forum, or relevance, and clicking the 'Advanced Search' button just repeats the same search on my PC with the same results. On many other forums there is a way to search either the 'Title' the 'Author' or text within the body of a post. Results are then displayed in 'reverse' date order, starting with the most recent, and going backwards - so at least the most up to date come up at the top. In order to find a relevant post in the pages displayed following a search on this forum you have no alternative but to read through them all - or at least look through them all to see when they were posted!

 

[JohnGriffiths]

Thanks Val, nice to know you have the same problem as me and its not just my setup.

 

[ValA.]

John, I've just done a 'trial search' for the word 'Technical and Towing safely' which is in your first post in this topic, so the search should find it. However, what it does is find 7 pages of posts, mentioning either technical or towing or safely - the earliest dated
Forum topic - Uvongo93 - 5 Sep 2004 and the latest dated Forum topic - nigel_374240528 - 30 Jan 2008.
Your post is not in the list!
Clicking the advanced search button, once the above search has been completed finds 7 pages of posts, mentioning either technical or towing or safely - the earliest dated Forum topic - Uvongo93 - 5 Sep 2004 and the latest dated Forum topic - nigel_374240528 - 30 Jan 2008.
Your post is not in the list!
It looks to me like the search facility is only looking at some old expired database, rather than the current one! It also looks like someone has just attached the same 'macro' to the button marked Advanced Search, where it should at least offer you more options, but doesn't!
Searching for other topics brings up 'Magazine Articles' dated more recently, but all the Forum posts are from 2008 or earlier!
One of the essentials of a working forum is that contributors should be able to conduct a meaningful search, so that questions don't have to be asked repeatedly, or answered repeatedly. Sadly, this important function appears to be missing!

 

[Soozeeg]

I didn't even understand your reply Val, let alone how to do a search!!! I did try the search facility once, but very quickly gave up. I agree, it's useless and extremely confusing.

 

[ValA.]

It's a real shame - I'm used to doing 'searches' - that's what a lot of my job involves, and it's very frustrating when it doesn't do 'what it says on the tin'.
Still, perhaps the techies might be able to have a look at it and find what's gone wrong.

 

[austin]

We are looking into the search indexing at the moment, for some reason the move over to the new servers has hampered how the content gets indexed.

 

[ValA.]

Thanks for that Austin - look forward to seeing the 'fix'!