StarDestroyer.Net BBS

How often do people use the search function? I have become aware of a performance hack for the board that would make searching much slower (we're talking at least half a minute for a typical search), but it would greatly reduce those delays you get when you post and/or edit messages. I'm just wondering whether people would welcome or despise such a change.

Would it be applied to the archive board as well?

If not, I'd say go for it. It's relatively simple to paste search results to this board from the archived one.

I never search on the live board, and only very rarely on the "search board".

I hit the search button maybe once a week.

I do on occasion. Maybe once or twice per week.

Does "View posts since last visit" count as a search function?

Yes, IIRC.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

I use 'view posts since last visit' and 'view all posts just about every time I come here (it's easier to keep track of my threads that way).

On the other hand, I don't do formal searches more than once a week at the most. As long as what you're suggesting doesn't affect the Ego search or Newpost search, I'd manage with just the archive board (though I forget where that is at the moment).

I use it every couple days. Anything which will bring a noticeable performance boost to normal posting is welcome.

I use it for author searches sometimes when I've been away from the board for a while; some particular posters tend to comment on most the threads I would have been interested, so doing author searches for them is a lazy shortcut to whatever fun I've missed. Even when I'm doing that, I'm usually flipping between four or five other pages at the same time, so I don't care if it takes a while.

All-in-all, it sounds like a very minor sacrifice to speed up the board's most frequent functions.

-- Joe Momma

The search function is crucial. It helps prevent people ask questions that have already been answered. It should not be sacrificed.

evilcat4000 wrote:The search function is crucial. It helps prevent people ask questions that have already been answered. It should not be sacrificed.

It would still work; it would just be slower than shit. Speed up posting, slow down searching. That's the trade-off which I propose. It would take me about 5 minutes to make the necessary "special modifications" to get the job done. I tested it at home, and it's lightning-fast even when posting huge messages (this should be a boon to those Fanfic guys). Somebody who does a lot of searches, however, will discover that search performance is roughly 20 to 30 times slower.

So there would be no boost in page viewing as a result of this, correct?

I use "view posts since last visit" all the time, and I don't think there's any irritating delay between posting and pressing the submit button unless the board tips over for a while.

I rarely use the search function, but I use the "Find all posts by [this user]" function every day. Speaking of which, for myself I can look back on every page of the find all posts by Robert Treder thing, but for you, DW, I can only view page 1. Any thought as to why? I'd like to at least see page two.

Robert Treder wrote:I rarely use the search function, but I use the "Find all posts by [this user]" function every day. Speaking of which, for myself I can look back on every page of the find all posts by Robert Treder thing, but for you, DW, I can only view page 1. Any thought as to why? I'd like to at least see page two.

This is when the black helicopters arrive and soldiers in black abduct you.

I use search the search function at least two times a day, but having to wait would not effect anything for me.

I don't think that the posting lag is bad enough to warrant this change.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

I use the search function a couple of times a week if I need to find old news or posts, but I don't need it as critically as might first be thought.

Don't know if this will be as effective, but on SB.com the search function only allows one search every 30 seconds or so and has a minimum character limit to find as well.

i never use the search... ever... however, my opinion doesn't really matter *sigh*

Darth Wong wrote:How often do people use the search function? I have become aware of a performance hack for the board that would make searching much slower (we're talking at least half a minute for a typical search), but it would greatly reduce those delays you get when you post and/or edit messages. I'm just wondering whether people would welcome or despise such a change.

What kind of searching is affected? Just searching for text within posts or searches for posts by users/since a given date?

If the hack skips indexing keywords in a post, then, I'm guessing, it shouldn't affect the two latter searches. On the other hand, it may cripple everything done by search.php... from the looks of posts here, crippling just searching for text within posts wouldn't be a big deal, but crippling everything would cause a bit more of a stir.

I dont use the search function much, so... I would have no objections

Would the slowdown apply to search by author as well? Because I do that basically exclusively. I almost never actually look in the individual forums for posts.

Darth Wong wrote:How often do people use the search function? I have become aware of a performance hack for the board that would make searching much slower (we're talking at least half a minute for a typical search), but it would greatly reduce those delays you get when you post and/or edit messages. I'm just wondering whether people would welcome or despise such a change.

--Well, since the search function only gives me the first page of results anyhow I guess I don't really care....

I use the search occasionally i just seemt o find that the posts i want aren't there normally.

Can soeone provide a link to the archive board? (maybe post it in the announcem,ents too?)