Problems with Wrongplanet Forum Search Engine

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Hi all,

I have a feeling that the Wrongplanet Forum Search Engine doesn't find all of the thread titles which contain the terms that I'm looking for.

I'm undergoing the actual TMS treatment soon (previously I received a placebo) and I wanted to find the threads which contained John Elder Robison's comments on his TMS experiences.

I typed "TMS" and "Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation" into the search engine but couldn't find it.

The only reason why I found the actual thread (titled "TMS Research") was because I previously sent a private message to "johnrobison" (John Elder Robison's username) and looked at the list of the posts he's made.

Does anybody feel that the Search Engine isn't working properly?

Thanks in advance.

I'm sure of it.

The google-search produces only the most pathetic feeble small "sample" or "selection" or something of all the posts which "match" a search.

I've found this over and over again.

It's a joke, a gesture, nowhere near as good as the old WP search function, ( which allowed for various "refinements" ), and in combination with a "Find all posts" function which doesn't allow one to go to a certain page of a member's posts, so that one has to scroll and click manually through every single one to find a page, and many many other clunkinesses, it does mean that what could have been an extraordinary archive of material is an increasingly impenetrable forest into which more and more data/info/members stories and advice, and wisdom even, disappears with ever increasing speed.

Older/longer-term members are aware of how much precious information has essentially been lost forever and many stop posting anything worth talking about, because they have already done so, very eloquently and thoroughly etc, and at least once, perhaps several times, in the past.

It is a waste, and a shame, and when I think about it I feel sad, but it's one of the reasons why I ( and others I think ) gradually disinvest from the site, switch off to it after a while.

I can imagine that not being able to find the past helps to destroy any cliques, because there is nowhere for them to put down roots, and newcomers don't feel overwhelmed by the "grandeur" and past posting-history, of older members, but there is also less connection or attachment to individuals because with avatars always changing and almost no access to people's past posts it is difficult to know who said what, and therefore "who" someone is in a way, after a while. It is difficult/nigh on impossible to find old conversations.
.

I've found the search feature pot luck. Sometimes it finds relevant posts, other times it brings up links that contain nothing relevant and leaves you to wade through long threads. Overall I don't rate it very highly.

Thank you ouinon and Tallyman, that's just what I thought.

Hopefully somebody can fix the Google Search engine. It may a problem with the staff at Google itself though. I know that Google has been notorious for changing things when people were used to the previous design...

When this thread was posted, I did the search for that, entered either "TMS" or "TMS research", and it came up as the first result for me. I did it again just now, though, and that thread was nowhere to be found in the results.

I wonder if the difference (when I did find it) was that Amajanshi had posted a new post in the thread when I searched, but hadn't, of course, yet when he searched. And now it's 10 days later and it's not so new a post anymore (and no newer posts in the thread).

Ahh I've found the the threads in which I mentioned TMS:

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt78494.html ("TMS Research" , John Elder Robison posted in this)

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp2781428 ... t=#2781428 ("Taking part in Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Trial in Oz")

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt129758.html ("My first experience with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation")

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt133673.html ("I am undergoing TMS treatment tomorrow")

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp2781436 ... t=#2781436 ("I know I will be seen as unpopular here for saying this...")

Btw it's annoying how when you want to go to a certain page, typing that page number and hitting ENTER doesn't work, it just resets at Page 1. You have to click through manually, argh