Advanced Search Function

[Oddball-CAF]

  Okay, I'm always reading "Why don't you do a search before posting that, stupid ?" in here.
My standard search function works, but the "advanced" search function always just seems to "hang" there
and never displays any results for me. Is there an Internet Explorer setting that I need to have enabled for that?

  My second problem with the BBS is that when I get to the bottom of the window I'm typing in, I can never see
anything when I'm typing. For example, the first couple of lines are fine, but anything beyond that, every letter I type
makes my screen go herky jerky and I can't actually see what I've typed until I stop and use the scroll arrow
on the right.

  I'm using Windows Vista, so perhaps that's the problem?

[guttboy]

Hiya Odd!

I don't think it is you buddy.

I have tried this on three machines and the mobile phone and still get the slow responses.  One thing that I have found is that in advanced settings you can determine the number of days to search.  The default on my account is 9999 days.  If I change this to something like 365 it "seems" like that takes much longer for a search although I can't be certain.

Also if there is a way to change this per account (would be nice and I may be missing it) is that it would default to the most recent searches first.  Seems like the default goes to most relevant which is not always the most appropriate result.

[infowars]

Searching the boards is useless imo...

[blazingun]

A big help imo would be the ability to sort the search results by date, etc. instead of having results shown by relevance.

[jolly22]

Or just take the search function out.

[uptown]

 

  My second problem with the BBS is that when I get to the bottom of the window I'm typing in, I can never see
anything when I'm typing. For example, the first couple of lines are fine, but anything beyond that, every letter I type
makes my screen go herky jerky and I can't actually see what I've typed until I stop and use the scroll arrow
on the right.

  I'm using Windows Vista, so perhaps that's the problem?

I'm still using XP and have the same problem. So I doubt it has anything to do with the OS.  Wish I could help ya but I can't figure it out either. 

[Mar]

I'm still using XP and have the same problem. So I doubt it has anything to do with the OS.  Wish I could help ya but I can't figure it out either. 

Use compatibility mode for IE8, I'm pretty sure that's what fixed it for me.



I LOVE firefox.

[TinmanX]

You're better off using Google and the site specific search (preceed any search term with "bbs.hitechcreations.com" including the "s. so, if I were to want to search for B29 I would type into Google: "bbs.hitechcreations.com" B29. From there you can alter the results by date, relevance, etc.

Don't hate on the boards though, you get what you pay for and when you use free crap you still get what you paid for.

[Dichotomy]

I'd like to see either
A) a better search engine native to the boards
or
B) the end of a bunch of 'veteran' guys jumping on a new guy for 'not searching'

I'm no neophyte when it comes to boards but I've done many searches here for something I KNEW was posted and wound up manually looking for it out of frustration. 

Buuut you're right.. The boards are free.  Ya gets what ya pays for. 

[Killer91]

Use compatibility mode for IE8, I'm pretty sure that's what fixed it for me.



I LOVE firefox.

^^^ This....    I had the same problem and this fixed it for me to

[Oddball-CAF]

  Thanks for the feedback guys. <S> I had "compatibility view" disabled. I'll give it a whirl
and see how things work out.
  As to the advanced search option, I'm glad to see I'm not the only guy havin'
problems with it.

[Vudak]

I used to be able to click on the various columns and sort by name/date/title/etc...  Now I can't do that on either firefox or IE. 

Did the forums change, or is this a problem on my end?

[pipz]

I get the jerky screen at the bottom sometimes as well.

[Simaril]

Sort by date is an option when you set up the search. The drop down window "search order" lets you have results by date (ascending or descending), relevance, or post size.

I've also had better success with "show results as messages".

Interesting that so many people have had trouble, cause using Firefox I've never run into problems. Must be getting cosmic retailiation elsewhere, I guess...

[Skuzzy]

The default search function for SMF does blow.  Thier answer is to use an external piece of software, which does not update in real time and no one has been able to integrate into the version we run.

We could improve the search function, but the bulletin board would have to be pulled offline for 3 or 4 days to do so.

The jumpy edit box was introduced, by Microsoft, in IE7, and later.  No other browser seems to have the issue.  Setting the browser to use "Compatibility mode" (which I guess is Microsofts way of disabling the non-standard stuff in IE) fixes the problem.

It really is not a matter of cost.  For the most part SMF is much faster than anything else we can find and seems to be the least violated as well.  It also supports all the options we need.