I wanted to provide a brief update on the problems with the search function. I know it's been an issue for a while now and most of you would like to see the search improved. It's an important part of these forums and we are working to address it.

The new version of the software that has been implemented runs a little differently than the previous version. The way that it works, it consumes significantly more server resources which has put more strain on the hardware this site is run on. In order to get the search working like it should be, we need to get a new server for the site and then setup the current server to handle only the site searches (there are that many searches performed on this site on a daily basis!). With the full search functions enabled on this site currently, these boards would surely crash on a constant basis.

I want to let everyone know that General RAAM and the entire moderator team has been very proactive in trying to get us to solve this problem. We are looking at prices for new hardware right now to see how much it would cost to implement these changes. I will provide another update once we know what it will take to make these hardware upgrades.

Thanks for your patience.

I'm willing to make a donation if it helps. I'm sure others here would also. If everyone who visits on a regular basis donated $20, i'm betting that it would help significantly.

Ditto!

Set up a paypal type thing and I would donate a bit

Thanks for the update!!! I would also donate a little to help out.

Thanks for the offers to donate for the hardware upgrades. Once we have the final cost estimates, we'll see if this would be necessary.

We should hopefully have some numbers soon.

I think setting up a "Please Donate" thread is a no brainer. Might as well. I'd give too.

Could also be a good idea to follow up with some way we as donators could then see an accounting of what the money was spent on, ie screenshot of e-receipt or scanned receipt, etc. Help to verify and instill a sense of confidence for those that might not be as willing to give and in turn generate a higher response rate.

Either way, hope all goes well.

Thanks again, EyeTricks, for your ongoing attention to the needs of the forum.

X2

I'll donate Cam's money

I wouldn't donate for a commercial site.

that's all good and well, why did you bother? it's not like we're asking

Not yet, but maybe in the future.

How much asks CPC every year to these members and how much asked SP since you're member here?

If it does happen, it will be a one off and you'll know exactly what the money is being spent on. The hardware that we need is quite expensive but as you already know we badly need it to try to get the forum back to some kind of normality. The owners will only ask for donations if it's absolutely necessary

Thank you to everyone else for offering in the first place though

SP has advertisements to earn money, the CPC not. Their only income are the donations. That is the difference.

OK, you don't wish to donate. It is noted

I would donate via Paypal. This is the best forum, with the longest-running, most consistent quality, on the Inter-tubes. I'm IN.

If I have the funds when and if it's needed, I'll donate.

If i have funds at the time and you need donations for this upgrade material i would consider a donation.

yes, do keep us updated. i think this is good news. i think it is a given (as Boones had said) that those of us who want to continue to see SP prosper will help in any way we can to that continue.

Just a quick update. We are proceeding with the upgrades outlined in my note above. We now have a more robust server running the web portion of the site (you should have noticed that the load times of the site increased considerably recently and it is because of this new machine). We are still working on getting the old server configured for its role as a dedicated machine for searching.

Thanks for the update...

Ditto also thanks for the update.

thanks!!!

great work, search seems to work fine now

haven't been using it since the site upgrade, because of the problems.
Accidentally used it today and was pleasantly surprised

Finally: Maximum date range is 1 Year(s).

Any chance later on down the line changing the date range to 2 or 3 years?

Yes, but much like a new car, we're breaking it in slowly. We'll gradually keep increasing the date range, making sure that the system is stable along the way. Your patience is appreciated.

Thanks Eyetricks and to the staff in general for the updates and upgrades. Very helpful.

-Boones

Thanks for a great forum too.

There are no results for your query. Please try a broader range of search criteria.

broke?

I searched on Baxter in subject 1 year that this is what I got.

Thanks, Eyetricks, RAMM, et al.

Your attention to this matter is appreciated.

...

The search range is back to 2 weeks again?

Yes. what happened?

Any update on this? I understand the technical issues involved, but limiting the search range like this severely reduces the value of the entire forum for those of us who cannot visit every day.

What about increasing the search range but limiting the number of searches that can be done? Even if I could only do one or two one-year searches per day, I would still find that far more useful than unlimited 2-week searches.

Since a couple of days i don't see the search panel is that normal ?

I thought that this had been posted somewhere but I can't see it myself so it obviously hasn't.

Yesterday the forum software got upgraded to the latest version and there seem to have been a few side effects. The forum banner is gone and so is the 'google search' box (which I'm assuming is what you meant). The normal search box is still there http://forums.superiorpics.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/search but the search server still hasn't been fixed yet so it isn't working properly

Search server should be operating without any problems. It appears that the search was set for a maximum of two weeks. I have just changed it to a maximum of one year.

Thanks.

It doesn't seem to be. My searches only return results older than 2 months old, even though I know for a fact that there have been new topics posted within the past few weeks, and I can click through the list of topics and eventually find them.

Congrats on your first post

The search function still needs work because when I went to do a search for Miley Cyrus posts to test it, and entered five months for the date range and fifty results per page, this was all I got:

The search function was capped to return a maximum of 25 total results, so that is all that was being provided. I just upped the maximum number of search results to be 150. Please let me know if that helps or if there are any other suggestions regarding search.

More pages appear when i do a search i tried Hayden Panettiere. However im unable to view any of the other pages except for the first page. It just says that i dont have permission to watch the other pages.

a question, where is the google search function?

some things like the google search and banners didn't transfer over during the upgrade but they are being addressed

Well I just went back and did the same search again. Miley Cyrus, five months, fifty results per page. And I pretty much got the same result. The newest post it gives me is from July 4 and the oldest it gives me is from June 29. That's just six days. And when I click for the second and third pages, I get a message saying that I don't have permission to see them.

similar to my results, did search on 'cyrus', 25 results, and the newest I could get results on was 6 weeks. anything less returns no results.
first page of 25 are accessible, but pages 2 & 3 I don't have permission to use the search engine.

@ Eyetricks : Keep up the good work, the search seems more useable than a couple of weeks ago

Google search has been restored.

I am also having a similar problem when clicking on page 2 of the search results. It says that I don't have permission to see them. We are looking into this problem and will try to get it corrected as soon as possible.

Thank you Eyetricks

Is there any way to not include the replies to a thread and just the original threads with the keywords you searched for? I'm ending up with a thread and then like 10 posts after it that are like "RE: name of the thread"

Me too. Same problem. When we search, it would be nice if only that post showed, not every reply to the post.

I really don't understand how to make search work anymore.

The search function was capped to return a maximum of 150 total results now
AND

Me too! Help!
Why the search function so BAD!

It doesn't work right now

What he said !!!

If I am searching for a specific post of a celeb, but I don´t know date or place I want to see as many posts of that person as possible.
I don´t want to see 100 users replies to one post !

Search is what it is, they stopped working on it some time ago, nothing further will be done.

In the <Advanced Search> page:
1) Select the proper Forum/Forums to be searched
2) In the <Keyword Search Terms> box, type this:
(same thing, with a <Space> between the " and the name)
3) Click the <in subject> button
4) Set the <Date Range>. I use weeks, the maximum # of returns is 150, if you get 150, keep reducing the rang a few weeks at a time until you get less than 150. This keeps you from missing any Threads.
5) Default is 25 results per page, I normally set it higher.

Example ... I didn't know who Minka Kelly was, so selected Actresses, Models, and Miscellaneous (in case she was a correspondent for E! network or something, like Maria Menounos).
I got 131 results, each result was one Thread, NO REPLIES (except one, several celebs in Thread, Title was "Name 1,Name 2,Name 3 ...
Notice there's no <Space> before the Names, so left the replies too. You could add -",Name" to the <Keyword> box to filter out those replies.

Just note that if you are searching miscellaneous, that technique would miss titles of the form "Name 1, Name 2, Name 3" with spaces after the commas, if the name you were looking for wasn't Name 1. And the occasional thread were someones puts "The Beautiful XXX" or something like that. You could do -"Re: Name" instead, you might get more false positives on replies, but you're less likely to miss threads.

You're right, foo. I had already tried -"Re: Name 2" and it works pretty well, but leaves replies to the many **Adds** Threads. So I tried -" Name 2" and that eliminated nearly all replies. I never thought about Titles with multiple names in <Misc>. I guess the best filter to start is -"Re: Name 2" instead of -" Name 2" and add -",Name 2" and -"* Name 2" (maybe even -"*Name 2") or other more specific filters if needed.

I tried it, I either get too wide or too narrow of range for a result.

There REALLY needs to be a way to search threads. When I'm searching for something, I don't want ALL posts to show,just the thread titles.

Is the Search Function down? It doesn't work for me...

Both regular and advanced search worked fine for me
just now

Advanced search has been hit or miss for me lately. Sometimes it works, sometimes it just hangs.

Advanced search not working at all

Thanks

See ya in 3 years for your next post

oh snap, in my face

I was wrong it does work sometimes, seems like it works more often when searching a lower number of weeks.

I don't know if people are still having this problem, but search doesn't seem to be working at all for me. Maybe it's just me, but it seems to be almost entirely unresponsive.

Hasn't worked for a couple days now, I reckon...