Why forum search taking years to load

PowerGlove

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Quote from: The Sceptical Chymist on October 01, 2022, 08:30:52 PM

I don't know how search engines are created, but am I correct in assuming that there was one coded into the software (SMF?) bitcointalk is using by the creator of that software? If so, can that code be tweaked? I would assume the answer would be yes, but I don't know how any of that works--but I'm curious.

Yep, your assumptions are all correct! I've been messing around with SMF lately, and although I'm not yet that familiar with the code, I can tell you that most of the built-in search engine sits in a single ~1700 line PHP file ("Sources/Search.php").

If you or anyone else have specific questions about how it works, I'll be happy to take a deeper look at it.

JollyGood

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I guess you are right, it depends on the manner in which a member is using it and for what purpose.

The forum search function might not be ideal but it usually does display the information being searched for along with several variables even though it might take a few seconds more to load than say the usual out-and-out search big corporation engine URLs.

I would still not be against any form of revamp because if there is scope to update any functionality of the forum, it should be considered.

Quote from: lovesmayfamilis on October 02, 2022, 02:51:40 AM

Maybe you should think that the forum search is not designed to search for such simple words? How many responses did you expect to receive in response to your request, given that the address "sir" is quite normal and natural in many countries? And also, how many bounty hunters, especially from Asia and maybe Nigeria, are present at the forum every year?
In exactly the same way, one could query for words like "yes" and "no."
For me, the search works fine. Maybe you just need to understand the possibilities of the forum and not compare it with global search engines.

AnotherAlt

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Quote from: Husires on October 01, 2022, 12:21:57 PM

ask @LoyceV he is good at finding such things.

It's been three days, and this AI didn't respond yet. Maybe because OP already got the possible solution from others.

I had a similar issue a few days ago. So, I asked LoyceV if he had any plans to create a search engine for Bicointalk only. He also suggested using Ninjastic (Back then, I didn't know that I could search for a specific keyword).

Quote from: LoyceV on September 11, 2022, 07:31:52 AM

Quote from: AnotherAlt on September 11, 2022, 06:45:15 AM

Do you have any plans to create a search engine for Bitcointalk only?

Nope. But you can use TryNinja's Ninjastic.space - BitcoinTalk Post/Address archive + API. Direct link: ninjastic.space/search.

By now, You may have already found the result. In case you didn't, Here is the result.

skarais

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Quote from: aysg76 on October 03, 2022, 08:13:26 AM

Have not used forum search function from ages because it's kind of messy one and give you results in the same format which is hard to filter out and your search for word sir would lead to so many pages even with preferred choices also.

So as suggested best is use Ninjastic.space for finding out the results and have optimised search as you can have Google search also but that specifically for searching for some threads or topics but not this one.

That's right mate, I also rarely or maybe no longer use the forum search feature since I got to know ninjastic.space. This tool is very useful to me because of its ease and relevance. I can easily tell which users have mentioned the most bitcoins so far, and the results only take a few seconds to get the data.

But by the way, I was really surprised about the search results earlier for the bitcoin context. JayJuanGee is truly a bitcoin maximalist where he has called bitcoin 13504 times so far. If you're curious about the results, here are the top 10 users who mention bitcoin the most.

source: https://ninjastic.space/search?child_boards=true&content=bitcoin

Code:

1. JayJuanGee [13504]
2. franky1 [11587]
3. pooya87 [11127]
4. Amph [8556]
5. deisik [8071]
6. batang_bitcoin [7577]
7. South Park [6694]
8. mk4 [6534]
9. 1Referee [6510]
10. Kakmakr [6380]

PX-Z

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Quote from: Stalker22 on October 01, 2022, 09:51:00 AM

Quote from: Little Mouse on October 01, 2022, 08:45:33 AM

~

Or you can use TryNinja's Ninjastic.space: https://ninjastic.space/search
I am sure you have heard of this search engine before. Cheesy

I just stumbled this thread and want to share my experience using search.
Like everyone else ^{(i guess)}i actually use google search for bitcointalk stuffs more often. If it's more complicated, ninjastic.space search feature is the one i will use.

aysg76

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Have not used forum search function from ages because it's kind of messy one and give you results in the same format which is hard to filter out and your search for word sir would lead to so many pages even with preferred choices also.

So as suggested best is use Ninjastic.space for finding out the results and have optimised search as you can have Google search also but that specifically for searching for some threads or topics but not this one.

hosseinimr93

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Quote from: pakhitheboss on October 03, 2022, 07:03:12 AM

Another option is to use a simple Google search wherein you enter "sir" Bitcointalk you would get the names of all users who have sir in their username.

OP isn't looking for users who have "sir" in their usernames. He/she is looking for the users who have used the word "sir" in their posts.
Anyways, if you want to have a list of users who have "sir" in their usernames, I don't think google search can help you much. The best is to click on "Members" button (located next to "my messages" button at top of the page) and go to "Search for members".

cryptoaddictchie

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Ive also think it will crash or end up with error. Since the data on such keyword especially the one youve used is probably many or have been used multiple times and common words like this probably more used than simple inquiry. Maybe add up some additional word to it to lessen the traffic when it loads.

pakhitheboss

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A simple search like sir would become an issue if you do not edit the Message age. Another option is to use a simple Google search wherein you enter "sir" Bitcointalk you would get the names of all users who have sir in their username.

PrimeNumber7

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To answer the OP's question: the forum DB is not indexed on the columns that contain the text of posts. This means when you try to search for a posts containing a particular text/phrase, the forum will have to search through all posts (that the person performing the search has access to) in order to provide results.

To index a column means that the data is stored in a particular order, and this takes additional scarce resources. With there being many alternatives to searching on the forum (such as google, plus multiple forum members have their own searchable database of forum posts), there is little need to invest resources into the forum's search functionality.

DdmrDdmr

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Quote from: Pandu Geddon on October 02, 2022, 08:40:10 AM

<…> maybe I'm wrong. because each search seems to only show a maximum of 5 pages. can anyone load searches that are longer than 5 pages?

I don’t think you can, at least I can’t recall retrieving more than 5 pages using the search function. I’d say it is a deliberate delimitation to save on resources or whatnot.

As a side note, there is a site that was mentioned on the forum years ago, that surprisingly is still running, and allegedly pretends to facilitate searching the forum. I won’t mention the name, because I don’t intend to give it any nominal publicity (I’d still consider it dodgy), but it seems built on smf and returns 10 pages of results by default (100 results per page). You can page until the 100th page easily before encountering an error. The point being that Bitcointalk's 5 page limitation on search results seems deliberate.

Pandu Geddon

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Quote from: lovesmayfamilis on October 02, 2022, 02:51:40 AM

For me, the search works fine. Maybe you just need to understand the possibilities of the forum and not compare it with global search engines.

yes, now the forum search seems to be working pretty well. didn't know before the OP made this post.
but I tried to check today, with no problem I encountered. when using the word "Sir" (OP's problem). it runs normally. although when looking not specifically for a particular board, it will take a while. maybe due to checking more posts.

for faster search, it looks like we can set Message age: which is 0-9999 days by default. we can simplify it to a span of 50 days or 120 days.

maybe I'm wrong. because each search seems to only show a maximum of 5 pages. can anyone load searches that are longer than 5 pages?

Sandra_hakeem

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Quote from: lovesmayfamilis on October 02, 2022, 02:51:40 AM

Maybe you should think that the forum search is not designed to search for such simple words? How many responses did you expect to receive in response to your request, given that the address "sir" is quite normal and natural in many countries? And also, how many bounty hunters, especially from Asia and maybe Nigeria, are present at the forum every year?
In exactly the same way, one could query for words like "yes" and "no."
For me, the search works fine. Maybe you just need to understand the possibilities of the forum and not compare it with global search engines.

Hey loves,
I don't think it's perfectly okay as you described. I have tried a couple of times myself and, it's on the contrary.
Could you believe i was trying to search some names (although this function has been opposing everyone's privacy and I guess it was made not synchronize any longer) I couldn't find the names in question instead, I was given different names , dormant accounts etc. It doesn't really look like it's working,. Does it?
Talk more of key-words.

I'm not seeing an efficacy in the search engines at all; yunno, it's different it when you're not sure of what you're looking for - if it'd be there or not - but , it's a different case trying to find something I'm sure I could get but, the results turns out null. Maybe ninjastick would save our ass? I haven't tested it either.

Sandra 👩‍🦱

lovesmayfamilis

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Maybe you should think that the forum search is not designed to search for such simple words? How many responses did you expect to receive in response to your request, given that the address "sir" is quite normal and natural in many countries? And also, how many bounty hunters, especially from Asia and maybe Nigeria, are present at the forum every year?
In exactly the same way, one could query for words like "yes" and "no."
For me, the search works fine. Maybe you just need to understand the possibilities of the forum and not compare it with global search engines.

m2017

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Quote from: Stalker22 on October 01, 2022, 09:51:00 AM

Quote from: Little Mouse on October 01, 2022, 08:45:33 AM

~

While the forum search feature is not the best around, you can customize it a little to show you better results. For example, you can filter out results based on post's age. Message age is set at 0 to 9999 days by default, so it searches through the entire history of forum. You might want to change it to 0 to 30, for example, and you will get posts within the last month.

Or you can use TryNinja's Ninjastic.space: https://ninjastic.space/search
I am sure you have heard of this search engine before. Cheesy

If I had known about this earlier, I would have saved a lot of time. Thanks for your lifehack. It turns out that it is enough to click on the magnifying glass icon to the left of the search bar to get to the search settings menu and limit the output of the search engine data by the age of the post.

Awaklara

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Quote from: The Sceptical Chymist on October 01, 2022, 08:30:52 PM

I haven't used the search function on Ninjastic's site before--could it serve as a replacement for the one OP is (rightfully) complaining about? I'll have to check it out.

if it is only used for a specific word of course it can (as the OP intended). but the results shown don't seem to have good enough accuracy.
should add more detailed information. such as specific boards and date ranges.
https://ninjactic.space/search will display everything related to the word used. like the OP's example, the word "sir"

the results will show posts with the word "sir"
the result will appear in quote of posts containing the word "sir"
the result will appear member with the username the word "sir"

like this screenshot of mine.
I don't use board information. only the period for the last 30 days. there are about 411 posts, quotes, and usernames displayed.

The Sceptical Chymist

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Quote from: Stalker22 on October 01, 2022, 09:51:00 AM

Or you can use TryNinja's Ninjastic.space: https://ninjastic.space/search
I am sure you have heard of this search engine before. Cheesy

I haven't used the search function on Ninjastic's site before--could it serve as a replacement for the one OP is (rightfully) complaining about? I'll have to check it out.

And yeah, everything about the search functionality here has been ridiculously broken for years. It's not just that it's slow; it lacks useful features like filters and often turns up only slightly relevant results. And I'm pretty sure you can't do a forum-wide search for anything, but somebody correct me if I'm wrong about that.

I don't know how search engines are created, but am I correct in assuming that there was one coded into the software (SMF?) bitcointalk is using by the creator of that software? If so, can that code be tweaked? I would assume the answer would be yes, but I don't know how any of that works--but I'm curious.

acroman08

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you can edit the "message age" to specify the age of the post that you are looking for(or at least estimate) and in doing so it is also lowering the search result which makes the loading faster(at least from my experience).

anyway, I tried doing what you did(not editing anything just straight up putting "sir") and loading was normal, but the search result shown on my end were posts from 2010-2011.

OgNasty

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Quote from: Little Mouse on October 01, 2022, 08:45:33 AM

I was looking for a list of users who have used the word "sir" to address other forum members. I never got the search result and it's always loading. I have waited for a long time but it never gets ended. Is it because the query has a lot of results or something? Don't ask me why I was looking for this query. I was trying to write a sarcastic reply but wanted to be sure before I write it lol.

Obviously there's a lot of crap to search through and if you're searching every post that has ever been made for a simple word, odds are that it's going to take a while or possibly even time out. My inbox has the same issue. Takes like 5 minutes to load my PMs they have gotten so out of control. I'd advise you to search with a timeframe or specific sections to cut down on the errors or waiting time. As for my inbox, it would be nice if it only had to load recent messages and then took forever when you wanted to go back a ways instead of taking 5 minutes to load a PM.

knowngunman

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I experienced same issue the other day but I was thinking maybe it is my device or network that was having issues. From the responses so far in the thread, it's obvious the forum is so sluggish in bringing out search results. Something needs to be done so that we can not be using external site for search.

Topic: Why forum search taking years to load (Read 474 times)