search problems

[thrasher]

menoth
cygnar
malifaux..

what do they have in common?
"The following words in your search query were ignored because they are too common words"

Seriously? i cant look up a game system that doesnt have its own section?
i cant limit views within privateer press to only the faction i am looking for?


this just seems crazy!! malifaux used to work so i am assuming this is an auto function of the search... and if so it should be turned off.


on a side note i would like to vote for malifaux having its own section

AND

video games being seperated from board games as they really have nothing in common.

i probably wont check this post again so dont bother yelling about my opinion on what should be seperated. Im just posting it so hopefully it can be fixed

[MagickalMemories]

If you're not interested in taking part in a conversation, don't start one. Randomly complaining with an addemdum that we shouldn't bother to respond, only to "fix" these problems isn't helpful. If you want to start a conversation about them, then please feel free to take part in it.
If not, then I'm sure you'll understand when we promptly ignore you.

Additionally, had you bothered to do a search, you'd have found threads (some recent) on why you're having these search issues and how to fix it.

--PMed and posted to thread.

Eric

P.S. If you do wish to discuss it, you might as well keep it in the thread you started. PM responses will be posted there and only responded to there in the future.

[thrasher]

nope, wasnt looking for a conversation. wanted to report a bug and couldnt find any special place to do that. i did see someone else who posted about the search problem and got responded to with basically "of course it does" which is just crazy "12" is to generic "menoth" is not i am looking for a specific army out of 9-13 being as how the merc/minions are further divided up into two seperate "factions" at least as far i understand how they work. if i open the PP card thread and want to search the posts for only replies that have "cygnar" that too is valid.

when something futuristic AND fantasy like a steampunk setting like malifaux is something im looking for that could have ended up in multiple sections is too "common" to search for that is even a bigger problem.

that all is a factual problem with the site even if no one wants to admit it or put the time in to fix it.

it is more of an opinion that malifaux and board games should be seperate as 2 things i personally look at a lot it makes my use of bartertown very frustrating but the 99% of everyone else might not play malifaux... but if the search is too common then its probably fairly safe to assume thats not the case.

video games and board games seem like you just took whatever was left and made a misc catagory.

all this, i wanted as a statement so hopefully it could be fixed. my stance on it wont be swayed reguardless of what is said. if i put it in the wrong section i am sorry, maybe you can move it to the right section or delete it but i just hope you guys who run the site actually think about it. i have been using this site on and off for about 9 years and have never complained about anything before but this really breaks the user experience.

[MagickalMemories]

It's not a "bug," as you contend. It's how the phpbb search engine works. If a term is too generic, it won't accept it. It asks for clarity. Had you asked for input on it, instead of just griping, someone would have responded by telling you how to search better. Sometimes, a software's limitation is no greater than the person using it.

Steampunk is not futuristic. It is anything but. It is, in fact, an "alternate universe" style Victorian setting. Adding in the fantasy, horror and "old west" flavors of Malifaux, that cements it that much farther away from futuristic.

You've had a membership here a long time. If you perused the site much in 'the old days,' you may recall just how cluttered it was. In the 7 years presumable absence you had from the site, though (according to your refs), a lot changed. We streamlined and combined things. Malifaux and board games do not support enough traffic to warrant their own forums. There's just not enough traffic for it. All that does is make the site cluttered unnecessarily. Same for video games. The only games that warrant their own forums are those that get enough posts to fill a forum themselves.

The site loads more smoothly, is easier to navigate, and actually has LESS problems that it used to.

video games and board games seem like you just took whatever was left and made a misc catagory.

Close, but note quite. What we did was take two games that (a) don't fit anywhere else and (b) don't get enough ads to warrant their own forums and combined them. It's actually been working well these past few years. It's an odd pairing, to say the least, but it gets the job done.

all this, i wanted as a statement so hopefully it could be fixed.

That implies that it is broken. In the years that we've had the site arranged in this way, we've had relatively few improper cross-posts, and the most minimal amount of complaints. The most complaints, in fact, came as soon as we made the changes; people don't like change, in general. Once they got used to the set up of the site, things smoothed out remarkably and, in fact, got better.

my stance on it wont be swayed reguardless of what is said.

I'm not trying to sway your opinion. I'm just trying to explain the reasons behind the way things are the way they are. That way you can learn where you're going wrong (in the case of the searches) and why things aren't changing any time soon (in the case of the forums).

if i put it in the wrong section i am sorry, maybe you can move it to the right section or delete it but i just hope you guys who run the site actually think about it.

This is the best section for this. There's no need to move or delete it.

i have been using this site on and off for about 9 years and have never complained about anything before but this really breaks the user experience.

"Breaks the user experience." I'm amused my that statement.
The 'User Experience" here is to come and sell/buy/trade models, games and the like. If you can't do that under the current board set up, it may be less of the EXPERIENCE that's broken, and more of the USER. There are thousands of people who use the site daily that don't have problems figuring out where to look for certain models/items.

Instead of complaining about things being the way they are, your best first step is to try to figure out WHY they are the way they are. Once you figure out why things are laid out in the manner they are, and understand the general philosophy that site Administration utilizes in making changes to the st up, you'll be far better positioned to offer advice 9rather than empty and unhelpful complaints) on how to fix it.

On your trade site you may have forums for each individual system, but we have too many users for that to be a valid set up here. There just aren't enough posts to support it. We've tried it. It didn't work.

Eric

[spiralingcadaver]

Additionally, had you bothered to do a search, you'd have found threads (some recent) on why you're having these search issues and how to fix it.

Hi, while I disagreed with the OP's tone, this is something that's always bothered me, and about the only poor experience I've had with bartertown. Would you mind posting a link to that/those thread(s), because I didn't see any...

Thanks

[MagickalMemories]

When I get the time, I'll look for them. Every month or so, a new one pops up in the "need help" or "questions" forum about this. There are work-arounds to get by it (IIRC, someone said to use an asterisk as part of your search), and people have usually responded with them.

I'm no fan of it either. Unfortunately, it's simply a facet of how phpbb software works, and not something we're able to adjust manually.

Eric

[spiralingcadaver]

I found that asterisks are really unreliable: for instance, looking for "spac* marin*" might get a half-dozen hits...

Too bad, re: adjusting/phpbb3- sure there's no mod for it?

[thrasher]

there must be something going on that decides if a term is too generic. "malifaux" was working for a while. and personaly i feel menoth, cygnar, space marines, or any other army/faction is a fairly specific search and would warrant looking into as being a major issue.

a lot of times searches like this come up as someone wants to trade for a complete new army. i havent been activley trading for a while but i did pop into the site every so often and recently we had a new game store open up locally and i dusted my stuff out and started up again. and now i have been working on getting into new game systems... and because im looking at it by faction i am stuck looking at every single ad.

[Plarz]

Search terms are considered too common when they are found in 5% of the posts on the forum.

For us, at ~60,000 posts, means the search would return over 3,000 results. In nearly every forum section, there are far fewer threads than that.

IMO, I'd rather look through ~700-800 thread titles than sift though 3,000+ search results.

Have you tried using Google's site limiting function to do a more complicated search? Run your Space Marine search like this: "Space Marine site:bartertown.com".

Alternatively, be more specific: Try searching for "Drop Pod" or "Ironclad", rather than the faction name.