Call for volunteers - SEARCH feature

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ChrisGreaves
PlutoniumLounger
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Joined: 24 Jan 2010, 23:23
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Call for volunteers - SEARCH feature

Post by ChrisGreaves »

Have you ever wondered why the search facility on Eileen's Lounge seems weird?
Me Too.

I belong to four phpBB sites - Eileen's Lounge and three others, and for the life of me I can't search how I think I ought to be able to search on any one of them.
For example,
(1) I think I ought to be able to list "Your Posts" but filter OUT those results that show me as the Last Post (right-hand column). That is, I want an answer to the question "Where I am involved that might need a response from me?"
(2) I want to ask for a list of "Active Topics" but filter IN those topics that have "VBA" in the subject line.

I am leaving aside the confusion in the QuickLinks menu between "posts" and "topics", also between "topics" when they mean "thread" and "subject" when you are composing a thread that is a topic.

I focus solely on this humble user's search of a phpBBS.

I have many more SEARCH objectives up my sleeve, but those will do for this thread/topic/subject.

I have prepared a sixteen-page MSWord document documenting what I cannot reconcile with the phpBB User Guide. I know that sixteen pages doesn't sound like much, but it is a half-day's work testing simultaneously on four separate phpBB databases. I am retired, live alone, and wake up at one o'clock in the morning. I have plenty of time.

This is not a project for the faint of heart. Rally to me if
** You are bored with life
** You have made your will
** You fancy that you are smarter than me (you know who you are)
** You are using a version of Excel that comes up #NUM! when you try to calculate the number of man-hours that must have been lost trying to make SEARCH work on Eileen's Lounge alone, let alone some of the other phpBB sites around the world.

I hate managing people, so membership of this select group is limited to just three more members. I reckon that if I remember to switch off my grumpiness when I get out of bed, a team of four might get things done.

To qualify for membership there is an entrance exam:-

Code: Select all

Perform five searches on https://eileenslounge.com/
CAT
DOG
+CAT+DOG
+CAT-DOG
+DOG-CAT
Reconcile your results and send them to me in a PM so nobody can capitalize by basing their analysis on your brain work.
If after reading your PM I still like you, I will send you the link to my document in its current state.
Using a PM helps reduce corruption of the database by repeating the search terms in a public response here.

I have those phpBB folks by the ankle on this one.

Cheers
Chris
An expensive day out: Wallet and Grimace