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New TSR Search - what do you think?

Maybe i'm being blind... but I can't see a way to actually sort the results. Yes there are filtering options but threads that haven't had replies for like 4 years are showing next to current ones. I'd like an option to sort them by most recent reply.

Original post by DanteTheDoorKnob

I like the way you made it beta to appeal to the audience here.

Hello,
I've just completed the survey. I find the new search function a lot harder to use than the old one. Even though you can filter the list to '1 week ago', '1 month ago' etc, the posts aren't in chronological order as before so it's harder to use.
Also, when I click on a post to reply, the link takes me back to the start of the thread so you have to search for the post. In a busy forum, it's very time consuming having to search the forum for the post you wish to reply to.

Reply 42

longsight

8

Original post by Swansea University

Hello,
I've just completed the survey. I find the new search function a lot harder to use than the old one. Even though you can filter the list to '1 week ago', '1 month ago' etc, the posts aren't in chronological order as before so it's harder to use.
Also, when I click on a post to reply, the link takes me back to the start of the thread so you have to search for the post. In a busy forum, it's very time consuming having to search the forum for the post you wish to reply to.

Hi there Swansea!

When you click on a link, it should take you to the part of the thread that it found the matching text on - including the correct page and post. If it's obviously not doing this (and it's not just, for example, that the match was found in the first post), could you send us examples?

Sort by date is a piece of functionality that was removed after initial testing because most of the feedback we received was that it didn't provide useful results - there's certainly scope to return it, if it proves wanted. What may be useful is to sort by date if one of the date filters is selected, but we'll review all the feedback and see what sort of changes people are interested in seeing.

Original post by longsight

Hi there Swansea!

When you click on a link, it should take you to the part of the thread that it found the matching text on - including the correct page and post. If it's obviously not doing this (and it's not just, for example, that the match was found in the first post), could you send us examples?

Sort by date is a piece of functionality that was removed after initial testing because most of the feedback we received was that it didn't provide useful results - there's certainly scope to return it, if it proves wanted. What may be useful is to sort by date if one of the date filters is selected, but we'll review all the feedback and see what sort of changes people are interested in seeing.

Hello,
Thanks for getting back to me!
I've just received a message from TSR support so I am going to set up the email alerts as this may be easier to use than the search function. That should hopefully should avoid me having to use the search function so regularly to check our mentions.

Reply 44

oxymoronic

19

If you can't search by the date of the post then it's a pointless search. This is particularly key in areas like UCAS where rules change every year and searching without a date algorithm added in will essentially mean that threads from years ago are revived purely because it came first which is no help to anyone. I did some trial searches relating to common UCAS searches with the first threads being posts by me where I was specifically saying 'if you want to apply to uni in 2012, do xyz' ... Not useful!

You also still need to sort out the issue of private forums being visible. I found posts within seconds in private forums. This is no doubt partly because I knew which key words would let me test it and also knew which forums I was looking for but still, it shouldn't be happening.

Reply 45

Monkey Monkeyson

14

Original post by oxymoronic

You also still need to sort out the issue of private forums being visible. I found posts within seconds in private forums. This is no doubt partly because I knew which key words would let me test it and also knew which forums I was looking for but still, it shouldn't be happening.

It certainly shouldn't! Could you possibly PM me with an example?

Thanks

Reply 46

Plagioclase

21

Is there a way to order results by date? I used to use the search a lot to check if there were any posts for geology or earth sciences that aren't in the main earth sciences forum but I can't do that any more.

Reply 47

@lun

1

No way to order by most recent, that's always been the main reason I used the site search over Google

EDIT: For the time being the old search is still available here: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/search.php

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 48

Kvothe the Arcane

20

I'd like to order by date
I want to be able to search for a word that may be part of someone's username without having their posts come up

Reply 49

longsight

8

I think the consensus here at least is that sort by date should be available, even if not by default, and it's not hard to put back. Additional ideas for options (like ignoring usernames) are useful, keep them coming!

Reply 50

Charles III

21

Original post by longsight

I think the consensus here at least is that sort by date should be available, even if not by default, and it's not hard to put back. Additional ideas for options (like ignoring usernames) are useful, keep them coming!

Sometimes when I search using (apparently they're called search operators) "", the search seems to ignore them? Is that supposed to happen? :s-smilie:

Reply 51

Kvothe the Arcane

20

Original post by iEthan

Sometimes when I search using (apparently they're called search operators) "", the search seems to ignore them? Is that supposed to happen? :s-smilie:

Bolean operators would be great AND OR etc

Reply 52

Charles III

21

Original post by Kvothe the arcane

Bolean operators would be great AND OR etc

Agree! I thought they were part of the search though. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. I was always taught they were called boolean expressions :lol:

such a weird word…

Reply 53

DanteTheDoorKnob

5

I don't know anything about the old search but I don't know how it could have been worse than this one, there's not even any attempt at order, dates everywhere, posts only.

Reply 54

Profesh

20

Original post by longsight

Sort by date is a piece of functionality that was removed after initial testing because most of the feedback we received was that it didn't provide useful results

Did you try consulting anyone with an IQ higher than 80? Granted, this would entail widening your focus-group beyond TSR HQ, but I think you'd find the end result considerably more illuminating.

Reply 55

Luv2conquer

My name is Leon Martin and i have received a text message stating that my money has been sent to my bank account and will be in there in three working days. I was told to go to this room if I need to find out more information. Which I cannot seem to find

Reply 56

Joinedup

20

apart from the deficiencies already mentioned, it doesn't work at all well with my display resolution ( which is 1600 * 900 landscape)

Don't like having a huge scrollable box for the "filter results" - the actual results start almost halfway across the screen horizontally

why is the font so much larger than the default for the rest of the site - there's space for about 2 1/2 results to be displayed...