A Little Help From My Friends - Test Search Options

[Gary Lewis]

Guys - I think I've gotten the search option thing figured out, but want y'all to confirm it. PLEASE!

We now have two search options - Freefind in the upper left and Nabble in the lower right of the screen grab below. Freefind searches the whole of the site, meaning forum and documentation, and Nabble only does the forum.

I did a search for "Dad's Truck Build", and Freefind found 4 instances while Nabble found 576. At first blush it would seem Nabble is better - until you realize that there are 562 posts in the Dad's Truck Build thread and Nabble found the name of the thread in each of those posts.

I can't account for the difference between the 562 posts and the 576 finds. (I'm not about to spend hours going through all of the results to find out.) So maybe there's something somewhere that Nabble found which Freefind missed, which worries me.

Which is where you come in: I'd really appreciate it if you would test the two different search engines and tell us your opinion.

[salans7]

Searched "Ranger Lariat"

Freefind found 19 hits

Nabble found 36 hits

Is that a good contribution, or do I need to search for something more detailed?

 

[Gary Lewis]

Searched "Ranger Lariat"

Freefind found 19 hits

Nabble found 36 hits

Is that a good contribution, or do I need to search for something more detailed?

The real question is if the Nabble 36 are legit. As in my "Dad's Truck Build" example, the vast majority of the Nabble "finds" are just the name of the thread in the 562 posts. And I don't find that very helpful.

So, are the 36 Nabble finds helpful? Are they different than the Freefind finds?

[85lebaront2]

Searched "Ranger Lariat"

Freefind found 19 hits

Nabble found 36 hits

Is that a good contribution, or do I need to search for something more detailed?

The real question is if the Nabble 36 are legit. As in my "Dad's Truck Build" example, the vast majority of the Nabble "finds" are just the name of the thread in the 562 posts. And I don't find that very helpful.

So, are the 36 Nabble finds helpful? Are they different than the Freefind finds?

I just tried "engine control systems" Freefind found less then Nabble, but all were pretty specific to the forum and documentation ares, Nabble brought up every thread where anything remotely connected showed up.

I believe either will work, it seems to be what your preference is.

[Gary Lewis]

I just tried "engine control systems" Freefind found less then Nabble, but all were pretty specific to the forum and documentation ares, Nabble brought up every thread where anything remotely connected showed up.

I believe either will work, it seems to be what your preference is.

Yes, both are specific to this website, although Nabble only does the forum. But Nabble does find the name of the thread in the title of the post. So in Shaun's case something like 13 of the Nabble finds are the post titles, and that's not very helpful. And I don't know that I can fix that.

Similarly, Freefind does find the same post twice - once in the "regular" view and once in the "topics" view. But I can kill the "topics" view to reduce the spam.

However, I repeated Shaun's test and there were things found by Nabble that Freefind did not find. And, Nabble found today's posts, like in this thread, that Freefind won't find until tomorrow morning's run.

[salans7]

Yes, both are specific to this website, although Nabble only does the forum. But Nabble does find the name of the thread in the title of the post. So in Shaun's case something like 13 of the Nabble finds are the post titles, and that's not very helpful. And I don't know that I can fix that.

Similarly, Freefind does find the same post twice - once in the "regular" view and once in the "topics" view. But I can kill the "topics" view to reduce the spam.

However, I repeated Shaun's test and there were things found by Nabble that Freefind did not find. And, Nabble found today's posts, like in this thread, that Freefind won't find until tomorrow morning's run.

I'll try to think up an uncommon subject that I know is on this site, and then test it out on the search bar(s). I'll report back with what I find when I find it.

[85lebaront2]

I'll try to think up an uncommon subject that I know is on this site, and then test it out on the search bar(s). I'll report back with what I find when I find it.

Ok, I just tried T2K-CAR, Freefind brought up a bit, Nabble brought up most of the posts here on the car. None went off-site.

[grumpin]

Ok, I just tried T2K-CAR, Freefind brought up a bit, Nabble brought up most of the posts here on the car. None went off-site.

I tried grumpin. Upper left found my screen name in posts.

Lower right corner found when other people used my screen name, i.e. “thanks grumpin”

Also on my iPad, the keyboard would not go away on the lower right search bar.

Edit: corrected locations of search bars.

Edit #2: it highlighted my name for some reason. Maybe I shouldn’t help!

 

[grumpin]

I tried grumpin. Upper left found my screen name in posts.

Lower right corner found when other people used my screen name, i.e. “thanks grumpin”

Also on my iPad, the keyboard would not go away on the lower right search bar.

Edit: corrected locations of search bars.

Edit #2: it highlighted my name for some reason. Maybe I shouldn’t help!

The highlights are gone now!

[Gary Lewis]

The highlights are gone now!

There's a Turn Highlights Off button at the top of the page when highlights are on.