Forum Search is Terrible

[mbmast 0]

I'm in a forum and I click on the magnifying glass to do a search.  I happened to be in the Software/Cura forum and wanted to ask a question about configuring dual extruders.  I type "extruders" (without the quotes) in the search and I'm YANKED out of the forum and presented with what looks a lot like a Google search result list that includes all sorts of hits, none of them in the forum I was in (at least on the first page of results).

Google search, or whatever this site uses for search, is NO substitute for a forum based search tool, where you can specify the scope of the search (titles only, titles and posts, etc.).  Nor can you basic boolean operations (all of the words, any of the words, user id of poster, etc.).

Edited March 31, 2017 by Guest

[Melka 57]

Yup, the search function objectively sucks.

But I'm sure they already know it and are working to improve the experience (RIGHT GUYS ? )

Edited March 31, 2017 by Guest

[SandervG 1,521]

Hi @Mbmast, thank you for your post and sharing your feedback with us!

We have been using google search for a couple of months now, and most responses have been pretty good so far. We choose google because well, if there is one thing they are good at it is searching for stuff

You can use similar commands as you would use with google regularly.

For example, use 'allintitle:' if you want to search for titles only.

Use ' "alternatives for ABS" ' if you want to search specifically for those words in that order.

Hopefully it helps and you will be able to find the content you are looking for

[SandervG 1,521]

Yup, the search function objectively sucks.

But I'm sure they already know it and are working to improve the experience (RIGHT GUYS ? )

 

@Melka, did you notice we switched to google search a couple of months ago? So far feedback has been pretty good. Let me know what you think of it, I think it works pretty good

[Melka 57]

Thanks for your message.

I see, but I still find it misses quite a lot of basic functions.

Let's say that I'm a beginner interested in printing PETG on my Ultimaker 2+ and I'd like to see how people are setting their machine:

I would type "PETG Ultimaker 2+" but I end up on a quite obscure list of results.

The place allocated to the URL in each result block is huge and not useful.

I'd like a bigger excerpt as I'm not even sure it answers my question.

Why do we have the location of the person that posted the topic ? Is it because we shouldn't deal with questions asked by Belgians ?

Could I order by date or restrict the results based on the last year only ?

Basically, it demands a LOT of parsing by the brain of the user and I understand how it can be disconcerting for a new comer.

Edited March 31, 2017 by Guest

[SandervG 1,521]

Well every search relies on the user of using the right keywords when it is searching for something. No search engine can perform magic. In this case, if you are looking for what the best settings are for PetG for your Ultimaker 2, I found the right thread offered to me on #2 when searching for: PetG settings Ultimaker 2.

Why you were getting so many user profiles is probably because a lot of people have listed their equipment (Ultimaker 2) in their profile, and this shows up in the search results. Which I agree, is not ideal.

If you would search for 'PETG Settings' the results immediately look very different (and you get the same results by the way).

So, I guess every search engine stands or falls with the use of keywords. Google search is in this regard no different.

Edited March 31, 2017 by Guest

[SandervG 1,521]

And I will refrain from any comment regarding Belgium questions!