Who Else Is Fed Up Not Being Albe To Search?

Our ability to search has been down since December and the advanced search takes still leads nowhere. Searching used to be so easy, whether it was a plant or a user ID. I miss not being able to keep up with friends and where they're posting. IB is supposed to be a whiz at search engines but we still have nothing. Is anybody else wondering when we'll be back to the good ol' days?

I have kind of given up searching. I used to search for things and find them quickly. Now when I look for certain subjects etc which I know I saw around somewhere, I can't find it.

I've been using google to search the site until the search feature is fixed.
Let's say I'm wanting to find a thread I remember seeing on the daylily forum about companion plants. In the google search I type Daves Garden daylily companion plants. This has worked for me. A bit more typing than we'd have to do with our own search, but it'll help you find what you're looking for at least until the search feature's fixed.

Joy

Okay, that sounds good. Before, I would just leave and do something else. I will try it with google.

Thanks, Ivy

For now if it is something I 'know' I will want to go back to...Like right now on the Hosta Forum there is one about slugs and how to deal with them....I just make sure I keep it in my watched threads.

But it sure would be nice to have it back. I have also done the google thing if push comes to shove.

I do as Joy does with Google and it works quite well!

A few of my many watched threads became unwatched for some unknown reason. So I may come across a thread that I used to watch often and try and catch up with what I missed along the way. I then save it to watch for the next reply.

This may not be the best thing but it's what I've been doing. I mark a thread as unread and then it shows up on my watched thread until I read it again. I have also saved the thread as a favorite and then can access it. Of course this doesn't help search for anything but it does help in saving things you might like to go back to. The google search works very well for me too.

Google works if I'm looking for a thread but doesn't help if I'm looking for a Member and where they've posted.

You can search for members too--just type davesgarden.com and their username. Here are the results that come up when I searched that way for your username http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=+site:davesgarden.com+davesgarden.com+Fruitofthevine&ei=HcumS4izMY3-sgPCwb3TAw&sa=X&oi=nshc&resnum=1&ct=more-results&ved=0CBQQ2AQ And if you're looking for a particular subject that they posted about then add a few more keywords to the search to narrow it down.

You are so sweet, ecrane3, for helping me (and probably a lot of others) by making it easy to keep up with friends. I don't know what I was doing wrong but never got detailed results on Google like yours. Just tried the link substituting my ID with several others and it works like a charm. Thank you very much.

There may be all sorts of round about ways of trying to locate some of what you are looking for but none of them are anywhere near as good as having the search engine functioning properly most especially for locating important material posted on older threads which I very much like to reference.

The substitute search function results are so frustrating (at best) that I prefer not to use it at all

The time for half-baked played out excuses is over...

The forum search engine has already not been functional at all since December of 2009 (way too long) and I would very much like to see it working properly again and hopefully before too much longer...


regards,

Ron

I'm also hoping it's a priority for IB... I think they're planning to completely redo the search engine here, which is good, as I don't think Dave was ever entirely happy with the one he had (never found the time to totally replace it, just kept patching it).

I also vote for a decent search engine. While we did have a search engine in the past, none of DG's search capabilities come close to a good basic search engine. Since IB now has all of this technical staff I think it would behoove them to give us decent search capability in ALL of the departments: Forums, PlantFiles, Member List, Dmail, Guides and Information, etc., etc., etc.

For example, in any database I SHOULD be able to SORT it on any of the visible records. This ability doesn't exist for most of the databases. Another example: There are NO boolean or wild card search capability.

I think the work they've been doing getting DG set up according to their website structure on the new server will enable them to add a "real" search engine for us. You're right, it can't come soon enough! (But keeping the site from bogging down or crashing comes first, I do understand that... I'm just hoping search engines are next on the agenda!)

Actually, we're discussing the search engine presently. I'll keep you posted as I have any details to share.

I, too, look forward to a decent search engine.

For instance, I try to follow every word from Dr. Carolyn when it comes to tomatoes.

It would be great to be able to key her name and have a link to every post, not just the thread she posted in. Scanning down through threads is tiresome.

On the Member Page, ACTION section, there is a link to search for THREADS that a member started.

A link to search for POSTS that a Member has left would be great, too!

Is there an update, yet?

We're getting there.

I know that Terry and our development team have been spending time really scoping out what we need. I don't have an exact timeline for launch but it should not be far off.

This is our number 1 new feature priority.

Appreciate the effort!

Kent

ME! I am computer challenged and I posted a message to administration asking how I would add information to my garden diary and haven't heard from anybody yet. Do you know if there are any instructions posted how to post to your diary or garden journal?

The "DG Journals and Diaries" forum has quite a bit of info on it -- the journal feature in particular is quite confusing to me!

Didn't somebody do an article on this also? Let me check...

Yep, it's a 3 part series of articles from Susanne, first one is here: http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1326/

Could we please have an update. We've been "searchless" now for four months.

We're just about ready. Hopefully in the next few days. (I've seen a preview and you all are going to love it)

Thanks, hon!

Excellent!!!

I think we're close enough to maybe start a drum roll. If all goes as planned, it should go "live" sometime later today.

Which would everyone prefer?

An announcement beforehand?

Or should we let it be quietly introduced, and we can see who discovers it first when it's up and running?

An announcement, PLEASE!

How exciting! I can't wait!

We're excited too and have been playing with the test version for a few days now.
It is a very detailed search. You can search the whole site, or narrow it down to individual forums, members, dates and even ascending or descending order.
The tech team has worked hard and really hopes that they have addressed the searching needs of the community.

Thank you, Melody and the team.

Fingers are crossed!!!

Since you've all worked so hard to please the Community, a drum roll is definitely in order!

That's for sure!!

Thanks to the Tech Team and to MiguellB, Melody, Terry ... and anyone else who has helped get this search feature rolling! This Garden is a wonderful place!

Roughly 2 hours and counting.

They're on schedule to launch tonight...

That is great news! Thanks for the hard work from everyone!