New Search Function: "Linklist"

Post by **BurnIt!** » Mon, 30. Aug 04, 23:58

Where is it?
Right where a search function is supposed to be

the link for the old search in the main menu has changed and now points to the new page.

What will be searched for?
Every 24 hours the topic titles in the following forums are scanned for occurences of the listed keywords and the results are stored.
# X-Universe
# X² Technical Support
# X² Scripts and Modding

What are these results I am looking at?
First the "top 20" topics are listed, meaning the 20 topics that have had the greatest number of views so far. Below, there are up to 180 additional matches per keyword sorted by date (the further down it is, the older it is).
So if you do the maths this means there can be up to 200 search results for a group with only one keyword (like "Argon"). In a group with for example 3 keywords (like "MK3, Trader, Trading") there is a theoretical maximum of 560 topics (20 + 3*180). However the true number is usually below that; multiple keywords from the same group quite often appear in the topic title, and of course such a topic is only displayed once.

What are the benefits?
On the user side there is mainly a noticeable increase in speed as the pages don't have to be dynamically created first but are instead ready and just need to be sent out.
At the same time the carefully chosen keywords help to find information quickly.
Additionally this method allows searching for terms with only two or three letters which had to be supressed in the normal search for technical reasons.
Finally, using this "linklist" provides an advantage to all users since neither database nor the server's CPU are as stressed as when using the normal search, which noticeably increases overall performance.

I'm looking for a term that is not listed as one of the keywords or I need to find a post by a specific user ...
For such cases you will have to query the normal search. Find it on every forumpage below the Egosoft logo where it says [Search].

Some topics appear that don't really relate to the search-term, why is that?
This can happen when a keyword appears as part of another word. Even though ship classes and the abbreviations for the lasers are searched case-sensitive this can't fully prevent "false positives". For example "IRE" appears in "EMPIRE".
The best prevention here lies in the hands of the topic creators. The more meaningful and clear a title is the better the results will be.

Isn't there an important keyword missing?
You've got a suggestion for another keyword that should be listed here? Then send a message to the Administrator please.
Only serious and sensible suggestions please - the purpose of this "[url=http://forum.egosoft.com/search/index.html?template=default&style=default.css][b]Li[/b]nk[b]Li[/b]st[/url]" is to offer a simple and clearly-structured overview and not to cover every possible search-term.

This new list is based on the work of user gsl who created a prototype of this search here: http://gnet.de.tc/x2forumlinks

simonnance · Post by **simonnance** » Tue, 31. Aug 04, 00:29

wow.... much better!

i like this a lot! It will get much more use than the old search function!

Freggel.Doe · Post by **Freggel.Doe** » Tue, 31. Aug 04, 09:27

very good.
definately a big improvement for someone seeking information.

greetings freggel

Deleted User · Post by **Deleted User** » Tue, 31. Aug 04, 10:46

shiny new button

lets hope people use it.

Crohm · Post by **Crohm** » Tue, 31. Aug 04, 20:23

very nice work.

black wing wrote: shiny new button

lets hope people use it.

how can they not?

far better than the search function.

Rapier · Post by **Rapier** » Tue, 31. Aug 04, 23:25

Who needs an FAQ now?

Looks we like we might have a contender for Forum Personality of the Year, whoever gsl is.

Kudos

Post by **BurnIt!** » Wed, 1. Sep 04, 02:42

gsl is a german forum user who took the "job" to build and maintain a "links to all the important threads" topic.
This has soon proven to be a lot more work than expected and was somewhat uncomfortable as well. So he created a tool that would scan the first 70 pages of the forum and stores them on static webpages.
Now scanning 70 forum pages by having an application use Internet Explorer to request the pages is somewhat ineffecient - and due to all kinds of net problems quite unreliable as well.

That's why I finally picked the idea up (planned this months ago but never found the time

) and wrote something that does the same and is somewhat more reliable and faster by having direct database access.

So again thanks to gsl for the inspiration

Rapier · Post by **Rapier** » Wed, 1. Sep 04, 19:04

Okay, credit where its due BurnIt!, everyone turn 36 degrees left and bow to BurnIt! instead.

Shame that 'sticky blindness' means no0one has noticed yet.

Reven · Post by **Reven** » Sat, 18. Sep 04, 14:15

I have to say, I actually don't like the new system. It now is impossible to combine words, like "capture xenon", "capture goner", etc. Instead, you have to wade through all capturing threads to find what you want.

If the words on that list were left in the global index, then it would be a benefit. For me, it's a reduction in the usefullness of the search functionality.

Jha'dur · Post by **Jha'dur** » Sat, 18. Sep 04, 14:18

Old function is still there, you know.

Reven · Post by **Reven** » Sat, 18. Sep 04, 14:34

I know the old function is still there - but the words in the new search page have been removed from the old search function's index.

Jha'dur · Post by **Jha'dur** » Sat, 18. Sep 04, 17:20

Huh? So if you do a "normal" search it will leave out any thread containing words that are on the new list?

Reven · Post by **Reven** » Sat, 18. Sep 04, 21:25

That's correct. For example, go to the normal search and use "capture xenon" as the phrase you search for, and select "search for all terms". You will get "No topics or posts met your search criteria".

Post by **BurnIt!** » Sat, 18. Sep 04, 21:36

Some facts are being mixed up here:
the old search page states:

"Note that searching for Argon, Khaak or Xenon will not produce any results"

this is totally independent and is a limit built into the search engine as "Argon, Khaak or Xenon" return too many results and pose a strain on the database.

btw. search terms in the link-list can be combined - but I don't like a huge list of possible combinations as that would contradict the idea of a simple and easy-to-use interface.

simonnance · Post by **simonnance** » Sat, 18. Sep 04, 23:13

just have to get ppl to use the thing!

you should have a program that picks up every time someone types in things like "newb question" of "best M6" ect as a topic title that brings up something like:

This Topic has been discussed on many occasions, use Linklist, Search, or the Ultimate Guide (as links) to locate the information.

would be impossible to do, but we can dream......

Starcub · Post by **Starcub** » Mon, 9. Jul 07, 14:25

BurnIt! wrote:Some facts are being mixed up here:
the old search page states:

"Note that searching for Argon, Khaak or Xenon will not produce any results"

this is totally independent and is a limit built into the search engine as "Argon, Khaak or Xenon" return too many results and pose a strain on the database.

btw. search terms in the link-list can be combined - but I don't like a huge list of possible combinations as that would contradict the idea of a simple and easy-to-use interface.

I tried to do a search to find the location of Xenon sector 101, but when I entered "Xenon sector 101" into the old search box, the search engine returned the "No topics or posts met your search criteria.". So I did a more general search for "Xenon" which returned the same result. When I posted elsewhere that my search for "Xenon" had returned nothing, I was informed that this was because the term was already included in the new search index. HOwever after reading your post here, I did a search for "Xenon sector location" which returned many results.

So why did the Search for "Xenon sector 101" return nothing while the search for "Xenon sector location" returned many hits? Why not include all races in the exclusion list? Why is your search engine functioning so ...

There was no indication on either the new or old search pages that any terms were being excluded from the old search function index. Neither did the search results page give any indication that an illegal search term was used. This lead me to assume that the server was experiencing problems.

Excluding terms from the generalized search function is unorthodox and greatly dimminishes the utility of the search function. Unless you're running your servers on 8086's, I can't see why this is considered helpful. If you must keep these restrictions in place, you really should provide adequate documentation and warning (the warning on the old search page you posted is not there). If illegal search terms were used, the query results should state this. Otherwise newcommers like myself will assume that the search function works like just about every other forum search function out there: with no indexed term restrictions. After several search iterations using increasingly generalized terms, users are eventually left scratching their heads as I did wondering why your search engine isn't working.

Mr. K · Post by **Mr. K** » Mon, 9. Jul 07, 14:59

You do realise that this thread is 3 years old, right?

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Mon, 9. Jul 07, 15:46

Please don't dredge up ancient threads. *click*