Hey, all, I did some database maintenance last night that was intended to rebuild the search index (it's gigantic, something like 3/4 of a gigabyte which, given it's just text, is a LOT of data) as well as optimize the database backend for the discussion boards. However, owing to the somewhat inelegant way in which VBulletin's indexing maintenance routine works, it's not clear to me if it actually rebuilt the indexes correctly. Would those of you who make use of the search functions please check it out and let me know if it appears to be working fully / better than it was / about the same / worse? There are some other options for rebuilding the indexes if this one isn't satisfactory, but I would like to get a sense of what's missing or what problems people are having so I can best know how to proceed. Thanks! Chip
It appears to be much better and does return more relevant results, but it still not perfect. A search for Knightsbridge picks up First question to Henrik re-Knightsbridge University (the largest thread on the topic), yet a seach for knightsbridge AND university (or knightsbridge university for that matter) does not show that thread. The thread Grade Inflation is returned when searching for knightsbridge AND university, yet I cannot find "knightsbridge" mentioned on the page.
Chip, Thank you for this and all of your efforts to maintain the forum! As James said, it appears to function a bit better, but not as well as it once did. Search results do not appear to be all inclusive.
Another thing I have noticed (other than that searching for decoder ring also produces similar anomalies), is that none of the threads from the old MIGS forum can be found when searching by keyword (they can still be found if searching by username).
It seems a tiny bit better, Chip... but still far short of what it used to be. For example, it used to be that if one searched for every post in which I used the text string "GTF" or "Graduate Theological Foundation," many more than just a half dozen or so threads resulted; and if it were working properly, then the one really big, multi-part posting that I once made -- wherein I listed all of the people I could find on the Internet who had a GTF degree and were working for either regionally- or ATS-accredited institutions (or had even cooler jobs) -- would be among them. I could do other checks, but the fact that that one, which I used to do a lot and always used to work (but hasn't since the server change last Spring; and which still doesn't work) tells me that the SEARCH function, generally, still ain't up to par. It does seem a little bit better though... but not so's ya'd notice.
Thank you for working on it, Chip. Given the panoply of computerised brainpower* you can draw on from trusted posters, I'm confident you will have the recalcitrant thing smarting under the sjambok of firm government in no time. *Of which I hasten to add I have none whatever.
