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"Other" genre excluded from New Posts search

R

RickNel

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2009
Messages
641
Location
Canberra, Australia
I recently noticed that a post in the "Other" genre got few readers compared to the same topic (almost) in another forum area. Then I noticed that the Other genre is listed as excluded from the New Posts search.

The Forum is so busy and diverse that I think many members find the New Posts search is the way we check first for active threads of interest. Is there any reason Other genre should be excluded? My topic concerned serial terminals, so Other seemed the right place for it - but not if it won't be found by some potentially interested readers.

Rick
 
RickNel said:
. . . I think many members find the New Posts search is the way we check first for active threads of interest.
Click to expand...

Of course it is. Going into each "forum" individually would be ridiculous - not the least because of the time it would take to download and redraw that many screens.
 
Posts in the "Other" subforum are showing up for me too. Maybe when the forum searches for new posts, it is intending to leave out posts in the "Other" category of the Wiki.
 
Interesting - I'd like to hear whether admins have changed anything. At the top of the New Posts search listing header there is a line that sets out the exclusions. At the time that I posted, "Other" was listed in these exclusions and this was borne out in the results that I saw. When there was a reply to the thread I started in "Other", it did not appear in the New Posts search. However, as of now, I no longer see "Other" in the exclusions list and it seems to have been revised.

If there has not been an administrative code change, then perhaps there is some artifact that crops up only in certain circumstances? Seems improbable to me, though..

My guess was that someone had conflated "Other" with "Off-topic" or something like that.

Anyway, at least admins know that a few people are paying attention, as a sign that we value and appreciate the service.

Rick
 
Not wishing to labour the point, but here is what appeared at the top of the New Posts search result page when I logged in just now:
Search:

Type: Posts; Excluded Forums: VCWiki, History, How To, Systems, Software, Hardware, Publications, Companies, Luminaries, Collecting and Using, Other; New Posts
Click to expand...

Am I confused (more than usual)?

Rick
 
RickNel said:
Not wishing to labour the point, but here is what appeared at the top of the New Posts search result page when I logged in just now:

Am I confused (more than usual)?
Click to expand...

I can't answer that since I don't know how confused you usually are. :) Anyway, I just posted in the "other" forum and then clicked "New Posts". My new post does not show up. You are definitely on to something which is going on with this software. I note too that when I posted, it came back with a "database error", but when I reposted it said it was a duplicate, so it worked nevertheless. I don't know if this is related or just an occasional glitch that happens.

I was going to comment on the concept of this search function. I thought perhaps it was about key words in certain database fields to which we don't have direct access. I was trying to think of an explanation that could work here because I was able to see the "other" category in my search before. However, now I am not, and upon rereading what it says it is pretty clear on the exclusions. I think something is confused here - and it's not just us.

PS: I got a database error message again when I posted this. Upon reposting, it said it was a duplicate. Something seems to be corrupted.

Search:

Type: Posts; Excluded Forums: VCWiki, History, How To, Systems, Software, Hardware, Publications, Companies, Luminaries, Collecting and Using, Other; New Posts
Click to expand...

PS: I've been trying to make an edit to say that the database error is consistent now. When I posted this message, I got it. Also, this edit may or may not be doable, as it is giving other errors now.
 
I don't know if this post will, but the previous one is not showing up in today's posts or what's new. Not on this computer, nor another one beside me where I can compare to make sure it's not a cookie or local configuration problem.
 
I don't know if this post will, but the previous one is not showing up in today's posts or what's new. Not on this computer, nor another one beside me where I can compare to make sure it's not a cookie or local configuration problem.

Furthermore, the address given for reporting this is "dbmaster@example.com" so perhaps that page is not configured yet. Here is what it says:

The The Vintage Computer Forums database has encountered a problem.
Please try the following:

* Load the page again by clicking the Refresh button in your web browser.
* Open the www.vintage-computer.com home page, then try to open another page.
* Click the Back button to try another link.

The www.vintage-computer.com forum technical staff have been notified of the error, though you may contact them if the problem persists.

We apologise for any inconvenience.
Click to expand...
 
I don't know about the database errors that some of us have been getting, but the search function is definitely broken. At the time of writing this post, the latest post says 04:44 PM, yet there is a response to that marked 05:48 PM. Other threads are off too.

There may be more recent posts here and there, but I wouldn't know for sure without a lot of checking. Anyway, although it looks like the forum is essentially unusable at this point, at least it looks like posts are probably not being lost.
 
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