Topic: Search function still not working, anyone else upset?
lhm312
Unregistered
posted
I know this doesn't belong here, but thought it would get the most attention.
I had sent several emails to [email protected] and she finally wrote back. It takes her weeks to respond.
She's trying to tell me the search is working because she tried it, and asked which words I had tried. Guess she figures none of us know how to do a search after all this time.
It's been a number of weeks since the search feature hasn't worked. Can others who are annoyed as well please send email to [email protected] to express their upset?
Don't understand how she can get it to work and we can't.
I always hate to complain about things when this is a free service being maintained by a few volunteers. But it would be really nice if search worked. That was one of the many things that Lymenet did better than yahoo groups. Could never find anything when searching yahoo lyme forum.
Posts: 8430 | From Not available | Registered: Oct 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Count me in. I am new here and have tried on numerous occasions to search and 90% of the time it won't work. When it does work, it will take it soooooo long to find it. Very frustrating.
Posts: 146 | From Midwest | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
TheCrimeOfLyme
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 4019
posted
Count me in as well. It is NOT working
Posts: 3169 | From Greensburg, Pennsylvania | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged |
arg82
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 161
posted
I'm pretty annoyed about this, too. Since we can't search, we don't benefit from previous information and end up having to ask questions all over again and not get as much information. Frustrating when we KNOW there were discussions about certain subjects before but can't ACCESS them. Should more of us e-mail someone about this? They can't ignore it forever.
posted
I'm glad someone brought this up, as I'm pretty new here and thought I was doing something wrong. I really want to use the Search function as I hate to ask questions that have already been hashed over a few times. But I guess I'm going to have to. By the way, the people on this forum are really great to help everyone the way they do. I appreciate it.
Posts: 24 | From CT | Registered: Jan 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
She probably asked you the words you used, so she could try to debug the problem. She has to try to replicate the issue you had. I believe it is good news that she asked what you had entered.
quote:Originally posted by lhm312: I know this doesn't belong here, but thought it would get the most attention.
I had sent several emails to [email protected] and she finally wrote back. It takes her weeks to respond.
She's trying to tell me the search is working because she tried it, and asked which words I had tried. Guess she figures none of us know how to do a search after all this time.
It's been a number of weeks since the search feature hasn't worked. Can others who are annoyed as well please send email to [email protected] to express their upset?
posted
Yes, it would indeed be good to have the search function work . Well at least they have it "looking good": -- the story of life in America, eh? Now a search function shouldn't be so hard to write, An internal engine really is needed here, because, for example, google's "spiders" (categorization programs) can't get past the password protection. It really would be very good to be able to search, especially when people first find the site and are looking for answers. I used it many times- I may have had problems at one time, but then it got fixed, and was very helpful. DaveS Posts: 4567 | From ithaca, NY, usa | Registered: Nov 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Got a question: for those who are having problems with search, how are you connecting to the Internet? Via a telephone modem?
I ran a search yesterday at work and it worked fine. It was slow as molasses but it worked. We have a network connection to the Internet and it's normally pretty speedy. But it was really dragging its feet yesterday with the search.
For those of you using telephone modems it may not appear to work because you're probably timing out before your search results are being displayed.
If the moderator can get it work, the moderator either has a network connection, cable connection, or DSL connection to the Internet.
I'm not sure how often the servers here are maintained. But it sounds like this one needs some maintenance.
Linda
Posts: 749 | From New Hope, PA | Registered: May 2002
| IP: Logged |
map1131
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 2022
posted
I can successfully do a search under seeking a doctor, but that's it. It has been so frustrating the last couple months.
Pam
Posts: 6478 | From Louisville, Ky | Registered: Jan 2002
| IP: Logged |
robi
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5547
posted
WOW! richtersl !!!!! How ya been ? didn't know youwere still around lymenet....
posted
Think you have put your finger on the probable cause. Heard there were some astronomical number of hits on this website, many more than posts would suggest.
Plus, they didn't get the kind of donations last time they were looking for, to pay fees and buy equipment. And, I think relying on volunteers for a long time, the same ones, can be iffy. Getting qualified help is always a problem for efforts like this. How many of us are doing volunteer work of any magnitude for years at a time?
On the subject of connection, I have dial up but search did work better in the past than now.
[This message has been edited by lou (edited 05 April 2005).]
Posts: 8430 | From Not available | Registered: Oct 2000
| IP: Logged |
lhm312
Unregistered
posted
I have high speed internet service, and everything else is working.
I am still getting "website not responding" when I try a search, and have tried at different times of the day.
Maybe if Jenifer can at least tell us what's happening and when it might be resolved, we would feel better.
In the meantime, please contact her so she can understand how many of us are affected.
I have a regular phone line for the computer and the search function has rarely worked.
I "gave up" the search.
Its very frustrating when time is very limited.
This disuades people from continuing with a subject matter on a thread in an in-depth manner, as eventually they find themselves having to comb-through threads searching for a topic, V-e-r-y time consuming process.
posted
I just emailed Jenifer about this. Thanks for the reminder.
Bettyg
Posts: 1 | From US | Registered: Aug 2015
| IP: Logged |
treepatrol
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 4117
posted
I used yesterday
Posts: 10564 | From PA Where the Creeks are Red | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged |
JillF
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5553
posted
It works for me. Always has. If I feel like waiting 5-10 minutes... It takes for freakin ever. Always has but these past few months, it seems to be even longer.
I have cable modem by the way. Our network is fast, so it's not our side that is the problem.
ArtistDi
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 2297
posted
I thought it was just my computer, but I can't get into the search engine either.
Posts: 1567 | From Hatfield, MA, USA | Registered: Mar 2002
| IP: Logged |
danq
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 2126
posted
The problem, dear Lymies, is twofold: 1) lots of people on a limited resource 2) lots of posts to search through - over 105,000 in Medical. 3) the search is looking through all the text of every post! 4) the equipment's probably inadequate - and the software is old, too.
How's that twofold? Two folds gets you four sections - try it with a piece of paper...
I just tried a search here - at midnight (left coast time). Medical - 105,000 posts : 2 minutes. Computer Questions - 1160 posts: 4 seconds. Those figures are going to be quite different during the daytime when all you Eastern Lymeheads hit the keyboards!
Now about Point Four above: equipment can't get any better without more $$$$. That's a tough one for us, 'cause one of the wondrous aspects of this disease is how it saps our ability to make a living. But that's the root problem with your slow search... one of them that is.
For now, to speed up your searches: where it says, "search in", check "Subject Only" when that would do the trick. To make such searches possible, make the subjects succinct and informative.
The other factors are ones that some people aren't gonna like mentioned. That's Redundancy and Long-Windedness. Because the speed of the searches depends on how many topics have to be read, and how long each one is.
Redundancy is when someone posts a question that's been answered 12 times this month. Using the search function can help alleviate that, but we're getting into a chicken-and-egg thing here...
Long-Windedness speaks for itself. Over and over and over. It includes incessant harping on one thing or another, and unending arguments about who's attacking who. Lots more to say on that, but I don't wanna be on the chicken side of this egg...
Dan Lymetoo is too a goon! ..and ask Tincup which one...
[This message has been edited by danq (edited 09 April 2005).]
Posts: 2420 | From Davis, California | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Just to let everyone know, I am aware of the search problem on LymeNet's Flash Discussion Board.
Because there are three different search functions on LymeNet, I did not know that the Flash search was the one that was not working properly. I am now aware of that.
All explanations as to the problem are valid. LymeNet has grown substantially! This means there is more traffic and more posts. This is probably why the search worked faster at 3am when traffic is slower. The servers are old and LymeNet has invested in new servers which are in the process of replacing the old ones, thanks to donations!
Because of the slowness of searching every post, faster connections will experience less wait time. I have a cable modem which is probably why it was hard for me to understand what the problem was at first since I was not experiencing it.
To minimize the search wait time, please try to define your search information to a specific forum. Even if this means you have to run the search over again for each forum, this may reduce your wait time and the "website not responding" error message. Also, try to do the search within the past few days. That means less posts the search has to look at, meaning faster results.
I am very dedicated to LymeNet. I do try to put as much time as I can into helping LymeNet users and I apoligize for the delay recently in getting back to some people. I have not had much spare time recently and I feel bad that I could not put more time into LymeNet. My schedule should be lightening up in a couple weeks though!
Please bare with us while we try to fix this problem and update LymeNet. In the mean time, please try the suggestions I have made above.
posted
I have dial-up, searching never seems to work. I just tried again, limiting the search to Medical Questions and to 30 days, and it still didn't work. For now maybe the search option should be removed.
I for one would pay a fee to get access to the wealth of information that seems to be in old posts.
posted
It is now working for me, with dial up. Does take a little longer than in the past. I am sure that if they whack off a lot of the older posts, it will be faster, but then we lose good stuff. If people would just post stuff in the right forum, and avoid the other aggravations that Dan identified, there would be less of a problem.
Do I need to point out that this thread should have been on general instead? But then, you already knew that. People who don't bother to post anywhere except medical are part of the problem. Please don't say that it is too hard for lymies to switch forums. This is really silly. It is no harder than switching threads in this forum.
If you are willing to pay a fee, then donate to lymenet when they ask for donations.
Grumpy response, I know, but that old saying about looking a gift horse in the mouth applies here.
[This message has been edited by lou (edited 16 April 2005).]
Posts: 8430 | From Not available | Registered: Oct 2000
| IP: Logged |
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/