Check out the search filter!

Subject: Check out the search filter!
From: CarolC
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 09:39 PM

It filters the whole forum now, and not just the last two years!

Thanks guys!!!

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: khandu
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 09:46 PM

It filters the whole forum now, and not just the last two years!

(turnabout is etc)!

k

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: GUEST,Jom
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 09:47 PM

? Carol do you mean the filter next to the "refresh" button in the main listing of threads (threads.cfm)?

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: CarolC
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 09:49 PM

Yes, Jom. (Is that you Jon?)

Ohhhhh... khandu, cut to the quick!

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 10:00 PM

Yep Carol. I can't type.

Did it go off for a while then? Here is an archive from Nov 2002 which has all on the filter.

BTW, it isn't an "all" but just like all the others, number of days from the current one. This one sets 60,000 days or about 164 years back - should out last all of us though!

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: khandu
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 10:06 PM

Yes Jon,it has been like this for a long time, but Carol has been so intent on creating an original Joe Offer Birthday thread that she hasn't had time to notice the change!

k

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: CarolC
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 10:38 PM

For a while, maybe a year or two, it wouldn't go back any more than 2 years. I've been having to search for words within a post in the Lyrics and Knowlege search for any threads that were last posted to more than 2 years previously, instead of using the thread titles.

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 19 Aug 04 - 10:17 PM

hello, it been like that for ages, waht you on about then?
like then cat food adverts "new improved recipe"
when it tastes just the same.

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 19 Aug 04 - 11:36 PM

How in the hell do they know that the "new improved recipe" catfood tastes better anyway? They give samples to a buncha cats and ask 'em? Have 'em fill out a questionaire?

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: CarolC
Date: 19 Aug 04 - 11:59 PM

Dear Sir John Of a Thousand Kittens: It was like that for a while. Then it wasn't. But now it is again. Life is good.

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 01:33 AM

I think we've had that "all" option on the Filter for a while. I was using an experimental version of it for a long, time, so I don't know when the "real" one came in. The Filter is the very best way to find a thread by title, because that's all it checks is thread titles. One word from the thread title is usually enough to narrow it down.
If you use our dropdown QuickLinks menu (available on most pages), you'll find an Old Advanced Forum Search page that will give you all our search functions, and the alphabetical listing of Digital Tradition songs. The Old Search allows you to search for messages by message title, or by the name of the person who posted the message.
You'll find a number of search tips in the first couple messages in the FAQ.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: GUEST,John in Brisbane
Date: 17 Feb 05 - 08:43 AM

These days I do a quick Filter Search on the words Req Add Tech and ABC, and largely let the rest of the world go by. Is it possible to do them in one foul swoop?

Regards, John

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 17 Feb 05 - 08:49 AM

john - if you use the NEW advanced search form I think you can do them all - just put something very ubiquitous in the required field - like "a"

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: Joe Offer
Date: 09 Jun 06 - 01:37 PM

Temporary (I hope) notice:

Our message numbering system got confused in a crash in the summer of 2005, but the threads are intact (but sometimes out of sequence). If you do a SuperSearch, click on the appropriate "thread" link in the results, not on the message link.
The SuperSearch hasn't been indexed since last summer's crash, so it may be better to use the Filter and the Old Forum Search in our QuickLinks dropdown menu.
If you wish to view a mixed-up thread in correct sequence, use the "printer-friendly" link at the tip of the thread.
-Joe Offer, June, 2006-

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: Joe Offer
Date: 10 Jun 06 - 01:09 PM

There are limits to the amount that Mudcat can display - but it's better if you don't test those limits. It puts a drain on our resources. The Filter goes back 30, 90, 180 days; and 1, 2, 3 years and "all" - but beyond a certain limit, you have to put in some clarifying words. To find a thread you've posted in, you may want to click on your name in any message you've posted, or go to the Old Forum Search in our QuickLinks dropdown menu.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 Sep 11 - 06:31 PM

Somebody was having trouble finding a thread yesterday, so I thought it might be an idea to refresh this thread. Our Filter is absolutely the best way to find a thread by thread title, and it's always up-to-date. Our main search engine depends on an index that isn't always up-to-date. If anybody doesn't understand what our Filter is, please contact me by personal message or e-mail and I'll talk you through it.
This first message in the FAQ explains all of our search engines, and I'll bet most Mudcatters aren't aware of all of them.

-Joe Offer-
Senior Archivist
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 02 Sep 11 - 06:43 PM

"Senior Archivist" - I like it! Have you been promoted? I s'pose this means now we have to be respectful when we're being rude to you!
:-p

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: Newport Boy
Date: 03 Sep 11 - 05:38 AM

Congratulations, Joe - from just plain 'Joe' to 'Joe Offer, Senior Archivist' in just 5 years! 'Chief Executive' next?

Phil

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 03 Sep 11 - 05:45 AM

In this case maybe "Senior" just means "really old" (?).

Of course that should merit some respect too.

Unless he just couldn't remember how to spell "Senile."

John
(older even than Joe, I think(?), although he's comin' along.)

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 03 Sep 11 - 05:56 AM

Do we have to curtsey, Joe? :0) x

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 03 Sep 11 - 11:04 PM

Some newer participants may not have caught the "historical" recounting at History of the Digital Tradition.

Of possible interest also, The Mudcat Café, thread number 4, is reported as being the first surviving post at Mudcat. (Max posted a few "test threads" that were deleted when "he saw that it was good and he rested" - according to the archivists.)

It's good to know these bits of history, but I'd personally suggest leaving those threads as as they are, and posting any additional comments back here or in one of the few hundred more recent discussion threads. (I may be biased by all the spray painted graffiti I've seen on ancient cave walls, but "touristy" stuff can be destructive.)

John

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Sep 11 - 12:30 AM

There actually is a Thread Number 1, but its messages are older than those in Thread Number 4. I became "the" moderator in January, 1998, joined by several others in 1999 and later years. Now I'm moving into a new mode, where I can be "Mr. Nice Guy," which is who I really am. Max let me pick my own title - I hope "Senior Archivist" is appropriate and not too pretentious. He thought I should pick something sexier, but somebody else had already taken "Senior Stud." You could call me "Grandpa" - I'm scheduled to become one in October or November.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 04 Sep 11 - 12:40 AM

Congrats in advance on the birth of your first grandchild, Joe!

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Sep 11 - 12:58 AM

Well, she was born eight years ago, but my son is about to marry her mother....
She's a delightful little girl.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 04 Sep 11 - 01:45 AM

A puzzle for the Senior Archivist:

Thread Number 1 was not found when searched for by thread number some time back. There were no returns for #1, #2, or #3 (with a few later numbered threads also missing in early parts of the sequence.

Thread number 1 has a first post dated 1996, but with an answer with content that implies "almost immediately" - by someone "familiar with protocols" at the time of the reply in 2000. The first (1996?) poster appears to have followed the advice given in 2000 to open a second new thread dated 1996.

Some time after thread #4 was identified as the earliest that could be found, there was a "crash" and a number of threads were mangled with some things misdated and out of order. Some rearrangements and "corrections" were made over a fairly extended period after the crash.

All posts other than the first one in the thread #1 are dated 2000 or 2003. Nothing really unusual about gaps in the dates within threads, but it could be regarded as "suspicious."

Clicking the "Philly Blues Boy" at the "first post" shows four posts in two threads, all dated 1996, but the other thread, with all three of his other posts is #21.

Is it likely that "thread 1" was inaccurately renumbered (and perhaps misdated) during the reconstruction to sort out the older threads? Or was it just found during the rebuilding.

The date on Thread 2, which also didn't apear BC (before crash) is earlier than the date for your thread #1.

There still seems to be no thread #3(?).

Philly Blues Boy used a slightly different name to post in at least one other thread, and may have come back more regularly with a third name or name form.

Thread #1 indicates a first post 07 October 1996.

Threads #2 and #4 thru $8 show opening posts 02 Oct 1996, #9 thru 12 show opening posts 03 Oct 1996, but #11 is still missing. #13 goes to 04 October 1996 . #16 jumps to 06 October 1996.

Thread #20 is the first one "in sequence" with the same first-post date as #1. at 07 Octorber 1996.

#22 & #23 have the same date, but #24 & #25 are "missing" making them possible "correct numbers" for the one numbered as #1, if only the date of first post is used to sort. #26 appears a couple of days later.

I've heard that some guys are hard at work correcting the Bible, but this is a lot more important. Get to work Archivist!

(or take a nap.)

John

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Sep 11 - 01:52 AM

Well, John, this is a technical archivist term, but I trust you'll understand it - we have had some discombooberations of the Forum database over the years....

Max's Message #4 in Thread #4 is and always has been the First Official Message of the Mudcat Cafe, posted at 12 AM on October 1, 1996. There are no messages 1, 2, or 3 - not even among the deleted messages.

So, yeah, this has to be attributed to discombooberations.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: Mo the caller
Date: 04 Sep 11 - 02:29 AM

Why does nothing happen when I click topics in the FAQs table of contents?

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Sep 11 - 02:34 AM

Hi, Mo-
I think you've followed my link and you're looking only at the first message of the FAQ. If you follow this link or the link at the top of the page to the entire FAQ, the Table of Contents links will work.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 04 Sep 11 - 02:39 AM

Joe -

I think you mentioned the scrambled stuff in one of your earlier posts in this thread.

There was a fairly long thread some time ago discussing "tricky ways" of searching for very old stuff, and ways to work around some of the defaults. I'm sure I've got it archived but didn't find it with a quick look. My recollection is that there were quite a few "helpful hints" in it, and possibly some other old threads of "historical interest" that were linked, so maybe I'll do a little more looking if I get bored with just givin' ya a hard time.

We're off to festival in a few days so it may be a while before I get around to anything much that's more interesting than "talkin' to Jack" and annoying the neighbors with odd plinks n plunks.

John

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Sep 11 - 02:52 AM

Hi, John - You'll find Mudcat history in this crossindex group

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Check out the search filter!
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 04 Sep 11 - 03:52 AM

And start the DT group with History of the Digital Tradition?

(I'm sure you've got a group for the DT, but that one was next door to where I pasted the Mudcat History group page to mess with later.)

John