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Tech: Mudcat SEARCH engine tips-try the Filter

11 Oct 17 - 02:58 PM (#3881596)
Subject: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: keberoxu

Sorry to complain,
but every time I enter something to search
and hit Search,
I get an error message and nothing more.

(dreadful sorry Frankenstein)


11 Oct 17 - 03:03 PM (#3881598)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Stilly River Sage

Max is in the process of moving Mudcat to a new server and all of the various features aren't in place yet.


11 Oct 17 - 03:15 PM (#3881600)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: punkfolkrocker

As good a thread as any to ask, will that include emoticons eventually.
They still don't work posted from my Chrome browser extension tool...


11 Oct 17 - 03:34 PM (#3881609)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Joe Offer

Well, we certainly want you to emote, PFR...;-)
🎵

Mudcat has many search tools - see Old Advanced Forum Search (click) in the QuickLinks dropdown menu.

Almost all of these search tools work just fine.
-Joe-

Remember that the main search engine depends on an index that has to be generated, so the recency of those searches depends on how recently Max updated the index.

There are other search engines on the Old Advanced Forum Search on the quicklinks dropdown menu on most Mudcat pages.

My favorite search engine is the Filter box at the top of the list of threads on the Forum Menu. It searches by thread name, and it's quick and accurate. Use one or two key words in the Filter, and then set the Age back. You can do a secondary search of the results with CTRL-F.

Other search tips in the FAQ.

And if you still can't find it, ask a moderator or start a thread and ask.

-Joe-

Searching Mudcat for Information

It's easy to search for songs in the Digital Tradition Folk Song Database - just put some words from the song in the search box you'll find on most Mudcat pages, and click the "go" button. There's an advanced box that will help you narrow your search and pinpoint exactly what you're looking for. Also, click here for more song search help. You'll note that there is a dropdown menu of letters at the bottom of the search box - those letters link to a "titles list" of the songs in the Digital Tradition. Titles can be misleading, so you'll probably have better results if you use the search box to search for a distinctive phrase from the song. Here's that search box:

Lyrics & Knowledge Search [Advanced]

DT  Forum
Sort (Forum) by:relevance date

DT Lyrics:


Notice the search box toward the bottom of the box above - that's Google Custom Search, set to use Google to search the contents of Mudcat. Try it - you'll find it works quite well, especially if you search for a phrase in quotes.


Forum Search (searching by Message Title or User Name)
If the song or information you want does not come up with our usual search engine, you may want to try searching our discussion Forum with our "Filter" (for searching by thread title) or "
Forum Search" (for searching by message title or user name.

The Filter

(searching by thread title)
Toward the top of the
Mudcat Forum main menu (click here), you'll see a "filter" box - put an appropriate word in the box and set the age to whatever is appropriate to cover the period you want to search. Click the grey "reset" button, and all threads with that word in the title should appear (a "thread" is a series of forum messages, posted on a specific topic). Here's a filter box you can try:
Filter Age

Filter Out Help


Note: The forum menu is set to display all threads for which messages have been posted in the last 24 hours. If your thread has disappeared, please don't start a new one. Just use the "filter" or "search the forum" links on the main forum menu, and pull your thread up and post a new message in that thread - that will bring your thread up for another 24 hours. Your new message can be just the word "refresh" if you have nothing else to add.
If you're viewing Mudcat from work or a library or another location that has a "profanity filter" on its computers, you may not be able to view our Forum Menu if we happen to have a so-called "naughty word" in a thread title. We've tried to tag these titles "pg13." If your profanity filter blocks your access, try putting pg13 in the Filter box and check the "filter out" box. Click here for tools to help you filter out "PG13" or other threads.

Outdated search tools

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, we had a blue search box to search the Digital Tradition. It had lots of shortcomings, but it may work when our regular search engine is down. It also had a "titles" list that worked horribly. Here is our Old Blue Search Box:

DigiTrad Lyrics Search Help

All Titles - A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L
M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z


SuperSearch was the prototype of our current method of searching both our Forum and the Digital Tradition, SuperSearch. Here's a copy of that prototype, in case you find it useful. Just enter a phrase and click the "go" button.
Note: the index for the SuperSearch is not always up-to-date, so recent messages may not appear in your search results.
Digitrad and Forum Search

Use Google to search Mudcat

If you use
this Google search link and just add what you're looking for, you'll be able to search Mudcat. A search for twa corbies would look like this: (click).


Note:

Our main search engine depends on an index which is supposed to be updated regularly. However, performance of the Mudcat Search Engine has been a bit spotty. If it doesn't work, try the Google search box above.

The Filter is our best tool for finding things by thread name. You can use the Old Advanced Forum Search in our QuickLinks dropdown menu to find posts by message title or by the name of the poster.

And if you still have trouble finding something, ask me. That's my job.

Joe Offer, Mudcat Music Editor
joe@mudcat.org


11 Oct 17 - 04:04 PM (#3881614)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: DaveRo

pfr: Can you post and see the emoticons on Mr Red's site:
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=161315

If so your emoji-generating extension is the problem. Try another.

Other people are posting emoticons: this one is from my Android virtual keyboard: ??

This site should work with unicode emoticons and symbols. But not all people will see anything you post - they need to have a font that includes it.


11 Oct 17 - 04:08 PM (#3881615)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: DaveRo

Interesting. Yet Jeri's emoticons here work here:
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=162910&messages=104#3880897


11 Oct 17 - 04:26 PM (#3881623)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: DaveRo

So they preview OK but when posted are displayed as ??

But how did Jeri post those two? Different server?


11 Oct 17 - 04:30 PM (#3881624)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: DaveRo

This one using a # code off Mr Red's page: 😀


11 Oct 17 - 04:53 PM (#3881630)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: DaveRo

Looks like multibyte input text is being lost - yet it doesn't affect preview.


11 Oct 17 - 05:27 PM (#3881634)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: punkfolkrocker

Yeah.. I tested emoticons here a few days ago,
when I first noticed problems and mentioned it on other threads..
Just before it was announced that Max was doing renovations..

Emoticons show up in the text box, and after pressing preview, but only post as 2 question marks.

Tested on chrome browser on PC.
Android, and win 8.1 mobile phones.


11 Oct 17 - 06:50 PM (#3881652)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Jeri

I just copied & pasted them.
on mudcat.org
??


11 Oct 17 - 06:51 PM (#3881653)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Jeri

Whoops - I must've been on a different server when the other ones posted successfully.


12 Oct 17 - 03:12 AM (#3881681)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Mr Red

if you type hash code &#128527 it displays as ?? eg


see http://mister.red/various/codes3.htm and select various panels for my suggestions for a range of emoticons.
The has code above the chosen image can be copied for pasting alongside your normal text

if you type <FONT SIZE="+3">&#128526;</FONT> you get 😎

Mr 😈 Red


12 Oct 17 - 03:14 AM (#3881682)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Mr Red

you win some, you lose some ?? (sic) 😎


12 Oct 17 - 03:27 AM (#3881689)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: DaveRo

Thanks, Jeri. Either a different server or the configuration of the bits of the system - webserver, database, whatever - have changed.

So anything that puts the actual emoticon into the typing box - special keyboards, addons, copy/paste - doesn't work: yellow sadface displays as ??

That's either a bug or Max has had enough of them (understandable).

A # code from Mr_Red's_page does work: &#128512; displays as 😀

The difference is that those are all ASCII characters.


12 Oct 17 - 03:34 AM (#3881690)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Mr Red

strangely my hashcode &#128527 displayed as ?? (I'll try again ??


If a particular hash code doesn't work I would ask "is there a script that recognises favoured hash codes as particular enoticons and translates them to 2 character Fakebook syntax but the recognition of the 2 characters has yet to be fully implemented. ie a work in progress.


12 Oct 17 - 03:39 AM (#3881691)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Mr Red

I have noticed that the preview displays hash codes as wanted, but not in a post.
AND another thing, after being clever on a line I sometimes see the last character of that line go missing. I put a close bracket on line 1. It happened before with eg but I noticed in preview and added a space at the end for it to lose.

😡


12 Oct 17 - 03:44 AM (#3881692)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: DaveRo

In case Max is reading this:
A curious quirk of the switch to https is that I have a have a bookmark to http://mudcat.org/?age=1 which converts to https://mudcat.org/?age=1&age=1 (which doesn't work).


12 Oct 17 - 08:07 AM (#3881766)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Iains

If you do a google search with mudcat in the search string it will act pretty much the same as the mudcat search engine. I use it fairly frequently to track down forum responses.


12 Oct 17 - 08:45 AM (#3881775)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: punkfolkrocker

This is the Emoji Extension I'm using in Chrome on my Win 8.1 PC


https://www.emojiforgooglechrome.com/


12 Oct 17 - 11:26 AM (#3881815)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Max

DaveRo, I think I fixed that quirk but the previous redirect is probably now cached in your browser so it may not appear so. If you clear your cache or try it with a different browser it should be good to go. Thanks for the feedback. ~Max

Incidentally, I am also redirecting (rewriting) all www.mudcat.org to just mudcat.org for the secure certificate's sake. Wasn't sure which was appending the 2nd query string.


12 Oct 17 - 11:45 AM (#3881818)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: DaveRo

Max: yes - still wrong in Firefox/Android but OK if I change to Chrome.

OK in Firefox after clearing cache.


12 Oct 17 - 11:52 AM (#3881822)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: GUEST,keberoxu

You all are talking so far over my head it isn't even funny.
I feel like a bug in the mud. A mud bug.


12 Oct 17 - 11:55 AM (#3881823)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Max

Oh, I created another bug. I forgot a slash. Fixed that.


12 Oct 17 - 06:15 PM (#3881882)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: GUEST,keberoxu

Max, I needed that laugh. Many thanks.


12 Oct 17 - 06:46 PM (#3881890)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Joe Offer

Hi, Max - amazon.mudcat.org isn't working, and I'm upgrading my computer and spending a lot of money. I ordered throughHope my money comes through....

-Joe-


13 Oct 17 - 10:56 AM (#3882051)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: punkfolkrocker

emoji test:


??


13 Oct 17 - 10:57 AM (#3882052)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: punkfolkrocker

nope


13 Oct 17 - 01:54 PM (#3882096)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: GUEST,keberoxu

and I still can't use the Mudcat search engine.


13 Oct 17 - 02:02 PM (#3882098)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: punkfolkrocker

Preview is hit and miss as well...

if you press preview it may then refuse to post.


13 Oct 17 - 04:02 PM (#3882116)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: DaveRo

I wondered whether lyrics in east European languages are affected by this emoticon problem. Turkish has several characters which I expect are double-byte in utf-8.

Below is the first verse of a Turkish children's song "Ali Baba Has a Big Farm" which I found here

Ali Babanin bir çiftligi var
Çiftliginde horozlari var
Ü üürü üü diye bagirir
Çiftliginde Ali Babanin

I don't speak Turkish, BTW, but I did spend some time there and I have vivid memories of trying to make sense of text messages sent to me by mobile operator Turkcell. Note that there are two i characters - with and without a dot.


13 Oct 17 - 04:10 PM (#3882119)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: DaveRo

Close - but not identical. It has made all the i characters identical, and lost the g-breve. The diacritics remaining are all Latin.

That was not what I expected!


14 Oct 17 - 03:55 AM (#3882183)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Joe Offer

Off and on, Mudcat has accepted posting of special characters. When the poster submits the message, the special characters are changed into an ampersand code, so it will display properly and reliably. I hope that Max can make that feature work again. It is very important when posting songs in foreign languages.


14 Oct 17 - 11:19 AM (#3882229)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Jason Xion Wang

PLEASE make unicode characters work again. Everytime I try to post something - song titles, lyrics etc - in Chinese, it ends up in question marks. Very disappointing.


14 Oct 17 - 12:53 PM (#3882249)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Snuffy

Emoyicons and unicode are all very well, but why are they in this thread. And why can't I use the Mudcat search engine? I just keep getting

500 - Internal server error.
There is a problem with the resource you are looking for, and it cannot be displayed.


14 Oct 17 - 12:54 PM (#3882250)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Mr Red

I think the problem with characters may well be that there is a limit on the numerical length which wasn't there before.

eg hash codes under (say) 1000. Greek seems to end with omega ώ (974) above 1000 it is Cyrillic like Ж

because the preview is controlled by your browser it looks OK. But once stored by Mudcat it is controlled elsewhere.

If the above posts correctly - I would posit a higher number like 9999 maybe - where the emojis live. Having said that I managed (and got a reaction that confirmed) to get emojis to post, that didn't a day later so either the threshold is variable from some bug, or max it still tinkering.


14 Oct 17 - 12:59 PM (#3882251)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Mr Red

looks OK so far, so maybe fixed or random or higher threshold like 65536 (2 to power 16)

emojis live in the stratosphere (128000 ish)


14 Oct 17 - 01:41 PM (#3882259)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: GUEST,maeve

Snuffy- There currently is an ongoing upgrade/server change. From the second post in this thread:

Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Acme
Date: 11 Oct 17 - 03:03 PM

Max is in the process of moving Mudcat to a new server and all of the various features aren't in place yet.


16 Oct 17 - 02:06 PM (#3882593)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: punkfolkrocker

👍🏼


16 Oct 17 - 03:40 PM (#3882609)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: DaveRo

Let's try that Turkish song again - copied from here:

Ali Babanın bir ?iftliği var
?iftliğinde horozları var
? ??r? ?? diye bağırır
?iftliğinde Ali Babanın

Hmmmm. It doesn't preview coreectly, which it did last time.
The dotless i and the g-breve have been converted to &-codes and appear correctly. The characters that posted correctly last time, such as C-cedilla appear as question marks.

Heres a u-umlaut and a c-cedilla from my keyboard: ? ?

I'll post it...


16 Oct 17 - 05:04 PM (#3882626)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Bill D

? ? ? ∞


16 Oct 17 - 05:06 PM (#3882628)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Bill D

interesting... only the infinity posted, and not the a with umlaut


16 Oct 17 - 05:24 PM (#3882634)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Jeri

Seems the accents and alt codes are 👎, but the emoticons ought to make some folks 😀. And if you can copy, paste a c cedille, this will be one ç. If it's a question mark, you can't do it.


16 Oct 17 - 05:48 PM (#3882635)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Joe Offer

I tried copy-pasting German text from Firefox three different ways, and none of them worked. The umlauts showed up as question marks. The text I used was https://www.volksliederarchiv.de/freut-euch-des-lebens/, which has plenty of umlauts. I copied from the visible text and pasted it into a message box. Then I pasted the same text into an "edit" bos, and then I pasted the source text into an edit box - on all three attempts, no cigar.

But if I use the ampersand code, &uuml; - it will work:
    ü


My favorite is the "s-zed ligature," &szlig; - it will work, too:
    ß
(done from Firefox)


16 Oct 17 - 06:06 PM (#3882640)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Joe Offer

OK, this is on an alternate Mudcat server, not the new one....

Freut euch des Lebens weil noch das L?mpchen gl?ht Pfl?cket die Rose eh sie verbl?ht!

Man schafft so gerne sich Sorg? und M?h? sucht Dornen auf und findet sie und l??t das Veilchen unbemerkt das uns am Wege bl?ht. Freut euch des Lebens?

Nope, doesn't work, either....


16 Oct 17 - 08:10 PM (#3882659)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Jack Campin

Absolutely nothing in this thread works for me except Joe's ampersand codes and some of the high-bit characters in DaveRo's Turkish text. When I want to post Turkish or Hungarian I use ampersand numeric codes, they do work here.

for Turkish:

& # 1 9 9 ; Ç
& # 2 3 1 ; ç
& # 2 8 6 ; Ğ
& # 2 8 7 ; ğ
& # 3 0 4 ; İ
& # 3 0 5 ; ı
& # 2 1 4 ; Ö
& # 2 4 6 ; ö
& # 3 5 0 ; Ş
& # 3 5 1 ; ş
& # 2 2 0 ; Ü
& # 2 5 2 ; ü

and Hungarian:

& # 3 3 7 ; ő
& # 3 3 6 ; Ő
& # 3 6 9 ; ű
& # 3 6 8 ; Ű

The other non-ASCII characters in Turkish and Hungarian can be done with alphabetic ampersand codes (which are not too hard to remember).


17 Oct 17 - 02:33 AM (#3882676)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Jason Xion Wang

I'll try again:
��������夏腆��������


17 Oct 17 - 02:34 AM (#3882677)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Jason Xion Wang

Nope, the &# codes don't work for me either. Some Chinese characters do show up but not the rest.


17 Oct 17 - 02:45 AM (#3882678)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: DaveRo

If I copy Jeri's c-cedilla I get ?

I assume this is work in progress. It looks like the intention is to serve ISO-8859-1 - which includes all these missing characters - and convert anything else - like the dotless i, g-breve, infinity, and emoticons - to &-codes. One of Joe's posts suggested that's what the old system did. Previously the server was using UTF-8.

Part if that's working ;)

Jason: yours is a font problem. You - and I - don't have glyphs for those unicode codes.


17 Oct 17 - 02:56 AM (#3882680)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Jason Xion Wang

Try again:

😂🤣🐷💕夏腆💞🐗🈵🈹


17 Oct 17 - 03:02 AM (#3882681)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Jason Xion Wang

Thanks Dave...

I've finally made things work after using hexadecimal &#x codes, i.e. "&#x1f438;" for "🐸"... 😂😂😂 Pretty inconvenient I'll admit!


17 Oct 17 - 03:12 AM (#3882682)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Jason Xion Wang

I'll try posting some Chinese lyrics here...

小燕子,穿花衣,
年年春天来这里,
我问燕子你为啥来?
燕子说:“这里的春天最美丽!”

Seems that everything is fine now.


17 Oct 17 - 04:58 AM (#3882708)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: DaveRo

I notice today that apostrophe is appearing as ? in some posts. So "I'll just add..." appears as "I?ll just add..."

I wonder if those posts are being composed 'off site' and pasted in, and those are actually 'right single quotes' - "I’ll just add ..." Microsoft stuff had a habit of doing that - 'smart quotes'.

It shows in preview, though.


17 Oct 17 - 09:39 PM (#3882900)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: GUEST,🐸🐹👀👁

Would this work? 🐸🐹👀👁


17 Oct 17 - 09:45 PM (#3882902)
Subject: RE: Why can't I use the Mud🐱 search engine
From: GUEST,Mud🐱 testing

Mud🐱 testing


18 Oct 17 - 12:39 AM (#3882906)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Joe Offer

DaveRo says, "I notice today that apostrophe is appearing as ? in some posts. So "I'll just add..." appears as "I?ll just add..."."

Those are the curly apostrophes, Dave - so probably the text was copy-pasted from a word processor. The straight apostrophes don't have that problem.

-Joe-


18 Oct 17 - 02:23 AM (#3882908)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: DaveRo

Joe Offer wrote: the text was copy-pasted from a word processor
I thought so too, Joe. But the poster mentioned using an iPad, and it was a short post. Is is possible to generate the character on an iPad keyboard?   Just curious.
GUEST,🐸🐹👀👁 wrote: Would this work?...
GUEST,Mud🐱 testing wrote: ...testing...
I wonder whether putting emoticons in usernames - and thefefore possibly into the database indexes, might have some unwelcome effects...?


18 Oct 17 - 03:18 AM (#3882913)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Mr Red

let's see - Denary has codes row followed by Hex hash codesrow.

does this work 4 🦊 🤕 ?
or this 4 🦊 🤕 ?

Preview OK
now - let's see which if either survive the 'Cat o' Nine Tales


18 Oct 17 - 10:50 PM (#3883182)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: keberoxu

meanwhile,
the search engine still doesn't work,
says the bug in the mud.

Gosh, darn.


19 Oct 17 - 12:39 AM (#3883188)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Joe Offer

Now, now, look at the sunny side. This is an excellent opportunity to learn how well our other search engines and the Filter work. Tips for searching are here (click) in the FAQ.

Mudcat has many search tools - see Old Advanced Forum Search (click) in the QuickLinks dropdown menu.



🎼 Keep on the sunny side..... ♬



-Joe-


19 Oct 17 - 04:07 AM (#3883203)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Mr Red

well wotdooyooknow messages since last visit from the drop-down menu. The problem is my last visit was recorded (in a cookie?) as 17 Aug 2014. I have re-set it to today which seems a bit backwards unless I have set it in motion (never did before) by so doing. I will monitor is to see where it registers my last visit. ie manual, auto from thread page, or "last visit" page.


19 Oct 17 - 05:22 AM (#3883218)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: DaveRo

You have an ID cookie and it will contain 20140817. It's your date of joining. I assume that the date of your last visit was initialized to that when your ID record was created in the database.


19 Oct 17 - 06:45 AM (#3883241)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: GUEST

You have an ID cookie and it will contain 20140817. It's your date of joining.

But Mr Red's posting history show that he first posted under that moniker in February '01


19 Oct 17 - 07:34 AM (#3883247)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: DaveRo

You're right, GUEST. I was going by my cookie. Maybe something was reset on that date then.


21 Oct 17 - 04:50 AM (#3883647)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: DaveRo

Joe Offer wrote: When the poster submits the message, the special characters are changed into an ampersand code, so it will display properly and reliably. I hope that Max can make that feature work again. It is very important when posting songs in foreign languages.
Until it does you could convert it using this_site.

Delete the Foo stuff and paste the text into the top box. Then copy the bottom box into Mudcat and preview it.

That should fix the current ? problem:
Hall? Orchestra -> Hallé Orchestra


21 Oct 17 - 05:40 AM (#3883658)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Mr Red

yea, maybe I had a new computer, or a new iteration of a browser in 2014. My memory isn't that detailed.

Now my Messages since last visit lists 20th onwards, which may be day oriented, not time.


22 Oct 17 - 09:08 PM (#3883944)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Joe Offer

Somebody emailed me about our missing search engine. This is the response I typed up. Maybe it will help somebody else:

    I suppose we could blame it on Google, but it's probably a good thing to do in the long run.
    Google has been pushing Websites to adopt https:// security, which is a good thing. It got to the point where Mudcat's owner Max Spiegel decided to go along with Google and increase security, but that meant that Max had to move Mudcat to a new platform. It's a difficult job, and it will take Max some time to get a number of functions back online. The most notable one is the "search" function.
    We've always had a number of search engines, and I usually use a variety.
    I wrote a description of our various search engines and how to use them in our FAQ: https://mudcat.org/detail.cfm?messages__Message_ID=196922

    If you have trouble finding something, give me a holler. I'm pretty good at finding stuff.
    -Joe-
    joe@mudcat.org


24 Oct 17 - 11:51 AM (#3884302)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Max

I'm making progress. Give it a whirl.

Also, while you are here, can y'all give me an idea of other websites that are resources for folk songs and the like that you also like to visit?

The Google Custom search includes other sites as well. I'm looking to add more sites to it. I already have:

www.csufresno.edu/folklore/
www.thebards.net/music/
maxhunter.missouristate.edu/
folkmusic.about.com
nodepression.com
etymonline.com
thesession.org
traditionalmusic.co.uk
folktunefinder.com

Any other suggestions?


24 Oct 17 - 09:50 PM (#3884401)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Joe Offer

Not working right now, Max. I searched for On the Charlie So Long - no cigar.


27 Oct 17 - 03:15 PM (#3885136)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Max

worked for me.
    The same search, On the charlie so long, worked fine for me on 29 Oct, Max. Thannks.
    -Joe-


27 Oct 17 - 04:04 PM (#3885145)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: GUEST,keberoxu

I'm the member who opened this thread --

and the Mudcat search engine works for me as well.

Dreadful grateful,
Frankenstein.


27 Oct 17 - 04:51 PM (#3885153)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Jackaroodave

I'm getting returns, but in some cases more than I asked for. For example:

0.8912 - Thread - Message - RE: new Dave Van Ronk CD - Oct 25 2013 3:29AM - ? Joe Offer
0.8912 - Thread - Message - RE: new Dave Van Ronk CD - Oct 25 2013 3:29AM - ? Joe Offer
0.8912 - Thread - Message - RE: new Dave Van Ronk CD - Oct 25 2013 3:29AM - ? Joe Offer

Most are single, some are duplicate, and this one is triplicate.

I'm using an old iPad, which can't handle a lot of javascript; maybe that's it.

Anyway, it's nothing I can't live with.

Thank you for all your hard work, Max.


16 Sep 18 - 07:40 PM (#3951022)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: keberoxu

The bug in the mud is back.
Sadly.
I can't search using the Mudcat search feature --
at least, not successfully.


17 Sep 18 - 01:18 AM (#3951057)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Sandra in Sydney

when I want something from Mudcat, I do a google site search

(info wanted) site:mudcat.org


17 Sep 18 - 01:18 AM (#3951058)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Sandra in Sydney

ps. info wanted is not put in brackets


10 Mar 21 - 03:31 PM (#4097056)
Subject: RE: A suggestion for the 'filter' box
From: Joe Offer

I thought I'd refresh this thread to encourage folks to use the Filter if they want to find things by thread name. Put a pertinent word or phrase in the filter box, set the age back (I usually set it to "all"), and click the Refresh button. You can do a secondary search of the results by using [CTRL-F]. The Filter is our fastest and easiest search engine.

Also note the QuickLinks dropdown menu on most Mudcat pages. It has a link called Old Adv. Forum Search, which is kind of a misleading title. It is a toolbox of almost ALL of our search tools. You can search by the name of the poster, the title of the message or thread, and the text of the message.

Our grey search box is a very good tool, but it depends on an index that must be generated. It doesn't get generated very often because that's a big job - so the search doesn't show messages posted within the last year or two or more.

-Joe-


16 Apr 21 - 03:46 PM (#4102449)
Subject: RE: Tech: why can't I use the Mudcat search engine
From: Joe Offer

Remember that the main search engine depends on an index that has to be generated, so the recency of those searches depends on how recently Max updated the index.

There are other search engines on the Old Advanced Forum Search on the quicklinks dropdown menu on most Mudcat pages.

My favorite search engine is the Filter box at the top of the list of threads on the Forum Menu. It searches by thread name, and it's quick and accurate. Use one or two key words in the Filter, and then set the Age back. You can do a secondary search of the results with CTRL-F.

Other search tips in the FAQ.

And if you still can't find it, ask a moderator or start a thread and ask.

-Joe-

Searching Mudcat for Information

It's easy to search for songs in the Digital Tradition Folk Song Database - just put some words from the song in the search box you'll find on most Mudcat pages, and click the "go" button. There's an
advanced box that will help you narrow your search and pinpoint exactly what you're looking for. Also, click here for more song search help. You'll note that there is a dropdown menu of letters at the bottom of the search box - those letters link to a "titles list" of the songs in the Digital Tradition. Titles can be misleading, so you'll probably have better results if you use the search box to search for a distinctive phrase from the song. Here's that search box:

Lyrics & Knowledge Search [Advanced]

DT  Forum
Sort (Forum) by:relevance date

DT Lyrics:


Notice the search box toward the bottom of the box above - that's Google Custom Search, set to use Google to search the contents of Mudcat. Try it - you'll find it works quite well, especially if you search for a phrase in quotes.


Forum Search (searching by Message Title or User Name)
If the song or information you want does not come up with our usual search engine, you may want to try searching our discussion Forum with our "Filter" (for searching by thread title) or "
Forum Search" (for searching by message title or user name.

The Filter

(searching by thread title)
Toward the top of the
Mudcat Forum main menu (click here), you'll see a "filter" box - put an appropriate word in the box and set the age to whatever is appropriate to cover the period you want to search. Click the grey "reset" button, and all threads with that word in the title should appear (a "thread" is a series of forum messages, posted on a specific topic). Here's a filter box you can try:
Filter Age

Filter Out Help


Note: The forum menu is set to display all threads for which messages have been posted in the last 24 hours. If your thread has disappeared, please don't start a new one. Just use the "filter" or "search the forum" links on the main forum menu, and pull your thread up and post a new message in that thread - that will bring your thread up for another 24 hours. Your new message can be just the word "refresh" if you have nothing else to add.
If you're viewing Mudcat from work or a library or another location that has a "profanity filter" on its computers, you may not be able to view our Forum Menu if we happen to have a so-called "naughty word" in a thread title. We've tried to tag these titles "pg13." If your profanity filter blocks your access, try putting pg13 in the Filter box and check the "filter out" box. Click here for tools to help you filter out "PG13" or other threads.

Outdated search tools

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, we had a blue search box to search the Digital Tradition. It had lots of shortcomings, but it may work when our regular search engine is down. It also had a "titles" list that worked horribly. Here is our Old Blue Search Box:

DigiTrad Lyrics Search Help

All Titles - A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L
M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z


SuperSearch was the prototype of our current method of searching both our Forum and the Digital Tradition, SuperSearch. Here's a copy of that prototype, in case you find it useful. Just enter a phrase and click the "go" button.
Note: the index for the SuperSearch is not always up-to-date, so recent messages may not appear in your search results.
Digitrad and Forum Search

Use Google to search Mudcat

If you use
this Google search link and just add what you're looking for, you'll be able to search Mudcat. A search for twa corbies would look like this: (click).


Note:

Our main search engine depends on an index which is supposed to be updated regularly. However, performance of the Mudcat Search Engine has been a bit spotty. If it doesn't work, try the Google search box above.

The Filter is our best tool for finding things by thread name. You can use the Old Advanced Forum Search in our QuickLinks dropdown menu to find posts by message title or by the name of the poster.


01 May 22 - 03:31 AM (#4140766)
Subject: RE: Tech: Mudcat search engine tips
From: Joe Offer

Max manually resets the default for the filter to 14 days (or whatever) whenever Mudcat has been down for an extended time. Otherwise, there wouldn't be any threads listed on the Forum Menu.


04 Sep 22 - 12:20 PM (#4151947)
Subject: RE: Tech: Mudcat search engine tips-try the Filter
From: Joe Offer

The main search engine has been down, so it's time to explore all the alternatives we have. The easiest way to find threads is the Filter box at the top of the list of threads. Just enter a pertinent word, set the age back, and "refresh."

In the Quick Links Dropdown Menu, the Old Advanced Forum Search can find things by message title and by the name of the poster.

Oftentimes, you may get a lot of results and you might want to search your search results. You can search the results by using CTRL-F to find a pertinent word among the results.


18 Sep 23 - 11:48 PM (#4188069)
Subject: RE: Tech: Mudcat SEARCH engine tips-try the Filter
From: Joe Offer

Refresh. Learn these search tips and you won't even notice that the main search engine is down.


20 Sep 23 - 11:25 AM (#4188068)
Subject: RE: Tech: Mudcat SEARCH engine tips-try the Filter
From: GUEST

I think that all the advice given is consistent. But if you are modeling the game or think of modeling it, you need to realize that nobody or almost nobody makes it on physical disks anymore. Think big and study anonymous vps because I think the time will come pretty soon when you will be keeping all your data on secure servers only.


04 Dec 23 - 04:06 PM (#4192926)
Subject: RE: Tech: Mudcat SEARCH engine tips-try the Filter
From: Joe Offer

On the Mudcat Facebook page, the was a question about our search engine. To be honest, our most evident search has never worked very well and does not seem to be working at all now. But we have about ten search engines, all described in the FAQ (click).


27 Jan 24 - 11:52 AM (#4196238)
Subject: RE: Tech: Mudcat SEARCH engine tips-try the Filter
From: Stilly River Sage

Refreshing this due to a recent query about searches.