21 Dec 23 - 03:48 PM (#4194017) Subject: Tech: Lyrics & Knowledge down? From: Steve Gardham Hi Joe, We seem to be having problems over here getting a response. Getting a 500 all the time. Is there a malfunction currently please? |
21 Dec 23 - 04:08 PM (#4194019) Subject: RE: Tech: Lyrics & Knowledge down? From: Joe Offer Hi, Steve - The Lyrics and Knowledge Search has never worked very well. Even when it was working, it depended on an index that Max had to generate by hand - so it missed all the entries from the time after Max generated the last index. We have a number of search engines that work very well. I listed and explained all our search engines on the first message of the FAQ/Newcomer's Guide, and most of them are in the Old Advanced Forum Search page on the Quicklinks dropdown menu. Over the last 25 years, I've been renaming threads and messages so they'll work with the search engines we have. Our Filter is the best tool for searching by thread title, and the Subject search works by message title (so I try to make sure song titles are in that space). The User Name search is self-explanatory, but note that you can find any person's messages by clicking on his/her name in any message they've posted. The tool I use most often is the Filter Searching Mudcat for Information |
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revised by Joe Offer, December 2023.
21 Dec 23 - 05:46 PM (#4194024) Subject: RE: Tech: Lyrics & Knowledge Search down? From: Steve Gardham Thanks, Joe. I'll pass this on to Martin Graebe who was asking. |
22 Dec 23 - 08:39 AM (#4194033) Subject: RE: Tech: Lyrics & Knowledge Search down? From: GUEST,Ed. And how many times must Joe Offer be asked Why the Mudcat search doesn't work? And how many times... Joe, your patience approaches saintliness. Happy Christmas
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22 Dec 23 - 11:00 AM (#4194048) Subject: RE: Tech: Lyrics & Knowledge Search down? From: Robert B. Waltz GUEST.Ed wrote: And how many times must Joe Offer be asked Why the Mudcat search doesn't work? It is unfortunate. It's also worth pointing out that it isn't entirely Joe's or Max's fault. Speaking from experience... Google searches (e.g. the DT Lyrics search) are not what they're cracked up to be for aites like this. They have a strong dependence on things outside the site owner's control, like how often a particular page is linked to, and Google also wants a site map, which doesn't work as well at a site where people create new threads all the time. I can't really speak to the "under the hood" parts of Mudcat, but Google searches of the Ballad Index are not very good for that very reason. Nor is DuckDuckGo/Bing any better -- though it often finds different things than Google. That said, the fallback -- which sometimes works even when Mudcat is down, because it might fetch a cached page -- is to use the browser search function. In your search bar, type site:mudcat.org (whatever it is you're looking for) And your browser will give you a list of search results from Google just from Mudcat. |