Where has Advanced Search gone?

Funny that!

This place has definitely got quieter since the change. There is a reason for that.

Echoing others. It's useless.

They do acknowledge compliments, praise, and flowers, I've noticed!

It was a brave try, but the new search is shit.

I'm really not enjoying this site since the so called upgrade, the loss of Advanced Search renders mumsnet pretty pointless to me now and the fact no one from HQ is even acknowledging our complaints is really frustrating.

The search upgrade is not fit for purpose. This general search is infantilising sophisticated and super users who are used to applying specific filters and search strategies to conduct targeted searches.

The true sign of a useless search function is when people start to use google as a workaround to search outside the site itself, as one poster said she did.

Pls bring back Advanced Search.

*sorry, more useless than the old random search

Even if/when you fix the slider back to searchable dates, including today and yesterday, it will be still an effectively useless search function. If you click on one of the few (or at other times the many, irrelevant) threads it picks up in response to your search and then go back to it, all your search refining terms are gone and you have to start again. It is, therefore, more than the old random search it replaced, and minus all the uses of AS.

The search function is basically useless.

I’m struggling to search by date with the slider, its really hard to slide it to a specific date as it jumps around quite a lot when you move it. Trying to search for threads in the last 3 days or the last week etc isn’t possible - the slider kept jumping from 21/04/22 to 14/04/22, I didn’t seem able to slide it precisely. Can there be an option to manually type in the dates wanted.

I've just tried it to find a thread I started around 10 years ago under an old name as if it was 10 years ago I want to post an anniversary thread...

First I got a load of results of threads that have been long deleted as they were on boards that auto-delete after X time.

And when I tried to adjust parameters it just conked out and froze.

And while I'm at it, wtf have you done to the way images upload? They get stretched out so they're all thin and long now?!

Yeah the search function no longer functions at all

1. I can't search by title only

2. I can't find specific posts

3. if I try and search by poster I get a weird list of old timers as suggestions with tick boxes by their names? What's that about?

Yes, are you actually going to try and fix this @MNHQ?

Yes, I think this may be a deal breaker for me as well. I want to find a post where someone made a specific recommendation to me and I can't even find my own posts. Not being able to see my own (and other's) posting history is not going to work for me.

Advanced search is a useful tool in troll hunting and maybe that's exactly why HQ want it gone?

But at the same time Advanced search is a useful tool for people wanting to look up their own posting history or things that are/were of interest to them.

Speaking for myself I never bother with troll hunting (too old, cynical and jaded to be bothered), so the loss of Advanced search is frustrating!

This is my experience too - it doesn't make sense and can't find my own posts or a poster's history.

I did the same with the same result. The search function on here now is essentially useless. I wonder did they intentionally do away with the ability to search specific posters or posts?

This is my experience too - it doesn't make sense and can't find my own posts or a poster's history.

Oh bloody hell just tried it to find posts by someone I know has been on here for over 10 years and there's hardly anything come up. And when I find one and click on it to read it and then try and navigate back to the list it brought up, it takes me back to the search function and I have to input the name again. And also there are boxes with lots of random names that are from years ago and I'm not sure why they are there - they're not even similar to the name I inputted. I'm not sure I'm explaining myself well but it's all so confusing and basically disfunctional!

I don't understand what why you would take away what was a really useful feature. It's not improved or even broken, it's gone.

The old Advanced Search was not to everyone's taste but you could always make it do what you wanted. Please use it as a specification.

Very much agree.

I agree with other posters that this search function is not improved. It was a feature I used often. I think I can adjust to the other changes, but this may be a deal breaker.

I know you've got lots of glitches to iron out MN, but taking away Advanced Search is not a glitch, it's the removal of a function that was (finally) working quite well.

I've just done a search on one of my old usernames. It will find me any threads I've started, but not the posts I've made on threads I didn't start. This isn't helpful or useful at all.

We Nightwatchers use it to check out reported posts too.

This needs fixing asap @SueMumsnet

Yeah this is awful, I use AS to look up questionable posting history before reporting trolls and this makes that impossible

Search is very quick, but what's the point of being quick when you can't use it to find what you are looking for? Like others have mentioned, I am having to construct sometimes complex searches using google to find what I want.

If you want something to test to show how useless search has become - search for the phrase "From 1911 to 1975". Search does not find the actual thread wanted, but finds threads that contain "1905" "1910" - WHY? (You can tell this is what search is finding because they are highlighted in the results). If you put "From 1911 to 1975" site:mumsnet.com in google it will find the thread I want.

The only thing that works well:

1. The filter for Topics

Seriously major faults:

1. Search only looks for the Search Term in the title or first post. Totally useless.
2. "Posted By" only works for the OP

The old Advanced Search was not to everyone's taste but you could always make it do what you wanted. Please use it as a specification.