Advanced Search (again)

[A580Hojas]

Afternoon HQ. This is why the loss of advanced search is such a pita:

I know there were two recent threads about it in Site Stuff but I only posted on one of them. I have a feeling the thread I didn't post on is more current but ... I can't find it!

Also, I wanted to find my post on one of the Ozark threads. There are loads of threads which I don't want to click on and scroll through because I might see spoilers, I just want to go to my post from a few months ago on a thread which I don't think had spoilers, but I would read with caution. Again, I can't find it!

It has severely diminished how useful I find the site now, like many others I suspect.

If you’ve posted on a thread why not just use the “I’m on” option ?

Hi OP

Thanks for the feedback.

We're aware that advanced search was loved by many users, and we're considering all feedback in terms of making new search better and more functional.

Please do bear with us - we have a rather large list to work through, but this is on there!

The I'm On option is no good for threads from months ago. Involves LOTS of scrolling. Advanced Search would have taken seconds.

Please, dear God fix the search function...I am losing the will here 🙏🙏

Agree agree the search function now is just awful .

It’s not fit for purpose - there is a self publishing genius on Creative Writing and I want to be able to re read a thread she started and when I search her handle, one thread comes up from 2020 and nothing else at all. I don’t even understand how anything gets found? I use AS (or did when I could) to look up health things or recipes that aren’t always in the aligned topic and I’m finding this so frustrating. Google search is is more helpful for finding things on the site but it’s so awkward. How is anyone supposed to find anything specific?

Yes, please make search usable again.

Hi all

We do plan to update this so please do bear with us.

At least fix the completely unusable date slider.

I've been here for <eyes DS> 17 years and regular Search has always been beyond useless. But it didn't matter because we had Advanced Search.

Taking that away is a completely mystifying decision. And a plan in which an appropriate order of events is

1. Remove advanced search
2. Do large list of other things over an extended period
3. Improve regular search a bit

is even more bewildering.

Please bring it back.

The new one is utterly useless.

It also means the trolls are having a field day because no-one can disprove that they're talking rubbish by looking at their other threads or lack of them.
Losing Advanced Search isn't a minor inconvenience it affects everything.

What’s the latest please? Still involves endless scrolling

Hello!

We haven't got any updates at the moment - we're still in the process of building it but we will post when we have more information!

I doubt they'll actually bring back advanced search. They took it away for a reason, probably to stop people troll hunting.

It definitely feels like they took it away to enable trolls.

But In many cases it actually revealed an OP to be completely making up a thread

'It also means the trolls are having a field day because no-one can disprove that they're talking rubbish by looking at their other threads or lack of them.'

You can still search though? Name in search bar, narrow it down to the last day and threads come up. Yes folk have to be committed if they are stalking someone trying to troll hunt but just scroll through the thread and the posts will be there.

I miss Advanced Search, far more than I might have predicted. I used to use that to find out if anybody else had already started a thread on a news item, or to track down a thread already running where people were discussing a TV programme. Not possible now. Google would do a better job than Mumsnet's own search facility. It's extremely disappointing to plan a huge update and remove one of the best features of the site, which actually worked reliably, and replace it with .... nothing. Why?

I miss it enormously as well. I mainly used to advanced search my own posts since I've posted on Mumsnet on more or less every subject under the sun in the last 16 years and it's a bit like a journal to me.

But it was so useful for everything ... not just looking up the u/name of someone posting dodgy threads. I've long since given up on doing that any more as name changing means trolls have a field day anyway.

For instance, I'm planning a trip to a certain European City in the Autumn. I would usually have a look on MN for tips and recommendations. I might limit my search to the last 4 years to not throw up too many results.

But now ... gah!