For the love of God - when are you going to sort out the search function?

[BIWI]

There were obvious issues with the search function on the old platform, but this new one is hopeless.

To be clear, I mainly used to use AS to check whether or not I think a poster is genuine - and to decide if I'm going to report to MNHQ or not. Rather than troll-hunting on a thread.

Which is why I think having such a poor search function now could lead to more rather than less troll-hunting on threads - no other way to decide if a poster is 'dodgy'.

(Although @MNHQ I promise not to troll hunt )

Posting manager alert! Why would you be so bothered, and how do you find the time to check validity of a poster and report, shakes head.....

It can be good to know who you're dealing with @HydraWater

OK, fair enough... some posters may have concerns. Personally I don't, I just move on and hide a thread if it turns odd or nasty. I know there are others on patrol!

Yes. Never use internal search function on forums. They are always shit. Just Google search term + mumsnet.

It's the same thing, isn't it? Takes you to the start of the thread only.

I agree @BIWI it's utterly shit and worse than useless. Sometimes I'm trying to find a thread I remember from a while back with useful info and it's just not possible.

@HydraWater Personally I don't, I just move on and hide a thread well could you do that now for this thread then , jog on and stop derailing BIWI's perfectly reasonable request.

Have there been any updates to the search function, since they changed to adding a date range? Last time I used it it only searches the original posts and not replies. I often search my own posts if a reply might be similar and haven’t been able to do that since the update.

Sometimes Google works, and I do use Google over the Mumsnet search function for things like “site:mumsnet.com coffee machine” to get an overview of the MN view on coffee machines, but trying to find a specific post isn’t always comprehensive. I’ve shared temperatures for my coffee machine more than once but searching “site:mumsnet.com toastofthetown temperature” only finds one of them for me. The search function at the moment is a notable step down from previous.

Hi @BIWI and everyone on the thread.

We're really sorry about the frustration caused by search. We know it's far from ideal. The good news is we're currently working on the fix, which we estimate is a few weeks away from launch. With that in mind, if anyone would like to be involved with testing it beforehand, please DM me - we'd v much appreciate it. Thank you.

@YetAnotherBeckyMumsnet how do I DM you? I just clicked on the … underneath your post beside Bookmarks, then PM - but there was nowhere to type a message, it just brought up a list of my PMs from a while back

Thanks for the update @YetAnotherBeckyMumsnet. Very good to hear!

@HydraWater you missed out 'thread police' as well

Will the "fix" take it back to how it was previously? @YetAnotherBeckyMumsnet
It's still not completely clear whether a return to full service (as it were) is on the cards.

They are busy on patrol, lol.

Good to hear that MN plan to sort it out for the preservation of the sanity of some on here.

Why are you devoting so much time to something you don't actually care about, Hydra?
It's very odd.

Because I have something to say on the topic. It might not meet your criteria of "actually caring" about it, but that's ok.

Oh - you should be taken straight to a DM to me. I'll message you now but if this happens again, please let us know.

I’ve DMed you now @YetAnotherBeckyMumsnet

Thanks @YetAnotherBeckyMumsnet .

Will it go back to the same usability as before?

As you know, many posts contain links that we use constantly. I know I always go back to find my posts, or others posts, to get to the link again.

While it is clear some MN users are only using the site for entertainment, there are the other groups who use boards very differently.

Do you have any data at all to support your "was used mostly" assertion?

I've used it mostly for "Oh, there was a really good thread about that a few years ago..." but of course that's not visible to you. Nor are most of the other perfectly legitimate uses for it.

Tbh Google is quicker and always was!

@YetAnotherBeckyMumsnet
I can't PM on phone app, but I'd like to volunteer please. I used to use AS sporadically but for so many different reasons, it would be hard to explain all the different ways I've used it over the years, but I miss it quite a lot actually.

I'm glad it's changed. It felt very creepy when odd people searched your user name and admitted they had in order to be unpleasant about previous posts.

Troll hunting is an absolute pain, the smugness of the self appointed board police is horrible. Like mean girls in school.

I change names every month or so to keep the weirdos away.

I've used it mostly for "Oh, there was a really good thread about that a few years ago..." but of course that's not visible to you. Nor are most of the other perfectly legitimate uses for it.

This is what I used it for. Also sometimes I would remember that I had posted about something in the past and that subject was up again and rather than research the answer again, I could search for my post. This was for things like history topics or discussions about language.

There are a lot of legitimate uses for AS. And as for searching others' posts, I never troll hunted on a thread, but I have searched past posts when I suspected a troll and then reported suspected posts to MNHQ. Trolls are much more a problem than troll-hunters, in my opinion.

Perhaps many people don't actually use the search function to find threads they already know about or to hunt down another poster.

Quite a lot of people use the function to find information. Such as people looking for details about health issues, help on a specific type of extra-curricular activity, recipes and so on.