The Study of Racialism

Powell · Guru Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 2176 }

Is there a way the forum could get a search engine? It is hard to find things. Topics are scattered over too many postings.

fwsweet · Posted: Thu 27 Oct 2005 13:46 Post subject:

I fear that this has been a chronic problem since day one. See http://backintyme.com/ODR/viewtopic.php?t=789. It is a problem common to many similar discussion groups using the phpBB2 software with the mySQL database engine. In short, if I set the software to thoroughly index the postings that as they arrive, the searching is accurate and fast, but posting gets slower and slower. Eventually it becomes intolerable. If I restrict indexing, then posting stays responsive but searching does not work.

The good news is that you have inspired me to look into the problem in more detail. The very fact that it is a common problem means that there are undoutedly solutions out there.

For example, I have a powerful and fast search engine on my LAN that I got from Google. It runs constantly in the background, scanning and indexing eveything on all of the LAN computers. If I could set a copy to constantly scan and index the ODR database, then all I would have to do would be to come up with an interface located in the forum itself (so members could access it). If not, I am sure that I could find something similar.

Give me a few days to work on it.

fwsweet · Posted: Thu 27 Oct 2005 14:25 Post subject:

Okay! I think that I might have a simple solution. Effective immediately, if you click on the "search" button at the top of any page, it will take you to a Google seach of ODR posts. I have tried it on a few odd-ball terms ("neandertal", "california regent", "beyonce") and it seems to work quite well.

The trick is that the button actually sends the query out to Google. It works because Google is very fast and they scan and re-index our forum nightly. At worst, it might take overnight for a new post to show up, but users seldom have to search for something that they just read.

Try it out and let me know how it works for you.

Powell · Guru Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 2176 }

It doesn't work for me. How can the internet search engine help me search the ODR list? What am I missing?

fwsweet · Posted: Sat 29 Oct 2005 12:28 Post subject:

1. Open a new document in MS-Word and leave the window open.

2. In another window, go to the ODR search page.

3. Type "Cape Verdeans" into the search slot and click on "Google Search."

4. While in the search response window, hold down the Alt key and press the Print Screen Key.

5. Switch to the still-open MS-Word window, hold down the Ctrl key and press the V key (or choose Paste from the Ms-Word Edit menu).

6. Save the MS-Word file and email it to me as an attachment.

winwinkel · Guru Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 233 }

Powell · Guru Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 2176 }

fwsweet · Posted: Sat 29 Oct 2005 21:44 Post subject:

The top of every page in this discussion group has my publishing logo on the left, a picture of a book on the right, and four lines of text centered at the top.

Look at the four lines of text centered at the top of any page. The first line is the title, "OneDropRule." The second line says "Discussion of U.S. Racialism." The third and fourth lines comprise a series of links, each next to a little icon.

The icons and links in the the third line are, from left to right: "FAQ", "Search", "Memberlist", and "Usergroups".

To go to the ODR search page, click on the second link from the left in the third line of text centered at the top of any page in the discussion group. It is the link labeled "Search".

fwsweet