New Site Search Facility

As some of you may have already discovered, the current search facility at this board couldn't find sand at the beach. I've taken advantage of a free site search capability provided by Pico Search, and you can access the new search mechanism on the non-discussion board webpages, like the site's home page.One disadvantage to the new search facility is that it can only find information that has been indexed, so it can't find any information in messages posted since the last indexing. I plan to index once a day.I'll be moving the site search capability onto the discussion board pages very soon.--Percy

A site search box has been placed near the top of these discussion board pages:

• List All Topics
• List All Forums
• Forum Thread List
• All Message Pages

Give it a try! Comments, suggestions, feedback welcome to admin@.--Percy

Hi all!The search data for some of the forums, including Evolution, had lost some search data, so today I updated the the search database for all forums. All search data for all forums is now up to date.Generally, you can trust the results of searches - if the search engine can't find it then it isn't there. But occasional glitches on the server, usually due to process overload, sometimes results in the loss of data. I'll try to rebuild the search database whenever I notice this has happened.Note to other admins - if you have control panel privileges, there's an "Update Search Database" link in the navigation bar. When you notice that the search data is out-of-date feel free to use this. It takes about 15 minutes, but you don't have to watch it work.--Percy

Hi all!The search facility has been enhanced. The search box with all its fields now appears at the top of the search results page and can be used again and again as you refine your search.--Percy