1. RDS msg search
I would like very much to see an option available to search just the
subject line. I know that, currently, messages cannot be shown
threaded, a subject search would be a start.
I tried using "subject:" as one of my keywords, with the text following
the ":" as the other keywords of a thread I wanted to read and this
worked somewhat, but matched more than 56000 msgs!
Ideally, I would like to see just matches for the subject line, with the
results sorted ascending by date.
Alternately, provide an option to "see whole thread" and display
messsages which match the subject line (excluding all the RE:, Re: RE:,
etc. crap) exactly. Provide this option when reading messages from the
all inclusive search.
Also, perhaps the msg search facility would provide the option to list
only recently unread messages (track the latest msg read via a cookie?)
If such options were available the usability of the mailing list would
be much improved.
Using Opera 7.23
2. Re: RDS msg search
Verne Tice wrote:
> I would like very much to see an option available to search just the
> subject line. I know that, currently, messages cannot be shown
> threaded, a subject search would be a start.
>
> I tried using "subject:" as one of my keywords, with the text following
> the ":" as the other keywords of a thread I wanted to read and this
> worked somewhat, but matched more than 56000 msgs!
>
> Ideally, I would like to see just matches for the subject line, with the
> results sorted ascending by date.
>
> Alternately, provide an option to "see whole thread" and display
> messsages which match the subject line (excluding all the RE:, Re: RE:,
> etc. crap) exactly. Provide this option when reading messages from the
> all inclusive search.
>
> Also, perhaps the msg search facility would provide the option to list
> only recently unread messages (track the latest msg read via a cookie?)
>
> If such options were available the usability of the mailing list would
> be much improved.
OK, thanks. I'll keep these suggestions in mind when I
get back to enhancing the search. Searching the "Subject:" line
would not be difficult. In many cases the content of
messages drifts far away from the subject. However,
I can understand that you might want to see all the
messages in a particular thread.
Regards,
Rob Craig
Rapid Deployment Software
http://www.RapidEuphoria.com
3. Re: RDS msg search
On February 5, Verne Tice wrote:
> I would like very much to see an option available to search just the
> subject line. I know that, currently, messages cannot be shown
> threaded, a subject search would be a start.
> ...
> Ideally, I would like to see just matches for the subject line, with the
> results sorted ascending by date.
>
> Alternately, provide an option to "see whole thread" and display
> messsages which match the subject line (excluding all the RE:, Re: RE:,
> etc. crap) exactly...
I just added some code to the mailing list search.
http://www.rapideuphoria.com/listserv.htm
Now when you do a search, it will make a link out of
each Subject line. By clicking that link, you will get
the whole discussion thread for that subject,
displayed in chronological order. It searches all messages
in the same month, the previous month, and the next month,
for ones that have a matching Subject line (ignoring "Re:"
etc.). In some cases the Subject line might be longer
than the original, but it will still match. I found that's
useful in most cases.
It seems to be working ok now, but the code is new,
so let me know of any problems.
It's nice to be able to see the comments from several
people on a given topic.
Regards,
Rob Craig
Rapid Deployment Software
http://www.RapidEuphoria.com
4. Re: RDS msg search
Verne Tice wrote:
> I tried the new search out and it works well. Only thing missing is an
> option to extend the search backward or forward in time a few more
> months in case the thread is ongoing.
I've been on this list for several years,
and I've also experimented a lot with the new thread feature.
I would estimate that 99% of all threads are finished
in less than a month, and if they aren't, they've probably
deviated greatly from the original topic.
After viewing a thread, you can easily widen the 3-month span
that's displayed at the top, and search again,
although it will also match strings in the message
bodies, and the results will be sorted by relevance,
not date.
> If you could now add an option to get just most recent (last n msgs or
> last n days) I would not have to use topica from the web at all! This
> option would be for the highest level search only. Given the level of
> activity on this topic, we need a granularity finer than one month.
I suppose we could go beyond simply searching,
and also provide a nice interface for viewing the latest
messages. I'll think about it. I suppose Topica
would be annoyed at having to distribute all our messages
without being able to hit you with banner ads.
> Another idea. How about an option to just list all
> topics for a given date range which could then be
> clicked to explore threads of interest?
I'll add that to the suggestions folder. Thanks.
Regards,
Rob Craig
Rapid Deployment Software
http://www.RapidEuphoria.com
