Forum Search - any ideas on probable downtime?

Wed May 25, 2005 9:07 pm by WatercoolerWarrior

Just checking to see if you guys have an ETA yet on the probable downtime for the forums search.

I understand that particular piece has been a serious problem, most likely because the sheer amount of content has grown over time - and performance weaknesses in search routines tend to grow exponentially with size of material.

No pressure on this; I've noticed a marked improvement in page response since the search became unavailable, so it is quite clearly a major culprit in performance issues.

Thu May 26, 2005 2:46 pm by Cold_Void

i have to disagree.the only defense to people asking n00b questions now is 'wait until search is back...however long that is'..it seems like this will just create more duplicate posts & thus 'expand content' & make the problem worse again.yeah ok i'm being dramatic but without a search engine the forum is just a mess of unrelated mostly unsorted posts

Thu May 26, 2005 3:04 pm by Mike G

It seems like this will just create more duplicate posts & thus 'expand content' & make the problem worse again.yeah ok i'm being dramatic but without a search engine the forum is just a mess of unrelated mostly unsorted posts

Well, I have to disagree - those new posts will only have one or two replies max, and usually die very quickly... and I haven't seen an increase as of yet (of course, time will play a factor). However, I do not see how even 100 new threads asking the same thing over and over in the space of a few months will really cause any harm - afterall, they are just adding a few Kb's to a database that is designed for it.

However, the search function maybe searching through nearly a Gb of data with each query (okay, complete guesstimate at the size of the database - and it will depend upon the options you utilise).

The load on the asp/server will be negligable with a few extra posts; However, the search of that much data should be significant amount of load. As it stands right now, for alot of information there are stickied threads. Okay, it won't answer alot of queries - but for modders and spoilers - the most prolific are already taken care of.

As an after thought - most posts regarding new content are un-necessary if they had carried out a search in the first place. Maybe this will actually demonstrate how many actually search before asking...

Edited by - Mike G on 5/26/2005 4:04:32 PM

Thu May 26, 2005 5:43 pm by Cold_Void

posts die?no.back when i could search i was constantly getting out of date posts from 2003 back when the game was fresh off the shelves & .lots of. posts were about changing cargo hold size or hardpoints or something similarly simple(and tutorialized!).I think the real issue is the insurmountable load of useless posts.
delete any post with less than a paragraph & 2 replies older than a year. Bad posts don't die, they just lag the database.

Edited by - Cold_Void on 5/26/2005 9:14:15 PM

Fri May 27, 2005 1:31 am by Mike G

delete any post with less than a paragraph & 2 replies older than a year. Bad posts don't die, they just lag the database.

Aye, I can certainly agree with that

Fri May 27, 2005 2:08 am by H.Q. Victor

Actually, that isn't true. They have deleted some old posts before, without much improvement. The problem is in the software, I beleive Bargib said and they are working on it. There is a front page post on this, if you want to see it.

Edited by - Finalday on 5/27/2005 3:08:17 AM

Fri Sep 30, 2005 7:26 am by TheJkWhoSaysNi

What's even more annoying is that you cant see any threads over a year old.

I'm trying to find one of my old posts but it was back in 2003 so i can't even navigate to it manually.

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