"Who posted?" search not working properly

[Batcathat]

Normally, I can use the "Who posted?" list (the one that shows up when you click the number of replies in a thread) to find all the posts from a specific user, but that doesn't seem to work right anymore. It seems to show the right number of posts in the list itself, but when I click it, it doesn't display all of them (or it just gives me an error message, which I think is because it doesn't find any posts at all for that user).

[Rawhide]

I just tested it on several random threads and everything is working fine for me. Can you please point to which specific ones aren't working correctly?

[Batcathat]

I noticed it in this thread (and when I mentioned it, one other person confirmed they had similar problems) but I tried it at a couple of other threads and ran into similar problems there.

EDIT: I tried a different browser and a different computer, but the problem still showed up (and intended to check on my phone, but I'm honestly not sure how to open the list with the mobile layout of the site).

[Rawhide]

That's actually one of the threads I tested, and I've just tested again with a standard user account. Everything appears to be working fine, so I'm going to need more information.

It can take an hour or so for new posts to be searchable, could this be related at all?

[Batcathat]

It can take an hour or so for new posts to be searchable, could this be related at all?

I don't think so. For example, if I select myself in that thread, it shows me four posts (out of five) and the one excluded (right now, at least, I'm not sure if it's consistent) is my second-oldest one. Meanwhile, if I pick AvatarVecna, I get two out of three, including the one that's the most recent post in the thread but not their very first one.

[Rawhide]

I'm seeing all five of your posts, and a sixth in recruitment. Tested on both this account and a standard user account.

[Batcathat]

I'm seeing all five of your posts, and a sixth in recruitment. Tested on both this account and a standard user account.

Weird. As I said, I tested it with both a different browser and a different computer, so I don't think it can be completely on my end. I even tried using a different network, in case that was somehow causing the problem (no idea how that would work, but you never know) but the problem remained.

[Rawhide]

Please let me know if you get any more information which might help track it down, or if it resolves itself.

[Batcathat]

Will do. Thanks for looking, I get that you can't do much without being able to recreate the issue.

[Rogan]

Please let me know if you get any more information which might help track it down, or if it resolves itself.

So, I can confirm I have the same problem, both on my main computer and on mobile.

https://forums.giantitp.com/search.php?searchid=799254

I'm not sure if this link will help. It's the page I got to when searching for the single post of Book Wombat. The result was an error message that no post could be found.

[Batcathat]

So, I can confirm I have the same problem, both on my main computer and on mobile.

https://forums.giantitp.com/search.php?searchid=799254

I'm not sure if this link will help. It's the page I got to when searching for the single post of Book Wombat. The result was an error message that no post could be found.

Oh yeah, posting that link is a good idea. I get the same error message when trying to follow it, I'm curious to see if Rawhide does.

[Rawhide]

You cannot follow someone else's search link, you will always get an error. You must do your own search. Is that the problem? Are you following other people's search links and/or search links that have expired?

[Batcathat]

You cannot follow someone else's search link, you will always get an error. You must do your own search. Is that the problem? Are you following other people's search links and/or search links that have expired?

No, but the error message I get from clicking Rogan's link is the same one I get if I click on Book Wombat's (and some other people's) post number in "Who posted?", so maybe it's related to what you're talking about somehow?

[Rogan]

You cannot follow someone else's search link, you will always get an error. You must do your own search. Is that the problem? Are you following other people's search links and/or search links that have expired?

Nope, this was my own search link. I didn't know if the ID was my own or some kind of public identification.

So, step by step:
I start here.
I select the post/ view part of the game and get to the who posted view.
I select Book Wombat, who is shown to have one post. <Edit: Not the profile, but the one post>
I get this:

Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms.

If it would be helpful, I could create some screenshots to show you, but it might take a moment.

Is there anything specific you need to know or things that I should try to gather more data?

---

When I search for Snowblaze, the search finds 7 of 9 posts, skipping the this and this.

[Rawhide]

Nope, this was my own search link. I didn't know if the ID was my own or some kind of public identification.

It's an ID unique to every search ever made (since the search database was last rebuilt from scratch), but it's security locked so that only your account can access it. It will also expire after a while and stop working.

So, step by step:
I start here.
I select the post/ view part of the game and get to the who posted view.
I select Book Wombat, who is shown to have one post.
I get this:


If it would be helpful, I could create some screenshots to show you, but it might take a moment.

Is there anything specific you need to know or things that I should try to gather more data?

I follow those exact steps on this account and a regular user account created for testing, and everything works fine on both.

[Batcathat]

When I search for Snowblaze, the search finds 7 of 9 posts, skipping the this and this.

My result skips the same posts, so at least some part of the problem seems consistent.

[Rogan]

It's an ID unique to every search ever made (since the search database was last rebuilt from scratch), but it's security locked so that only your account can access it. It will also expire after a while and stop working.



I follow those exact steps on this account and a regular user account created for testing, and everything works fine on both.

Interesting to learn this.

So, just to be sure, a picture of the place I klicked to start the search.

Maybe a far fetched idea, but is it possible the physical location plays a role here?
I'm from Germany and if I remember right, Bat is from Europe as well.

[Rawhide]

<Edit: Not the profile, but the one post>

So, just to be sure, a picture of the place I klicked to start the search.

Ok, that's something new. I've been clicking on their name in that list (because that's what was originally specified), and I find every post they've made, including the ones you've identified as missing.

I'm not sure why some posts are missing when you restrict the search to only that thread, but the posts are in the database and otherwise showing up in search that user's posts. Thanks for reporting this, though it is a low priority to investigate and fix. Once a week, the search engine does a full rebuild of the search database, so maybe it'll fix itself then.

[Rogan]

Ok, that's something new. I've been clicking on their name in that list (because that's what was originally specified), and I find every post they've made, including the ones you've identified as missing.

I'm not sure why some posts are missing when you restrict the search to only that thread, but the posts are in the database and otherwise showing up in search. Thanks for reporting this, though it is a low priority to investigate and fix. Once a week, the search engine does a full rebuild of the search database, so maybe it'll fix itself then.

One workaround is to do a search for the title of the thread and the user you're interested in.

I noticed my description was not perfect, sorry for the confusion.

Can you tell us when the next rebuild will happen, so we can check again afterwards?
I agree it's not a critical problem (although it is usually a pretty useful search option for this specific kind of game).

I tried the workaround and it seems to fail for me. Maybe I didn't use the correct setup?
I entered "Sheriff" as keyword and "Snowblaze" as user in the advanced search and ticked the show results as posts button.

[Rawhide]

Sorry, I wasn't quick enough to remove the suggested workaround. It's not showing up there either. You need to click the user's name to see all the posts they've made, then skip the one's you're not interested in.

[Rogan]

On a first glance, it seems to work again.

Bladescape noticed that the thread ID changed, I don't know if this has any connection to the problem with the searches.

Thanks for your support, Rawhide.

[Batcathat]

On a first glance, it seems to work again.

Bladescape noticed that the thread ID changed, I don't know if this has any connection to the problem with the searches.

Thanks for your support, Rawhide.

I'm not sure. While searching Book Wombat's posts seems to work now (four in the list and four shown when clicked), you have 17 posts according to the list but only 16 show up. There does seem to be less problems though, which is nice.

[Rawhide]

On a first glance, it seems to work again.

Bladescape noticed that the thread ID changed, I don't know if this has any connection to the problem with the searches.

Thanks for your support, Rawhide.

I rebuilt the thread while attempting to diagnose what's going on. That's why the ID changed.

[Rogan]

I'm not sure. While searching Book Wombat's posts seems to work now (four in the list and four shown when clicked), you have 17 posts according to the list but only 16 show up. There does seem to be less problems though, which is nice.

If this is the only problem, I think I have an explanation. I made a post and deleted it again (since the game moved to a phase where I shouldn't have posted while I was writing), which might explain this one missing post.

If there is more, I'm out of ideas.

[Batcathat]

If this is the only problem, I think I have an explanation. I made a post and deleted it again (since the game moved to a phase where I shouldn't have posted while I was writing), which might explain this one missing post.

If there is more, I'm out of ideas.

Good suggestion, but I don't think that's it. I also only get 16 of my own 17 posts, 21 of Snow's 23 posts, 9 of Xi's 10 posts, etc.

Though I did just get an idea. Structured Games have that merge function when someone posts twice in a row (within 30 minutes or something, I think?). Maybe that's what's confusing the count? (Clearly, there was some issue before, but maybe that's fixed and I've just never noticed the post counts don't line up?).