Search Function: Kaputt?

JTeagarden · by **JTeagarden** » 2025-10-29 3:38 p.m.

I have had trouble finding things using the Search function lately, querying the word "bell" in any part of a post and no other limitations only yielded two hits.

norbie2018 · by **norbie2018** » 2025-10-29 4:05 p.m.

I've had similar disappointing results searching using Google to search a subject on trombonechat.

Matt_K · by **Matt_K** » 2025-10-29 4:16 p.m.

Someone told me about something similar to this earlier today and something clicked and I think I figured out what was up. I just tried it, and I was able to find this thread. Can you try again and see if you get similar results?

norbie2018 · by **norbie2018** » 2025-10-29 4:21 p.m.

Still the same results.

Matt_K · by **Matt_K** » 2025-10-29 4:32 p.m.

Yep, do'h! Just saw that it didn't give me nearly as many matches as it should. I rebuilt the index and now I see for "bell" :

Search found 29934 matches

Go ahead and try one more time!

Posaunus · by **Posaunus** » 2025-10-29 4:59 p.m.

All is well with Search!

norbie2018 · by **norbie2018** » 2025-10-29 5:06 p.m.

Success.

JTeagarden · by **JTeagarden** » 2025-10-30 8:30 a.m.

Working like a charm again!

Matt_K · by **Matt_K** » 2025-10-30 8:34 a.m.

:cool:

EriKon · by **EriKon** » 2025-12-04 12:01 p.m.

Unfortunately when I try search stuff on a specific models (E.g. King 3b) and combine it with another word (receiver, taper, slide...) the search always ignores the 3B part of it and shows everything related to King and the other part of the search. Is that just me? Doesn't matter which model you search for. Anything that can be done about that? Adding a + in front of 3B doesn't change anything.

If I remember correctly that wasn't the case until we had the adjustments that had to be done for performance. I

Edit: even if I just search for 3B slide, it ignores the 3b

Posaunus · by **Posaunus** » 2025-12-04 12:16 p.m.

You're right Erik. My search for "King slide" was effective, but a search for "3B slide" ignored the "3B." :idk:

EriKon · by **EriKon** » 2025-12-06 4:28 p.m.

That would be great if this could be fixed. It really limits the use of the search function.

Oslide · by **Oslide** » 2025-12-08 6:28 p.m.

I've read about this but didn't give it much thought until right now when I tried to run a search in order to compare certain features of 24Hs and 4Hs. "4H" is not retrievable on this forum (less than 3 characters), and so is the combination of the two terms.

I understand that it's much easier simply to block search terms with less than 3 characters than to create a dedicated stop-word list.

But I find it quite unfortunate to be prevented in this way from searching - among others - for certain trombone models (e.g. Conn 2H, 4H, 6H, 8H; Bach 6, 8, 12, 16, 34, 36, 42, 45 [unless they are xxB models]; King 2B, 3B, 4B); mouthpiece models (e.g. 7c, 12 [also ET 3, XT 103, DE LB, if written with a space]); or common abbreviations like Bb/F, or SN (serial number).

The search function on this forum never has been great, but this restriction goes too far IMHO.

ghmerrill · by **ghmerrill** » 2025-12-08 8:41 p.m.

[quote="Oslide"]I understand that it's much easier simply to block search terms with less than 3 characters than to create a dedicated stop-word list[/quote]
Never mind a stop-word list. This isn't exactly rocket science. I'm surprised it's not using n-gram analysis for search.

But -- think about it -- phpBB is a quarter century old, and is "free, open-source". I think it's remarkable that it works so well. Years ago I ran a phpBB board myself for a community band. As open source stuff, it's quite good. But you have to be careful of making "local modifications" that then have to be propagated and maintained by whomever is the current board manager. No one really wants to go in that direction.

Oslide · by **Oslide** » 2025-12-09 11:56 a.m.

[quote="ghmerrill"]<QUOTE author="Oslide" post_id="290301" time="1765236499" user_id="2947">
I understand that it's much easier simply to block search terms with less than 3 characters than to create a dedicated stop-word list[/quote]
Never mind a stop-word list. This isn't exactly rocket science. I'm surprised it's not using n-gram analysis for search.
</QUOTE>

Well, I don't mind the technicalities of a possible solution as long as it avoids this serious handicap.

Matt_K · by **Matt_K** » 2025-12-13 6:46 a.m.

Gary is, regrettably, spot on.

However, since I have direct access to the database, making a separate application is not out of the realm of possibility. It’s a non trivial amount of work though. I’d prefer to work on getting the Google bot back on the site. Planning on making another attempt at that over winter holiday.

ghmerrill · by **ghmerrill** » 2025-12-13 8:51 a.m.

[quote="Matt K"]... making a separate application is not out of the realm of possibility.[/quote]
It would feel like a rewarding challenge and accomplishment, but you know you'll regret it. And whoever is your successor here will most likely toss it rather than maintaining it. :lol: Been there.

OvalBaritone · by **OvalBaritone** » 2026-01-09 5:10 a.m.

For me, the search function is still not really usable, especially when using google.

Could it be that this is related to the new-ish (~October 2025) Content Signals Policy in Cloudflare’s robots.txt, where they basically as default blocked all crawlers that want to use a sites data for AI training? This would’ve blocked search providers such as google as well, as it’s their policy that either they can do whatever they want with your/our data (including AI training) or you won’t be found via the google search at all.

Just an idea that might be worth checking.

AtomicClock · by **AtomicClock** » 2026-01-27 12:51 p.m.

[quote="JTeagarden"]Working like a charm again![/quote]

Not quite. When I search for all my posts (or all of yours, or all of Gary's), I don't get anything from January '26 or December '25. And I know we've all made posts.

harrisonreed · by **harrisonreed** » 2026-01-27 12:54 p.m.

I don't think it's working at all. For example, I remember that Aidan (BurgerBob) had posted an Excel doc he had made with mouthpiece masses listed, but searching here or even using Google turns up nothing.

JohnL · by **JohnL** » 2026-01-27 1:17 p.m.

[quote="harrisonreed"]For example, I remember that Aidan (BurgerBob) had posted an Excel doc he had made with mouthpiece masses listed, but searching here or even using Google turns up nothing.[/quote]
You mean this?

<LINK_TEXT text="viewtopic.php?p=153351">https://trombonechat.com/viewtopic.php?p=153351</LINK_TEXT>

[quote="AtomicClock"]Not quite. When I search for all my posts (or all of yours, or all of Gary's), I don't get anything from January '26 or December '25. And I know we've all made posts.[/quote]
I think it's related to Cloudflare "prove your human" system. The indexing 'bots can't crawl the pages. Last I checked, we'd lost Wayback Machine archiving as well.

AtomicClock · by **AtomicClock** » 2026-01-27 1:21 p.m.

[quote="JohnL"]I think it's related to Cloudflare "prove your human" system.[/quote]

I'm using phpBB's builtin search. But your point would apply for Wayback and the standard search engines (which I haven't tried).

harrisonreed · by **harrisonreed** » 2026-01-27 2:11 p.m.

[quote="JohnL"]<QUOTE author="harrisonreed" post_id="293351" time="1769536478" user_id="3642">For example, I remember that Aidan (BurgerBob) had posted an Excel doc he had made with mouthpiece masses listed, but searching here or even using Google turns up nothing.[/quote]
You mean this?

<LINK_TEXT text="viewtopic.php?p=153351">https://trombonechat.com/viewtopic.php?p=153351</LINK_TEXT>
</QUOTE>

Yeah, that's it!

I just failed at searching I guess

JohnL · by **JohnL** » 2026-01-27 2:29 p.m.

[quote="harrisonreed"]I just failed at searching I guess[/quote]
I suspect you searched for "mass" and he used the term "weight".

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Search Function: Kaputt?