This site's search WTF!



  • Yes yes, the forum software sucks, but that isn't what I'm talking about today.

    Have you ever done a search for a certain article on this site (that nice little box at the top right of the screen)?

    Well, check out my results: http://www.google.com/custom?q=enterprise&sitesearch=TheDailyWtf.com&domains=worsethanfailure.com

    There is but a single result of an actual forum post! Everything else is a link to the "Add Comment" page for different threads.

    WTF? Someone needs to learn how to index.
     



  • @JamesKilton said:

    Yes yes, the forum software sucks, but that isn't what I'm talking about today.

    Have you ever done a search for a certain article on this site (that nice little box at the top right of the screen)?

    Well, check out my results: http://www.google.com/custom?q=enterprise&sitesearch=TheDailyWtf.com&domains=worsethanfailure.com

    There is but a single result of an actual forum post! Everything else is a link to the "Add Comment" page for different threads.

    WTF? Someone needs to learn how to index.
     

     
    Can you explain what you are talking about?   if you mean to say that the results returned are mostly from the FORUMS and very few from the front page ARTICLES then that makes some sense, otherwise I have no idea what you are saying.

    If you think you could teach google "how to index", you should email them your ideas.  I'm sure they'd love to hear them and would be a huge improvement over the work they are doing now.
     



  • robots.txt:

    User-Agent: *
    Dissallow: /Comments/AddComment.aspx

    maybe? :p



  • @Jeff S said:

    @JamesKilton said:

    Yes yes, the forum software sucks, but that isn't what I'm talking about today.

    Have you ever done a search for a certain article on this site (that nice little box at the top right of the screen)?

    Well, check out my results: http://www.google.com/custom?q=enterprise&sitesearch=TheDailyWtf.com&domains=worsethanfailure.com

    There is but a single result of an actual forum post! Everything else is a link to the "Add Comment" page for different threads.

    WTF? Someone needs to learn how to index.
     


     
    Can you explain what you are talking about?   if you mean to say that the results returned are mostly from the FORUMS and very few from the front page ARTICLES then that makes some sense, otherwise I have no idea what you are saying.

    If you think you could teach google "how to index", you should email them your ideas.  I'm sure they'd love to hear them and would be a huge improvement over the work they are doing now.
     

    Try his search! almost everything is nothing but a blank page with a form for you to entry your comments - not an actual post!



  • These pages got an higher rank because the keyword was found in the title and between <h1> tags.

    They could use a <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW"> in their header ( from here )
     



  • Using the nice little box on the top of the screen, I got fine results. Type in "enterprise" and hit the 'site' button .... every result I got back was a normal thread post.

     EDIT -- I see  why I was confused ... the search on the top of the forum's pages (i.e., this page) seems to work fine, but the one on the articles pages does indeed return mostly "addComment.aspx" results ....

    Instead of posting here and complaining and calling it a "WTF!", why not be a friendly, helpful site user and simply let Alex know?  Or do people not do stuff like that any more?

     
     



  • @Jeff S said:

    Using the nice little box on the top of the screen, I got fine results. Type in "enterprise" and hit the 'site' button .... every result I got back was a normal thread post.

     EDIT -- I see  why I was confused ... the search on the top of the forum's pages (i.e., this page) seems to work fine, but the one on the articles pages does indeed return mostly "addComment.aspx" results ....

    Instead of posting here and complaining and calling it a "WTF!", why not be a friendly, helpful site user and simply let Alex know?  Or do people not do stuff like that any more?

    But, but that would go against the whole point of this site! I assume that Alex reads the sidebar here, so he can make a fix if he wants to.

    Of course, I would guess that this component comes with Community Server, so this would just add to its already enormous list of WTFs.

     



  • @JamesKilton said:

    @Jeff S said:

    Using the nice little box on the top of the screen, I got fine results. Type in "enterprise" and hit the 'site' button .... every result I got back was a normal thread post.

     EDIT -- I see  why I was confused ... the search on the top of the forum's pages (i.e., this page) seems to work fine, but the one on the articles pages does indeed return mostly "addComment.aspx" results ....

    Instead of posting here and complaining and calling it a "WTF!", why not be a friendly, helpful site user and simply let Alex know?  Or do people not do stuff like that any more?

    But, but that would go against the whole point of this site! I assume that Alex reads the sidebar here, so he can make a fix if he wants to.

     

    No.  A bug is not a WTF.  a WTF is horribly convoluted yet sometimes creative code, often where someone needlessly complicates very simple tasks.  If you think this site is just a place to complain about things, then you are completely missing the spirit of this website. 



  • @JamesKilton said:

    @Jeff S said:

    Using the nice little box on the top of the screen, I got fine results. Type in "enterprise" and hit the 'site' button .... every result I got back was a normal thread post.

     EDIT -- I see  why I was confused ... the search on the top of the forum's pages (i.e., this page) seems to work fine, but the one on the articles pages does indeed return mostly "addComment.aspx" results ....

    Instead of posting here and complaining and calling it a "WTF!", why not be a friendly, helpful site user and simply let Alex know?  Or do people not do stuff like that any more?

    But, but that would go against the whole point of this site! I assume that Alex reads the sidebar here, so he can make a fix if he wants to.

    Of course, I would guess that this component comes with Community Server, so this would just add to its already enormous list of WTFs.

     

    No. Google does not come with Community Server. You see, Google is a very big search compajny with their very own search engine.



  • I agree with Jeff S here, this is a (rather minor) bug.

    Bug != WTF

     Also, criticizing the site publicly is just ridiculous. I think Alex has been more than generous to keep this site going for so long, and provide such frequent, fresh content.

    Get off his back.

    If you actually read the Worsethanfailure (or TheDailyWTF) definition of a WTF post here, you will know you are way off. Post it in a forum to let someone know, or send it to Alex, but don't post in the sidebar... that is just stupid.

    Haven't we all had enough of the "The Real WTF is the forum software!"? It was old a long time ago.

     I dont see these same people offering any help to Alex for server costs, or free developing time... So it is just a drain on the community...

    "Let's find another way to make a public post and point out the irony that Alex is human and makes mistakes too!"



  • I disagree.  A WTF is anything that makes you think "WTF?".  No, ragging on Community Server never gets old, and I'd think Google might notice that many of the pages they're storing from this site are very, very similar.



  • @Jeff S said:

    Instead of posting here and complaining and calling it a "WTF!", why not be a friendly, helpful site user and simply let Alex know?  Or do people not do stuff like that any more?

    Get with the program, it's the 21st century.  Politeness is so Victorian era. 

     

     


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @JamesKilton said:

    WTF? Someone needs to learn how to index.
     

    Google must have been listening. I was going to fix this, but just now had a chance to investigate the problem.It would appear that, when you go to the main site, type in "enterprise", and then click search, it indeed finds articles, not the "add comment" page. The URL you are using still uses the TheDailyWtf.com domain, which is not linked anymore.


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