The Murphy Builders Site

This is a good question Ben, and I'm sending a copy to the list too just so
everyone will know about this.

What you're seeing is a known issue with the threaded viewing mode. The
idea behind viewing threaded mode is to display replies to messages directly
following the original message... you will occasionally see a message
indented below another, and this is a continuation of a thread. But threads
are not maintained when the messages are posted via e-mail, the method used
for most of the messages in the builders list, only when posted via the web
interface, or by a news reader. I spoke with the designer about this some
time ago, and he had intended to revisit it, but I haven't heard anything
yet. The problem with being able to page down comes from the fact that when
viewing in threaded mode the messages are not displayed in an order that is
logical when viewing the database, and the system doesn't know where to
start to create a new page... it always begins with the last message in the
database.

If you want to be able to browse through all the messages on the site, then
you need to view them in Flat mode. This displays the message in order
based on the message number... so when you hit page down, it just starts
with the next message number and goes from there.

As for not seeing recent messages using the search, I'm not sure what the
problem there would be. First, when using this search function, I search
the message body, I don't use the to, from, or subject, it's to easy to miss
something because these fields are so narrow. And even if you get
somebody's e-mail address right when searching the from field, that may not
have been their e-mail address 6 months ago. Also make sure you check the
box to clear previous search cache, this ensures it's going out and looking
at the current database again when performing your search. To test things,
I just did a search for the word "grass" in the message body... I got 503
results from as recent as yesterday, and going back as far as May of 1998.

Hope this helps.

Mike

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bransom" <bransom@dcsol.com>
To: <mike.davis@dcsol.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2006 9:21 PM
Subject: searching question

Hi Mike,
Got a question on the "Rebel Builders" conference area....

Sometimes (like this evening) it seems the Page Down or Bottom buttons
don't really page down, they still just show me the top messages (801 out
of 29165) and this is only back to messages of 7/18/06. I'm trying to
find something that was in the few months preceding that. I can use the
Search button, but that never seems to show recent messages -- such as
tonight searching for anything From bransom or From beep, and the most
recent entry it comes up with is Oct 2005. So basically I have a gap in
locatable messages. BTW, I'm using threaded mode viewing. Are there
work-arounds, or am I goofing up in my methods?
Thanks a lot,
-Ben Ransom, 496R

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indented below another, and this is a continuation of a thread. But threads
are not maintained when the messages are posted via e-mail, the method used
for most of the messages in the builders list, only when posted via the web

Hmmm... Do you mean "posted via email" to be using my own email client such
as thunderbird, eudora, outlook, etc? I've just been using the your
dcsol.com web interface, but might even prefer to just have everything
download to my mail client and reply from there. (then I could search by
whatever method, till the cows come home).

If you want to be able to browse through all the messages on the site, then
you need to view them in Flat mode. This displays the message in order
based on the message number... so when you hit page down, it just starts
with the next message number and goes from there.

OK, yes, I see that in flat mode I can page down. However, each page fits
only a couple dozen messages, so there is a LOT of page down (or up) to
move back say 5 months, and as well, this is a lot of hits and bandwidth
just to get to message x of some date. I don't mean to be a pain, and I'd
just let this go by the way side, except that even in flat mode, I try a
search on a "From" ransom and still get the same gap -- no results found
more recent than Oct 2005. HOwever, I repeated your test, searching on
something in the Body, and there are no time gaps. So it looks like
searching on To or From produces a time gap in the data base. It will do
that as well, if To or From is combined with Subject or Body -- the result
can then be deceiving because it seems there are no hits for this ~12 month
gap, yet there really were posts -- just take away the From criteria and
there they are. Of course too, having to search on Body requires a Lot of
server load and client wait.

Hope to not sound like a complainer -- just that I've gotten the impression
someone else on occassion does development work on the software you are
using, and perhaps pointing out these things will be useful eventually, or
better yet, result in someone telling me what I'm doing wrong.
Thanks again,
-Ben

As for not seeing recent messages using the search, I'm not sure what the
problem there would be. First, when using this search function, I search
the message body, I don't use the to, from, or subject, it's to easy to miss
something because these fields are so narrow. And even if you get
somebody's e-mail address right when searching the from field, that may not
have been their e-mail address 6 months ago. Also make sure you check the
box to clear previous search cache, this ensures it's going out and looking
at the current database again when performing your search. To test things,
I just did a search for the word "grass" in the message body... I got 503
results from as recent as yesterday, and going back as far as May of 1998.

Hope this helps.

Mike

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bransom" <bransom@dcsol.com>
To: <mike.davis@dcsol.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2006 9:21 PM
Subject: searching question

Hi Mike,
Got a question on the "Rebel Builders" conference area....

Sometimes (like this evening) it seems the Page Down or Bottom buttons
don't really page down, they still just show me the top messages (801 out
of 29165) and this is only back to messages of 7/18/06. I'm trying to
find something that was in the few months preceding that. I can use the
Search button, but that never seems to show recent messages -- such as
tonight searching for anything From bransom or From beep, and the most
recent entry it comes up with is Oct 2005. So basically I have a gap in
locatable messages. BTW, I'm using threaded mode viewing. Are there
work-arounds, or am I goofing up in my methods?
Thanks a lot,
-Ben Ransom, 496R

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