# I want search function back, please.



## Gushousekai195 (Nov 7, 2008)

Are we still going to get the search function back?  It's been one year since it went away and it's so hard to search for art by people on Fur Affinity, and I must say that's one flaw of the site.  Without Search, what's the use of tags?

When I try finding someone's art via Google and I try to log in to fave, I am unable to log in; I need to log in on the front page.  Even if I am logged in already, I can't stay logged in going to the user's page through Google.  That's why I want the Search function back.


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## ArielMT (Nov 7, 2008)

Ironically, if you search the FA Discussion and Support Line boards for "search function," you'll see why it went away and hasn't come back yet.

As for not being logged in from a Google search result, can you post a link or two that show you not logged in?  I've personally never had a problem faving while following Google results: they always show me still logged in as me.


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## yak (Nov 7, 2008)

Aww whatever.


Okay, pop quiz/opinion poll time.

* What would you want to search for on FA
* What features do you want to have in the search
* How should the results be presented to you
* What weight should the following parameters have in determining the order of the result: relevance, number of favorites, number of views, number of comments on a submission.
* Realistic example search queries please.

Answer this, y'all, please. It's really important.


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## Kangamutt (Nov 7, 2008)

I would say it isn't so much of a problem with the browsing tool, it's more about users who don't tag their work. They just go and leave the fields marked "unspecific/any", so when you search, their work goes under the radar. But hey, what're you gonna do? People are people. If you want to search the other way, just enter this in google image search: <search term(s)> site:furaffinity.net.


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## Nickk (Nov 7, 2008)

* What would you want to search for on FA

Species, art, flashes (animations, games, etc.), stories, poetry, music, avatars, game screen shots (including SecondLife screenshots), photography, the list of fetishes on FA, and users

* What features do you want to have in the search

Like Google, you should be able to search title, description, words in the submission itself, tags, and username and profile information

* How should the results be presented to you

You go to a new page which shows the results of your search. And there should be a checkbox that should let you open the search results in a new window, as well.

* What weight should the following parameters have in determining the order of the result: relevance, number of favorites, number of views, number of comments on a submission.

Relevance, favorites, views, comments, most recent, least recent, alphabetical, and content (adult, mature, clean. Checkboxes would work for content, I think). They could be either button-links or tabs next to each other, like on YouTube.

* Realistic example search queries please.

www.yiffstar.com
www.youtube.com 
www.google.com


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## Nickk (Nov 7, 2008)

I came up with a picture of what I think the search engine for FA could look like. Here it is:


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## Xero108 (Nov 7, 2008)

I always wondered why we couldn't search for specific art pictures and artists on FA. I would find it quite handy, but I don't know the background of why it was taken off in the first place, so please link me to the reasons. Perhaps I'll understand.


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## Stratelier (Nov 7, 2008)

Xero108 said:


> I always wondered why we couldn't search for specific art pictures and artists on FA. I would find it quite handy, but I don't know the background of why it was taken off in the first place, so please link me to the reasons. Perhaps I'll understand.


Poorly designed search engine that blacked out the local electrical grid every time you had more than one person using it at a time.


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## mottled.kitten (Nov 7, 2008)

Something like DA's search would be fine with me--where we can search for something, and narrow it down by category, et cetera. Or Yiffstar, where you can browse via tags.


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## Dragoneer (Nov 7, 2008)

I don't believe in Search.

Search killed my parents.


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## TakeWalker (Nov 7, 2008)

The only thing I would ever want to search for is an artist's name. When I want to go to someone's userpage, just being able to type their name in a box would be nice.


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## Takun (Nov 7, 2008)

Aww whatever.


Okay, pop quiz/opinion poll time.

* What would you want to search for on FA
Art. Yiffstar has stories to search for. You could just copy their tag system for that if you wanted stories too I suppose.

* What features do you want to have in the search
Multiple tags seperated by commas to better narrow searches.

* How should the results be presented to you
As they are now, thumbnails. 

* What weight should the following parameters have in determining the order of the result: relevance, number of favorites, number of views, number of comments on a submission.

Relevance. I would alsolove for a rating system at the risk of more drama and butthurt. I know people like having their art seen, but going through tons of low quality images sucks. I think that having the option for people to tag something as needing critique and work would be great. Then have the option to omit images in your search voted on by say 10 or 20 people.

* Realistic example search queries please.
Clean, Fox, Fantasy
[_]5
[_]4
[X]3
[_]2
[_]1
(show all images in the category rated 3 stars and above for example)

Answer this, y'all, please. It's really important.


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## Thatch (Nov 8, 2008)

* What would you want to search for on FA
Whatever I feel like finding at the moment. But basically, for anything users might have uploaded to their FA profile.

I guess Nickk covered the rest, so I'll just put my two cents of opinion.

EVERY decent site that has more content than a menu can hold has a search option, and it works. Making up problems in the light of this is purely ridiculous. You don't even have to think much, just copy something that works already.


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## Stratelier (Nov 8, 2008)

_* What would you want to search for on FA
* What features do you want to have in the search_

- Searching by title, description, rating, and keywords/tags (species, etc.) at a minimum.

_* How should the results be presented to you_
Basically the same visual template as the Browse page, showing thumbnails, titles, and artists.

_* What weight should the following parameters have in determining the order of the result: relevance, number of favorites, number of views, number of comments on a submission._
You forgot the date of the submission itself.  Sorting by favorites provides a convenient method for locating "popular" works (and what website doesn't do that?).  Views is more or less useless, ignore it.  Comments, unfortunately, has spamdexing potential due to the inclusion of any/all replies or comments by the submitter themselves.

So I would say at least three:  (1) Newest submissions first, (2) Oldest submissions first, (3) # Favorites first.

_* Realistic example search queries please._
Basic search rules:  Comma and/or space delimited search terms, ignoring "noise" items (e.g. common words like "the")
- _the stupid wolf_ -- Ignores "the", searches for "stupid" and "wolf"

Using quotes to denote exact phrases, including any "noise" terms, provided of course that the phrase actually contains two or more words:
- _"red fox"_
- _"black wolf"_
- _"the"_ -- Ignored because it's not actually a phrase, and it's a "noise" term

Maybe an asterisk wildcard to indicate loose matching of a search term?
- _fish*_  -- Loose match for "fish" (e.g. including "catfish", "fishy", etc.)
- _fish_ -- Exact match for "fish" (does not include variants)

Ability to specify search options within the query itself would be a plus, for example, a "[tag:value]" type syntax (to search the given _tag_ for the specified _value_)...

- _[title:value]_ -- Search submission title for _value_
- _[desc:text]_ -- Search submission description for _text_
(Of course, searching by title/description option should be displayed on the search page itself, the above two could simply be used to override or mix/match the areas being searched)

- _[rating:general]_ -- limits search to GENERAL rated submissions.
- _[rating:general,mature]_ -- limits search to GENERAL or MATURE rated submissions (e.g. excludes only ADULT label)
- _[species:feline]_ -- searches species list for all items that match "feline", inner join with usual search terms
- _[artist:abcdef]_ -- Artist specific search, limit results to specified artist name


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## Elsethan (Nov 8, 2008)

There are OVER 190,000 registered user accounts in FA.
I personally would like to be able to view/find users in FA.
Some of my favorite artists are somewhere in FA.
Browsing through endless images doesn't work.


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## Xero108 (Nov 8, 2008)

Stratadrake said:


> Poorly designed search engine that blacked out the local electrical grid every time you had more than one person using it at a time.



Fuuuuuuuuuuck! But I'm sure there are other search engines that would work for FA. Why stop there?


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## jayhusky (Nov 9, 2008)

yak said:


> Aww whatever.
> 
> 
> Okay, pop quiz/opinion poll time.
> ...




** What would you want to search for on FA*

Aside from art, could we get a user search? so if we thought a member was registered here we could search for them and if the name is spelt incorrectly it throws up a suggestion to correct it and a couple of users whose names are close to the queried text.

** What features do you want to have in the search*

I would like: Tag search (includes search term to search in tags) Split level (General / Adult etc)

** How should the results be presented to you*

They Should be presented at 100px X 100px thumbs and a small portion of the description clicking on the thumb takes you to the submission.

(Example)

[this is all] A picture of yak typing out the invitations to fa:united 20082
[one huge] GOH list to be confirmed.
[thumbnail] Pre-order now!!!

_ Links point to one of yaks submissions _

** What weight should the following parameters have in determining the order of the result: relevance, number of favorites, number of views, number of comments on a submission.*

Relevance, number of views (optional [low to high or high to low]) Number of comments number of favourites (again optional in the same manner of views)

** Realistic example search queries please.*


Define Yak Please.


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## Quiet269 (Nov 9, 2008)

yak said:


> Okay, pop quiz/opinion poll time.
> * What would you want to search for on FA
> *Submission Title, Submission Body, Category, Theme, Species, Gender, Tags, and Artist Name...
> 
> ...


I hope this helps


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## Firehazard (Nov 11, 2008)

My idea of the ideal Search would work like Google's: by default, the search terms wouldn't refer to anything in particular; they could refer to words in the title, tags, or words from the creator's description.  Order would be based on an algorithmic estimate of "relevance" taking into account number of views, number of favorites, and most importantly, the likelihood that the user is searching for a single specific submission.  That last one would do things like see if any submissions' titles match the search terms word for word, and assign those higher priority than ones that contain the search terms in their tags.  Same goes for phrases included word-for-word in the descriptions.  Use of quotes would automatically limit the results accordingly.

But then there would be special expressions you could include in the search, as Stratadrake said.  The ideal thing would be to do like deviantART and have a dropdown thing that lets you pick what you're searching for: a submission, a user, a comment, a journal entry, etc.  There would also be an item for Advanced, which gives you a page with a form full of special easy-to-select options -- the equivalent of the special expressions, but more user-friendly.

And of course, the special expressions would have to be documented, in detail, in our Help & Support wiki.


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## Dracori (Nov 12, 2008)

** What would you want to search for on FA*
 Mostly fanart. When you're just interested in finding fanart, then you kind of need a search engine if you're looking for specific characters. But a search engine would benefit everyone, not just fanartists.

** What features do you want to have in the search*
 Really and truly I'd just like it to be like deviantART's search engine, where you enter tags/keywords, and those results will pop up if you type them in the search. 

** How should the results be presented to you*
Mmm...maybe 24 thumbnails per page.

** What weight should the following parameters have in determining the order of the result: relevance, number of favorites, number of views, number of comments on a submission.*
Umm...I'd say favorites. Because I've noticed here that some pictures have several faves and no comments. It's common for people to fave and run. Though relevance might be better.

Yes, I'd definitely like to see a search engine soon. I've only been here a few days and already I'm going crazy from not being able to search for specifics.


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## jameygamer (Jan 14, 2009)

Kangaroo_Boy said:


> I would say it isn't so much of a problem with the browsing tool, it's more about users who don't tag their work. They just go and leave the fields marked "unspecific/any", so when you search, their work goes under the radar. But hey, what're you gonna do? People are people. If you want to search the other way, just enter this in google image search: <search term(s)> site:furaffinity.net.


 It didn't seem to work for me.


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## Dragoneer (Jan 14, 2009)

jameygamer said:


> It didn't seem to work for me.


We do not believe in search.


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## Takun (Jan 14, 2009)

And ignorance is half the battle!

G I JOEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE


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## Nargle (Jan 14, 2009)

** What would you want to search for on FA*
Probably primarily for corgi art, but maybe for artists and styles I want to see.

** What features do you want to have in the search*
Maybe there should be the option to order the results from most popular to least popular, or or newest to oldest. Sorta like DA XD Sometimes I want to see actually GOOD art, but other times I'm sorta bored with the same few popular pieces.

Oh yeah, and maybe instead of picking tags from a drop-down list, which is limited and vague, we could just type in custom tags? \=3 I don't submit much, so I dunno if this already exists X3 But yeah, there's like, no 'owl' option, no 'hybrid' option, and god forbid, no 'CORGI' option!!!

** How should the results be presented to you*
Urrr, did I answer the above question wrong? Same answer I guess n.n; Oh yeah, and thumbnails and such =3

** What weight should the following parameters have in determining the order of the result: relevance, number of favorites, number of views, number of comments on a submission.*
Relevance is most important, but it would be nice to be able to order them from popular to unpopular, or new to old.
*
* Realistic example search queries please.
*Naaaarrrrgle? I don't know what this means ;.;

I think DA is a good example for a decent search engine, so I think you guys should check that place out =3


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## Armaetus (Jan 14, 2009)

DA is a crappy, egotistic and somewhat furry unfriendly art site.


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## Dragoneer (Jan 14, 2009)

Nargle said:


> Probably primarily for corgi art, but maybe for artists and styles I want to see.


Search killed my parents while a pack of corgis watched, doing nothing.

Never forget. Never forgive.


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## Aurali (Jan 14, 2009)

Nargle said:


> [/B]Naaaarrrrgle? I don't know what this means ;.;



Did you just do that? Are you a Pokemans?! *tosses a ball at you*

@Yak: 

Tag searching is usually the best means of doing this, but since FA has such weird tags.. this is a problem..

If you were to do a search, would it fit under what gets put in the description? Though us as a community will prob adapt a standard to help FA's search along. 

I Search mainly for movies.. though I usually don't use the main site anymore. Search would really be something that brings me back though?

As for search queries.. well; It would prob be along: things like Lesbian, cross-dress, cute, and comic .     cause those are things that interest me >.> <.<

Hope it helps Yak :3


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## uncia (Jan 14, 2009)

Dragoneer said:


> We do not believe in search.


OK, sometimes a little less honesty, please. _*1/2 jk*_


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## Nargle (Jan 16, 2009)

mrchris said:


> DA is a crappy, egotistic and somewhat furry unfriendly art site.



Urr.. sorry? =/

Doesn't change the fact that it's got a decent search system.



Dragoneer said:


> Search killed my parents while a pack of corgis watched, doing nothing.
> 
> Never forget. Never forgive.



LULZ, every time someone says "pack of corgis," I get this image in my head of a cigarette box filled with elongated, cigarette shaped corgis XD



Eli said:


> Did you just do that? Are you a Pokemans?! *tosses a ball at you*



**Cowers at the ball as it thunks on her head** ;.;

I invented the word before the name =3


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## Firehazard (Jan 16, 2009)

Nargle said:


> LULZ, every time someone says "pack of corgis," I get this image in my head of a cigarette box filled with elongated, cigarette shaped corgis XD


And... how often _do_ people say it?


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## Lobar (Jan 16, 2009)

TakeWalker said:


> The only thing I would ever want to search for is an artist's name. When I want to go to someone's userpage, just being able to type their name in a box would be nice.



http://furaffinity.net/user/usernamegoeshere


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## Quiet269 (Jan 16, 2009)

Lobar said:


> http://furaffinity.net/user/usernamegoeshere


Very true if you know exactly what it is... not so helpful if you misspell it...

a Member list would be nice...


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## TakeWalker (Jan 16, 2009)

Lobar said:


> http://furaffinity.net/user/usernamegoeshere



Let me amend that to say I'd like to be able to do that on-site. I have my own way of looking up usernames without having to type it in the address bar. (Am I the only one who detests having extra, unnecessary URLs in my history?)


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## Quiet269 (Jan 16, 2009)

Might I inquire as to what your way is?


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## net-cat (Jan 16, 2009)

Quiet269 said:


> a Member list would be nice...


Not as nice as you might think...

```
mysql> SELECT COUNT(1) FROM user;
+----------+
| COUNT(1) |
+----------+
|   208133 |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.65 sec)

mysql>
```


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## Quiet269 (Jan 16, 2009)

Cool! I'm watching 0.005% of all of FA! ^_^

still though, it would be nice, if I find artist ____ or signature "TT" any way to attempt to find that artist would be nice


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## mottled.kitten (Jan 16, 2009)

I just wanted to search for "voice meme" to see if there were any more, 'cause I had fun with the one that's going around now. It would be helpful to me, at least, for things like that. You can limit what you browse by, and that's helpful for most things (like limiting by species, sex, et cetera).


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## TheFabFurry (Jan 22, 2009)

I dont want the search for yiff. i want it to find pieces of art ive seen. or users ive seen. i want to be able to search KEY WORDS. thats it. relevance being the word i typed and the next closest result and so on . also ive lost contact with commissioners before and know their name but not full name but remeber art ive seen on their page.


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## Xadera (Jan 22, 2009)

I would want to search for the meaning of life.

C'mon admins, stand and deliver. At least find us the Holy Grail.


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## Dragoneer (Jan 22, 2009)

Xadera said:


> At least find us the Holy Grail.


What the hell do you think I drink my rum out of?


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## Xadera (Jan 22, 2009)

Dragoneer said:


> What the hell do you think I drink my rum out of?


 
Oh, well then... Good job admins, keep up the good work! 
(Thank goodness you made it out of that temple, 'neer)


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## Rehka (Jan 24, 2009)

I didn't want to post another friggin topic about this, as its just idle curiosity as I'm sure I'll find out one way or another once this magical new search Dragoneers been teasing us with comes to fruition...

 AnYwAy! 

will browse still work and/or will there still be some kind of browse function? I don't have a habit of searching for anything specific, i like just looking for whatever is eye catching at the moment, even i it means i have to briefly glance at the thumbnail of something i might not be interested in (gasp!) I don't see why there wouldn't be...just kinda wondering...


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## icehawk (Jan 25, 2009)

net-cat said:


> Not as nice as you might think...
> 
> ```
> mysql> SELECT COUNT(1) FROM user;
> ...




Oh InnoDB, when _aren't_ you horribly slow!

(that query would take less than 10 ms on a MyISAM table of equivalent size receiving 500 updates/second)


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## Devious Bane (Jan 25, 2009)

** What would you want to search for on FA*
-Nothing, I browse the FP for anything new or get updates from watches.

** What features do you want to have in the search*
-Results should be flexible. Search by rating, category, media type(image, flash, etc), timeframe(how far back).
-Simple layout, nothing special

** How should the results be presented to you*
-A small thumbnail, like those on the FP and browsing pages. Scroll over for a small amount of artist description
*
* What weight should the following parameters have in determining the order of the result: relevance, number of favorites, number of views, number of comments on a submission.*
*-Relevance:* Fairly Moderate
*-Number of Favorites:* Include for quality judgment
*-Number of Views:* Exclude, art comes too fast in numbers, and how can people view if they don't know it's there?
*-Number of comments:* Exclude, flaming/arguing/etc will increase this on poor/low-class images. This can be abused by many trolls spamming another trolls image.
Include if comment deletion can be done on submissions, but not recommended.
*
* Realistic example search queries please.*
-Dragon, Foxes, -Any Animal Reference-, and basically whatever a person has in mind.
In a grid:
*Name:* Dragon Ref
*Type:* General Art
*Minimum Rating(Favorites):* 0
*How old:* Infinite (No time barrier)

I might not care so much as to use it, but this would be something simple and thorough.
Also, all scrap-gallery items should be excluded from the search. Only items in the main gallery should be polled for search.


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## Altera (Jan 26, 2009)

* What would you want to search for on FA
-specific species that are not in the listing
* What features do you want to have in the search
- IMO, i just what a species search, but I assume themes. Something like DA would be cool, minus the "search in categories"
* How should the results be presented to you
Thumbnails ?
* What weight should the following parameters have in determining the order of the result: relevance, number of favorites, number of views, number of comments on a submission.
Relevance definitely, and maybe faves? Comments can easily be derailed by the people who RP, talk endlessly or just baww. Similar for views.
* Realistic example search queries please.
I second the viewing of the deviantArt search system. It's pretty simple, just type in what you want and hit "search"

for example, I'd love to be able to search "Thylacine" or "wombat"...something a little more specific than "marsupial - other"....especially since some people get the species right, but not if it's a marsupial or eutherian.


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## Fire (Jan 26, 2009)

I think we've pretty much got used to FA even without the search by now. Can't blame the admins for procrastination on the matter, though. I know how it's like to "not feel like doing that right now... really" 

Aaaanyway. Here's my opinion: title, description and taggy thing search would be nice.
Optional full-text lookup would be more than generous (find a character string in a page's comments, userpages, journals). Cookie-based, for those who are logged in only.


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## Aurali (Jan 26, 2009)

FireRaider said:


> I think we've pretty much got used to FA even without the search by now. Can't blame the admins for procrastination on the matter, though. I know how it's like to "not feel like doing that right now... really"


I can tell you now Yak's been stressing over it..
Give him time, he does good work.


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## Fire (Jan 27, 2009)

Y'know what? They should just add a search box in the layout now.

Even if it does nothing (useful) yet, it's there to give us... hope and motivation. Sorta.

Edit: Actually this is a very stupid idea, but I said it, and I stand by it


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## Aurali (Jan 27, 2009)

http://www.furaffinity.net/search 
*gasps* a blank page.. where is the error I wonder?


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## lazarwolfe (Jan 27, 2009)

yak said:


> Aww whatever.
> 
> 
> Okay, pop quiz/opinion poll time.
> ...




What would I want to search for:
keyword content, artist names, names of specific submissions
Features:
sort by relevence, sort by date
Presentation:
I would be happy with simple links, no graphics, along with some indication of if I have followed that link before.  That last is common to most browsers.
Weights:
Relevence is primary, shortly followed by update date.  I suppose being able to tie break by one of the other three could be useful.
Examples:
"white yote" - artist search
"watersports" or "shota" or other keyword when searching for art.
I suppose I could see a search like "fel lizard blue" when looking for a drawing of a blue reptile drawn by Fel.

Hmm...
So, I'd like a search that had the following in order of importance:
- A text field to use for searching artist name and submission name.
- A dropdown box for every dropdown available in the submission process.
- A checkbox for common keywords.
- A text field for searching custom keywords.
- A dropdown for changing sort order of results.


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## yak (Jan 27, 2009)

Thank you all for answering my questions, this feedback is very welcomed and helps me a lot.


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## Toksyuryel (Jan 27, 2009)

Search has already been coded, tested, and perfected. Every time someone asks when search will come back, one year is added to the implimentation date.


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## ShadowDragon00000 (Jan 28, 2009)

I didn't take the time to read all the posts here in the thread so I apologize if this is just a redundant post.

What I was thinking that could solve the whole "No one tags stuff so it goes under the radar" is give the viewer the option to put a tag either on the submission or in their comment that would pull up results in the search while giving the owner of the submission the ability to remove tags or lock people out of making tags on their submission in the edit submission field.

Just my two cents.


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## Altera (Jan 28, 2009)

Kangaroo_Boy said:


> f you want to search the other way, just enter this in google image search: <search term(s)> site:furaffinity.net.



On a random splurge with a desire to see Australia day art, I attempted this. All I got were  results from the forums, no actual art. :c


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## cesarin (Jan 28, 2009)

dont forget to set "cooldown" times, just to prevent search bots for flooding.
or retarded furries searching like mad.


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## Kangamutt (Jan 30, 2009)

Another suggestion for the search: perhaps a field to base the search criteria on the General/Mature/Adult rating system?


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## jayhusky (Jan 30, 2009)

Kangaroo_Boy said:


> Another suggestion for the search: perhaps a field to base the search criteria on the General/Mature/Adult rating system?



Do you mean for example a tick box to include adult submissions as well as general ones?


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