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This is me with my staff hat on. Which probably looks something like this...

So. Search. Generally considered to be Not Much Good, and possibly a factor in slowing the site down. So we are planning to switch to a Lucene search. But first, we need some volunteers to test it out. And kindly, you have volunteered to do this for us! Thanks guys!

Actually, you aren't the first. WoWwiki has been on this for a while, and are pleased with how it's worked. So now we want to add it here, and to Wookieepedia and a) monitor any improvements in site performance and speed, and b) get your feedback and information on any bugs you see.

The advantages are (outside of possible performance improvements) that it's easier to set up which namespaces are searched by default (although not much easier for uncyc, because of the small matter of your SEPARATE CODEBASE </grump>) and that it may be more effective in giving relevant results. The disadvantages are a changed results page with results in titles no longer separated from results in text. There's probably more on each side of the equation, but we should find that out as we go along.

So that's the plan, please add your comments, screams, and general usualness here. Thanks -- sannse (talk) 09:46, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

I've got no attachments to the backend in use, so long as the lil search box remains the same, and it still takes me to User:EugeneKay when I put User:EugeneKay into it, instead of a stupid results page listing User:EugeneKay. Edit: Also, I much prefer title results being first, and separated. So that might not actually work so well.     EugeneKay wuz here (whine thank)   12:21, Thursday 14 August 2008  

I also prefer title results being first and separated. (I use the existing search when trying to find articles with a specific word in the title (that is more than a few letters long), and "site:uncyclopedia.org blah blah blah" on google when I need to look a little harder, which only ever happens when I'm in the linking up phase of writing.) --monika 16:27, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

From what you and Wookieepedia have said, this is possibly going to be a key issue. I've talked to Emil, and he thinks that the version that goes with Mediawiki 1.13 (yes, it's coming) will have the ability to separate title and content matches. We'll look into this. If it doesn't, and if it's important enough to people, we may be able to tweak it ourselves to do this. I'm not sure of that yet, but it's something to keep in mind. The test will be without this feature, but should give us information on any other problems and benefits of this search -- sannse (talk) 09:30, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

If this is implemented...

Pleeeeeeeeease can we keep Monobook as the default skin? Oh, I'm not talking about Uncyc, cos Wikia kisses Uncyc's ass. I'm talkin' bout mah generation. -- Hindleyite Converse • ?pedia 10:36, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Please? Come on. I would post this comment at Wikia but guess what? It's 'experiencing problems' ;p -- Hindleyite Converse • ?pedia 18:03, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

I'll give you cookies. -- Hindleyite Converse • ?pedia 17:54, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

Sorry Hindleyite, not something I have the ability to give you -- sannse (talk) 09:46, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

Then who does? Wow, I didn't know there was anybody higher up on the Wikia ladder than you Sannse :) -- Hindleyite Converse • ?pedia 11:27, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Pah, they won't let me even use the ladder

I'm sorry, we've already had this discussion more than once. Illogicopedia will have to be default Monaco -- sannse (talk) 09:46, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

Nice hat

Also, yeah, sure, I'm all for it. Uncyc sometimes runs slow for me (as you, sannse, probably know), so this may help. - Admiral Enzo Aquarius-Dial the Gate 16:57, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Test starts

The Lucene search is now on, the plan is to leave it in place for just over a week and see how it affects performance and searches. Please leave any feedback here... let's see how it works! -- sannse (talk) 09:46, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

I dunno about everyone else, but it seems an awful lot of results are missing for me. -- Hindleyite Converse • ?pedia 11:30, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

You're not imagining it. A lot of results are missing, including in a few of my tests the article whose title I searched for. --monika 15:19, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Which could be good, if it means, that it's all selective n' shit, but I just searched "fucking joke," and Is this some kind of a fucking joke is nowhere to be found...

Hmmm, also bugging me: redirects aren't admitting to their redirectitude, which can make them a bit of a pain to fix when fixing need be done. - P.M., WotM, & GUN, Sir Led Balloon (Tick Tock) (Contribs) 15:25, Aug 22

That should stop now... it was an extension that was turned on too soon - one we are looking at to fix the problem of redirects showing the old URL not the new one. It's on for some wikis, shouldn't be on for all until we've tested more an all -- sannse (talk) 09:46, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

Please can you all give me any examples you find? It may be that the new search just needs to run a first full index. I'll check that with Emil -- sannse (talk) 09:46, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

I rebuilt the index today. It seems like the previous version was broken in few places. Please let me know if you still find any missing articles from the new index. --Emil 09:12, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

I went and searched for my most wordily-titled article. "Aristocrats fucking" only brought up A bunch of aristocrats fucking. Awesome vid on the second page. Surely the presence of the word in the title should have greater weight? -- 15Mickey20 (talk to Mickey)  13:55, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

On a completely different note

Remember that thing on PLS's talk page where sannse was apparently stuck in the first of July? She's still there, apparently: "-- sannse@Wikia (talk) 09:46, 1 July 2008 (UTC)". Just odd to me, that's all. –—Hv (talk) 26/08 14:08

Gah, damn js. Fixed now -- sannse (talk) 19:29, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Test ends

Thanks for your help everyone. That was a useful test that helped us fix one bug and highlighted other issues. I don't have results on how it affected performance, but Emil and the technical team will look at that. The wiki is back on the default search now. Many thanks once again -- sannse (talk) 13:06, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Is it too late to say that the new search was all but useless for finding articles? I'm all for better performance, and even with the separate page title results it'd be better, but it kinda sucked for finding stuff. Especially when there was numbers in the search. • Spang • ☃ • talk • 01:48, 02 Sep 2008

Dear Wikia,

Why the hell don't you just use a search powered by Google? Why? We all know Google actually works, and your other searches actually don't. – Sir Skullthumper, MD (criticize • writings • critchat) 01:52 Sep 02, 2008