Frankly my memories of this childhood classic are a bit rusty so I polished them up
here.
If you expect anything except meta and snark, best to leave this bedtime story closed.
We have chatted before about using x-ray vision to get people
naked and how to use Pam Dawber's techniques to
speed read. These are both but examples of the things you can do with the much maligned dKos Search Engine.
I understand why people are frustrated, it does not work at all like Google or Yahoo or AskJeeves (very good with fuzzy stuff).
It is very good at changing your view of reality- 'Recent Diary List'/'View story summaries' ON/'Search'.
It can focus on you with laser-like precision- 'Menu'/'Search'/Find:'Users'/Containing:'ek hornbeck'/'Search'. "Found 1 results". Bang.
It can peer into the dim dark past- 'Menu'/'Search'/Find:'Comments By'/Containing:'ek hornbeck'/'Search Archive' ON/'Search'.
It is not so good at telling you if your diary is a duplicate.
Not that it bothers me, I can speed read.
Duplicate Diaries
I'm going to take a moment to chat about duplicate diaries. They soo don't bother me, I ignore most of them based on titles alone. But if you're going to publish a diary you might want to take a few moments. I think the best way to check is to use The Window of Time that is 'Recent Diary List' (waay down there at the bottom of 'Recent Diaries' on top of that pesky 'Show ?? diaries/'Set' thing). I wish I could drive 55.
Even at the limit of 50, it's not so bad. I have not yet done an exhaustive study of the traffic patterns or their masters (though I think Jerome or jotter might have a thing or 2 to say) so I'll pick Tuesday, December 13, 2005 as a random example. Here's what jotter says- "Yesterday 224 Kosmopolitan authors posted 232 diaries, of which 7 were later withdrawn".
5 pages.
If I wasn't posting wacky diaries on weird subjects that nobody wants to read about anyway (though I do check for duplicates) I'd say to myself-
"That first page is all the average diary cop is going to see anyway. If my headline ain't there maybe I can skate."
I urge you to develop a more community oriented attitude. Even the most dedicated blogger can hardly do it more than what 10, 12 hours a day? I hereby raise the black flag of anarchy-
You can't take the sky from me...
Believe me, there's a clenched fist with an AK-47 in there and the word "ANARCHY" underneath. You just can't see it because it's black on black.
Diary Anarchy Patrol, protecting you from conformity to community standards since a week before tomorrow.
I suggest you search back oh, eight hours or so. Show exceptional community spirit and set 'View story summaries' ON. Hit 'Search'. Read the teasers and look at the pretty pictures. I always encourage people to be as cryptic and deceptive as possible in their headlines, otherwise nobody ever reads your stuff.
Serious Searching
Hah hah. ek you slay me with your views. I use them to rove ruffian-like across continents of poems with ease, or at least make them think so. I am a serious student and I need to find things.
Basically, choose any search-
- 'Menu'/'Search'
- 'Recent Diary List' or
- Click on anyone's name, anywhere- comments, diaries, doesn't matter. Choose the 'Comments' tab.
You have these controls-
Find:
- 'Authors'. FP Types. Same as 'Stories'.
- 'Comments'. Sigh, much more about comments later.
- 'Comments by'. You. Very effective.
- 'Diaries'. Works kinda sorta sometimes. More later.
- 'Diaries by'. You. Very effective.
- 'Polls'. Talk about freeping.
- 'Stories'. Did I already say it's the same? Why is this the default?
- 'Users'. Another subversive way I can get inside your mind.
I'll be kind to your eyes and dump a majority here. 'Authors' and 'Stories' are dead duplicates and both should be instantly banned. 'Comments by' and 'Diaries by' are both creepy ways I can get into your head and although they're different I've already talked about them and I'm bored. 'Users' same thing, 'cept I haven't talked about it, yet;). Polls, yes, well. I can imagine
maany subversive things, but this is a
children's story. Get your minds out of the gutter.
As we proceed we will be focusing on 2 choices- 'Diaries' and 'Comments', but first a word or 2 about our other controls, when they work.
In:
- 'All Sections'. Does it make it faster not to use this? I am willing to be educated, I really am.
- 'Diaries'. That's us.
- 'Events'. Umm... does this work at all?
- 'Misc'. Umm... Ms, may I have another round?
- 'Open Threads'. Umm... I'm thinking, I'm thinking, I'm thinking...... no.
I think we know all we need to about this button. Newline.
Containing:, 'Search', 'Search Archive'. More about these controls later. Newline.
Results: (you are set to 50, aren't you), 'View story summaries'. Buttons, buttons, now we got the buttons.
Buttons
- 'View story summaries'. Extremely useful if you're looking at diaries, useless otherwise.
- 'Search Archive'. If I turn this on I can read everything you've ever written. Well, when it's working.
Your moment of bitch-
What the heck happened to the comments on this diary. It was my first (sniff) post. I'm warning you, Naked dKos will come back and haunt you from the grave.
Don't worry, it's not
censorship. Something broke in the last, ahem, upgrade.
Find: 'Diaries', Find: 'Comments'
Let's talk about 'Containing:'. When combined with the things we have agreed not to talk about, the laser-like precision of Containing: is devastating. Other times, not so much.
I suggest the url's give us a clue as to why, but I don't speak SQL.
Let's start with 'Diaries'.
Note: Many of these techniques don't work when the traffic is high. Each one worked at least twice for me.
I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. I thought I could, I thought I could, I thought I could. Dr. Zoidberg says- Hurray!
Use ONE word. 'ek hornbeck' turns up ok, and maybe 'peak oil' does too (wait for it); but the general rule is that the simpler and more unique your request ('Yushchenko', not 'Ukraine') the easier it is to find.
Major Update-
I wrote this part months ago, the links were all dead. I can see my originals and I remember the way I did my searches. An experiment that is not repeatable is not science. So I ran them all again and these are the results I came up with. Is the environment changing? I seem to recall a time when I had more than 9 hits (alas I didn't save the results- curse your database jotter, and your little dog too).
On the positive side, the results were snappy compared to what I'm used to.
In this search 'Search Archive'/ON appears to have no relevance, half these links are ON, half off, in case it makes one anyway. What?
Every diary is a meta diary if I learn something.
Sub-Searches (searches within results) are simply not allowed. Bummer.
Find: 'Comments'
I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. Chug, chug, chug... ack.
Oh it used to work, every once in a while. I have links, none of them work now.
Not the specific ones, if I remember you or the diary I was in then all I have to do is find my bookmark, click on the time stamp, swipe it off the address line, and cut and paste.
Very efficient.
Umm... somebody posted the lyrics to the 'Time Warp' in a comment last night. All I remember is that there was a jump to the left. Find: 'Comments'/Containing: 'left'
Chug, chug, chug... Chug, chug, chug... ack.
Make your request as short and specific as you want, it doesn't work. Now.
Useta was, but my documentation is faulty so put a tinfoil hat on me. Or maybe it is just me and the illuminati know. I'm open to suggestion. Post direction in the comments.
This is the problem with the 'Categories' project. Comment search only works sometimes at best and slowly then. But it was a good idea (if a little intrusive) and I'll talk more about it later, when we chat about tags.
Google Search
There are those who swear by 'site:www.dailykos.com'. "Results 1 - 50 of about 175". I just know I've been way more obnoxious than that. They do have that bit bucket which is Google cache.
The Big Wind Up
I know you're tired of suffering, at least from the sound of my voice so I'll try to make it quick.
Those who think it is broken have spoken, loudly and often. They will find adequate documentation in this very piece. I place my hope in the future.
Super dKos. Millions of members, thousands of diaries all coming to this orange space we share by the grace of Markos, who I don't thank enough. View engines that cover hundreds of diaries at a glance (at least 100, I don't beg for much). Google (dare I say it, they have some very bad policies, but some good ones too) type searches and advanced search functions, specifically a search on comments (#2 on my list Santa Kos, some of us invest a lot of time in everything we do) and Sub Searches.
All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.
T. E. Lawrence.
We should not mistake a view engine for a search engine.