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Valeriy
Mage of the Land
Naughty, Naughty Valeriy
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posted December 29, 2005 05:34 AM |
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Heroes Community Search Function
Heroes Community used to have a search function in the beginning. I've disabled it towards the end of 2001 because it was rather inefficient, creating a separate copy of every post in the database for a searchable index - virtually making HC database twice the size and slowing things down.
It's been 4 years without HC search and we've accustomed to using google which wasn't doing a good job of searching HC.
The database has grown to 200,000 posts. Wouldn't it be nice to search them all? You bet! The search function is here. I've reprogrammed it to search the existing database and added a nice layout with a bunch of advanced features.
There are advanced search operators - AND, NOT and part word, prhase search, or a combination.
The search terms are highlighted in results.
Lots of info is given about each post/thread.
You can add a username and date filter.
You can sort the results by posts or threads.
You can make the +QP posts appear on top of the search results.
You can shorten/lengthen the posts display and change that setting back without having to re-search.
You can even see how many times any given query has been searched so far.
Yes, taking on google here  This one took me over 30 hours to make. There may still be some bugs, so report them here if you find any. Note that forum-specific search is not available due to the database structure. The search string input is deliberately not very long to limit database load.
There are a lot of treasures in the HC database. Now there is an easy way to mine the gold  Do share any good search queries you find here as well.
The HC search will be integrated into Age of Heroes and possibly other partner sites.
Don't get me wrong about Google though. Now that Age of Heroes pages got listed, Google offers an excellent Age of Heroes site search - you can search our 500 or so pages of HOMM info. Google Web/AOH search is also on the new search page. Get ready!
 Search!
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You can wait for others to do it, but if they don't know how, you'll wait forever.
Be an example of what you want to see on HC and in the world.
http://www.heroesofmightandmagic.com
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Guitarguy
Responsible
Supreme Hero
Rockoon.
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posted December 29, 2005 06:33 AM |
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I've checked it out and it seems to work well. There's a lot to search through, but it's not too burdensome. A definite improvement over the Google search.
-Guitarguy
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Valeriy
Mage of the Land
Naughty, Naughty Valeriy
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posted October 01, 2006 04:54 AM |
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New Fixes/Improvements:
- Separate words in a search string will now be queried under AND instead of OR condition. For example, heroes 2 music was previously treated as heroes OR 2 OR music - finding posts that contain word heroes, or number 2, or word music. From now on heroes 2 music will be treated as heroes AND 2 AND music - finding posts that contain words heroes, music and number 2 at the same time.
This should make searching more intuitive as I think many users expected this result and didn't know to type AND between words. The OR command can still be entered manually. Mini-instructions on the search form have been updated according to this change.
- Poster's profile link in search results now works properly.
- "Shorten long posts" option changed to a selector of shortening to 2000, 5000, or 10000 characters. 2000 is default and seems to be sufficient in most searches.
Limiting the search to a specific forum is a possibility for future implementation.
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You can wait for others to do it, but if they don't know how, you'll wait forever.
Be an example of what you want to see on HC and in the world.
http://www.heroesofmightandmagic.com
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Consis
Honorable
Legendary Hero
Of Ruby
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posted October 01, 2006 07:13 AM |
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Bah . . .
I've tried this feature many times to find old threads. It never works. For example, I've tried many times to find the thread about Heroes Community routines but the search can't find it.
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Roses Are Red And So Am I
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Valeriy
Mage of the Land
Naughty, Naughty Valeriy
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posted October 01, 2006 07:30 AM |
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The thread you are searching for has to exist in order to be found
Link a thread/post you've tried to find along with the search string you've used, then I may be able to improve it.
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You can wait for others to do it, but if they don't know how, you'll wait forever.
Be an example of what you want to see on HC and in the world.
http://www.heroesofmightandmagic.com
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Vlaad
Admirable
Legendary Hero
ghost of the past
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posted October 24, 2006 08:54 AM |
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Edited by Vlaad at 20:47, 11 Jun 2007.
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at the bottom of the main page
It's its, it's not it's.
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Valeriy
Mage of the Land
Naughty, Naughty Valeriy
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posted November 04, 2006 10:10 AM |
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It is indeed! 
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You can wait for others to do it, but if they don't know how, you'll wait forever.
Be an example of what you want to see on HC and in the world.
http://www.heroesofmightandmagic.com
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dimis
Responsible
Supreme Hero
Digitally signed by FoG
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posted February 02, 2007 02:15 AM |
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Didn't know where to place it, but since it is related somehow with "search" procedures, I 'll list it here:
When someone views the profile of a member and checks on "Bonuses", it says:
Threads in which UsErNaMe recieved quality bonuses ...
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The empty set
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Valeriy
Mage of the Land
Naughty, Naughty Valeriy
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posted February 04, 2007 08:19 AM |
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Correction received
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You can wait for others to do it, but if they don't know how, you'll wait forever.
Be an example of what you want to see on HC and in the world.
http://www.heroesofmightandmagic.com
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Valeriy
Mage of the Land
Naughty, Naughty Valeriy
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posted September 02, 2014 10:19 AM |
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Edited by Valeriy at 10:54, 02 Sep 2014.
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Search Function Update
So, it's been 7 years since the last update  Time for a few tweaks 
There is now a "Go To Post" link at the top left of every post in search results. This link allows you to go to the exact post that you found within its thread. Especially useful for locating a specific post within a 90-page thread
Ditched Google search, replaced it with DuckDuckGo AOH & HC Search. I'm ditching Google because unlike Google DuckDuckGo does not record what you search for. The DuckDuckGo search is fast and searches through both AOH and HC web sites. Gives pretty decent results and makes a good alternative to the internal search of HC.
Added "last 6 years" and "last 10 years" date options. "Show Quality Post First" option is now disabled by default.
The search now has a 10 seconds cooldown between searches (doesn't apply to moderators) to balance the server load more evenly. If you happen to search quicker you won't need to go back and re-try - the page will reload itself and open your results by itself after several seconds.
The often-requested separate forum search is not implemented yet as it is a bit more complicated and resource-intensive. Perhaps some day.
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You can wait for others to do it, but if they don't know how, you'll wait forever.
Be an example of what you want to see on HC and in the world.
http://www.heroesofmightandmagic.com
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Sal
Famous Hero
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posted September 02, 2014 10:47 AM |
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Edited by Sal at 10:57, 02 Sep 2014.
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I tried several times the search function, never had any success with. So after your update, I gave it one more try but it failed as before. Maybe I do something wrong?
There is a thread named Shooting with no shooters in wog forums.
Searched for words : "shooting with no shooters". Sorted by THREADS, ok.
Thread isn't listed in results, instead I get all the 1 million posts using the word "shooting", "with", "no" and "shooters", completely irrelevant. Moreover, the search also flags all posts where any of these words is a syllable into a bigger word, so you imagine the multiplication.
Does the "threads" search take a different path than "posts" or not working yet? I know is tricky to make such feature perfect but at least ignoring posts when "thread" is specified could much improve the search process. A thread's title is the best indicator about its content.
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Valeriy
Mage of the Land
Naughty, Naughty Valeriy
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posted September 02, 2014 10:57 AM |
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Heh, that is a case of RTFM
See line 3 below the search input field. You need to use quotes to find the exact phrase. So I've put:
"shooting with no shooters"
First result is the thread you're looking for and second result is your post above
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You can wait for others to do it, but if they don't know how, you'll wait forever.
Be an example of what you want to see on HC and in the world.
http://www.heroesofmightandmagic.com
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Sal
Famous Hero
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posted September 02, 2014 10:59 AM |
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Sandman
Known Hero
Fearsome Warrior
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posted September 02, 2014 11:46 AM |
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Loving the upgrades Val
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fred79
Disgraceful
Undefeatable Hero
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posted September 02, 2014 02:52 PM |
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Valeriy said:
So, it's been 7 years since the last update Time for a few tweaks
There is now a "Go To Post" link at the top left of every post in search results. This link allows you to go to the exact post that you found within its thread. Especially useful for locating a specific post within a 90-page thread
man, val, this has been much needed. the search function was pretty much useless before, when you had to go through a 999-page thread to find the post you were looking for. previously, i had to try to find the post by post-date alone.
awesome upgrade. now HC can join the rest of the internet.
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Valeriy
Mage of the Land
Naughty, Naughty Valeriy
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posted December 04, 2014 05:48 AM |
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Edited by Valeriy at 05:51, 04 Dec 2014.
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Thread Title Search
I've added a search box in the top right corner of every forum that allows you to search post titles in that forum. Note that this searches titles only, not post contents. This search is lightning-fast.
You can thus search a forum using a keyword, for example "creatures" or "music" or "HotA" or "ICTC 8".
This feature will add extra emphasis on naming your threads well so they can be found with relevant keywords.
And this is an easy way to check if a thread of the same subject already exists before creating a new one.
Thread title search has a couple of buddies - a sorting column selector (new feature as well) and thread filter selector (this one was there already). So you can order the forum, or your title search results by replies, views or by when the thread was created.
You can copy & paste the URL of the page with all of your search, sorting and filtering parameters. So you could for example make a link that shows the most active threads for your mod or the most viewed entries for your contest. Examples: Love in OSM, ICTC 4 in AOH Coliseum, HotA in WOG & Beyond.
Hold your mouse pointer over the underlined golden words for more info. You can also click the name of the forum on the left to reset all selections.
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You can wait for others to do it, but if they don't know how, you'll wait forever.
Be an example of what you want to see on HC and in the world.
http://www.heroesofmightandmagic.com
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JoonasTo
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
What if Elvin was female?
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posted December 04, 2014 10:46 AM |
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YES
I'm pretty sure the whole community has been wanting this for ages.
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DON'T BE A NOOB, JOIN A.D.V.E.N.T.U.R.E.
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Galaad
Hero of Order
Li mort as morz, li vif as vis
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posted December 04, 2014 01:43 PM |
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Storm-Giant
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
On the Other Side!
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posted December 04, 2014 01:49 PM |
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JoonasTo said:
I'm pretty sure the whole community has been wanting this for ages.
Damn right you are!
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Valeriy
Mage of the Land
Naughty, Naughty Valeriy
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posted January 01, 2015 06:16 AM |
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Another present for the new year - look in the top right corner of the HC homepage
This is an extension of the thread title search, except it searches thread titles of all the forums. And it is still lightning fast.
With this box you can just type a word from the title of a thread you've recently visited and find it in a flash. Or think of a subject and see what the entire HC has to offer I'm actually digging it - never been so easy to crawl the archives before.
You will notice the name of a forum underneath thread names - clicking it will narrow the results down to that particular forum. Enjoy!
I'll make a proper box for it on the search page as well when I get around to it. To avoid confusion I'll mention again that this quick search does not look at post contents, only thread titles.
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You can wait for others to do it, but if they don't know how, you'll wait forever.
Be an example of what you want to see on HC and in the world.
http://www.heroesofmightandmagic.com
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