Have search take me to my read position, or the first post in the topic?

[Pod]

@codinghorror

I feel like you haven’t been able to adequately explain what you want to me, a human, so it’s unlikely that you would be able to explain it to the computer, either.

I’ve never able to adequately explain concepts to you, including the concept of the Android back button, which is apparently a massive mystery. But I’m dogged, so I shall keep trying.

TO WIT:

1. I don’t want my read marker in a thread (around post 300) to be destroyed because a crap search algorithm took me past it (to post 727), and to a post that doesn’t even contain the words “Star Trek”.

2. Even when I’ve read an entire thread, I don’t see the utility in being thrown randomly in the middle. Either the beginning or end are sensible places I’d expect to end up.

3. Frankly, I’d also like to not have to faff about in the advanced search screen just to find a thread that’s currently active, that I’ve posted in, that contains the words I want in the title. The majority of my searching and selecting-of-search-results is done in the “find” drop-down from most pages, I don’t want to have to type in endless amounts of stuff just to get the search to “behave”

So we are searching for a common word or phrase that appears hundreds or thousands of times on the site across dozens of topics , yes?

Yes, we are. So it’s baffling that the search algorithm takes me to a post that doesn’t even contain the words.

If not, can you explain specifically why not, with a real world example?

1. https://forum.quartertothree.com/search?q=Star%20Trek

• The first result takes me to These Are The Voyages-Star Trek TOS Remastered and Reconsidered - #727 by Rock8man - Books, comics, TV, music - Quarter To Three Forums, which is (well, was at the time of the initial post) way past me read marker. But at least it’s the thread I want, so I can work around this.

2. https://forum.quartertothree.com/search?q=Star%20Trek%20in%3Atitle

• In:title doesn’t change the result, I still get a random post deep in the middle of a thread about Star Trek, when that post itself doesn’t even contain the words “Star Trek”.

3. https://forum.quartertothree.com/search?q=Star%20Trek%20in%3Afirst

• in:first : The thread that was previously “the best result” for “Star trek” is now the 46th best result, even though the first post of that previously “best result” contains the words Star Trek, and the majority of the top 10 results are from 10 years ago. But hey, at least it’s not showing me post 727 that it loves so much!

4. Search results for 'Star Trek order:latest' - Quarter To Three Forums

• Latest post is even worse as it takes me to the bottom of the thread, which completely ruins any read marker use.

5. Search results for 'Star Trek order:latest_topic' - Quarter To Three Forums

• Latest thread has it around 15 deep. AGAIN IT’S THAT SAME POST! What does it love so much about post 727? (In this specific case, I find it odd that the 14 threads before this one don’t contain “Star Trek” in the title, given that my search criteria is around threads.)

6. I can’t post an example of in:seen as I’ve now read past that famous 727 post that everyone loves so much. I mean : I’ve physically read those posts with my eyes. At the time of posting I had “read” that post in the sense that “Discourse search messed up my read position months ago and I’ve not bothered to figure out where I left off”.