Ship of Fools: Searching Limbo and Oblivion

Thread: Searching Limbo and Oblivion Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :

Is there a limit to how far back it is possible to search Limbo and Oblivion, or is there a limit to the number of threads which a search will throw up? I'm trying to find old prayer threads and / or a thread about bringing up children but I can only find threads going back three or four years.

Posted by Alan Cresswell (# 31) on :

Put simply, the search function is basically non-functional. If you have a decent idea of when the last post on a thread you're looking for then a manual search isn't too slow, though a bit of work. Sometimes Google (or similar) will find threads if you confine the search to this site - it may give a link to the original (now deleted) version which gives the date information, or it may go to the archived version.

Posted by Tubbs (# 440) on :

Oblivion goes back to 2011, but there are some older threads. The search function does work when the board is a reasonable size - but gets more temperamental as the board gets bigger. Until, eventually, it falls over.

Limbo goes back further, but only the very best threads get put there.

Tubbs

Posted by Gee D (# 13815) on :

Perhaps not quite the right place but there seems no Sundry Styx Questions thread. Perhaps this should start it.

Still, here goes. Madame and I are down the coast for a week or so, and today's been cool and damp. I went to the Ship history thread at the top of the index and did some browsing. so many familiar names, alas seen no more. I did come across a post from me not long after I had joined, but with a high post count on it. Nearby was a post by No Prophet but giving his present full name. So I checked and the post number for me was one reached in the last month. Another quick check shows that a post from me in February on the Episcopal Baptists thread in Ecclesiantics shows the same thread count.

Is the Ship's technology so much more advanced than I had realised to enable this sort of updating to occur?

Posted by passer (# 13329) on :

The post-count against your name will be updated continually, as you post. So, the first post you ever posted, if still accessible, will say 5601 posts as your count (as of this moment).

Each post will have a location in the Ship's database, with a link to your name. The name detail will be held somewhere else, and will have a marker within it showing the total number of posts against that name. When you submit a new post, that number will increment.

This detail is displayed at the bottom of each post where your name is displayed.

Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :

The post count, displayed name, signature, etc. in old posts are regularly updated as these fields are changed.

Posted by Gee D (# 13815) on :

Thank you both - and your new name as well, as in the case of No Prophet etc. I did not think that the Ship's technology was as advanced as that. Perhaps is old hat now.

Posted by Marvin the Martian (# 4360) on :

quote:
Originally posted by passer:
The post-count against your name will be updated continually, as you post.

Not quite - it updates automatically the next time you post on the same board (which is why Gee's post count on the post in question was from last month, rather than right now - presumably that was the last time Gee posted in Styx).

Names (and avatars, for that matter) work on the same basis.

The Admins can update all post counts, names and avatars to their current status regardless of a person's most recent posts, but it involves taking the boards down and then watching in ever-growing boredom as the creaking software ploughs sequentially through every board on the Ship at the rate of about fifty threads every fifteen seconds. That may sound pretty fast, but think about how many threads there are in Limbo and Oblivion.

We don't do it very often. Which, to get back to the question in the OP, is one of the reasons why searching Limbo and Oblivion is so difficult.

Posted by Gee D (# 13815) on :

I did not realise that I'd be sparking all of this info - wet afternoons down the coast have their own advantages.

Posted by passer (# 13329) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:
Not quite - it updates automatically the next time you post on the same board (which is why Gee's post count on the post in question was from last month, rather than right now - presumably that was the last time Gee posted in Styx).

I understand. Thanks.

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