How about leaving one of these topics open for once instead of calling your misinterpretation of the topic contents "the last word"?

Okay, so here's the problem. The search function on this site is completely broken. As in, it doesn't function at all. It sits there searching, with that damn filling-in-dog, until it just times out and says there's nothing found. It's done this for about a whole year now. And every time it's brought up by someone more literally challenged than I, a moderator just locks the topic and indicates that "it'll have to do". Well, it can't "just have to do" when it doesn't work at all. When it's completely incapable of functioning in any capacity.

I would be happy with just an engine that allows me to enter one single word; as most forum search engines are broken and end up searching for "OR"-based queries (search for "a rocket scientist" and it'll return any topic with the word "scientist", "rocket", or even "A" in it) and I've learned to cope. But the completely broken and nonfunctional BoardTracker is just an insult.

Google isn't a workable solution either, as Google traditionally ignores page links with a query structure following them (like index.php?showtopic=1). This means that unless there is another page on the internet that links to that page, Google will not "crawl" this forum and retrieve all possible topics and posts. It will only "crawl" particular pages that other people on the internet (that Google DOES crawl) link to. A little bit of SEO for you.

So, the question is posed once again: when will we get a working search function? I'm not asking the FAQ of "when will we get the old search back?". I'm asking for an alternative to BoardTracker, or a repair to BoardTracker that will actually make that work properly. Too much to ask?

Use Google if you don't like the board tracker. Google understands dynamic links these days. Welcome to the internet.

Rather, "if boardtracker doesn't work at all". Is there some confusion in OP as to whether or not BoardTracker even works at all? I think I'm sort of the voice for the possibly thousands of people that are unable to search the board because the search function is out of commission, as it has been for at least the past year...

And your "welcome to the internet" comment was rather unnecessary, especially speaking to a web developer.

edit: However, noting that you are a moderator (reading your "group"), I must thank you for actually leaving the topic open instead of just closing/trashing it like all the others.

As moderators, there are few people that mourn the loss of the IPB search function more than us. Every thread started in this forum regarding the search function is like rubbing salt in our wounds ( a bit overly dramatic....but we do rely on search alot to perform our roles). You will find that most of the previous closed threads regarding this, were locked because of people demanding the IPB search back or just general attitude regarding their "right" to a good search function. Board tracker is spotty at times, and I concur with you that currently it is down. Since BT switched to V2 of their service it has some times posted erroneous results, or as is the case today, no results.

As for your comment regarding google, it actually works fairly well and is also directly linked from the boardtracker search page. Your quoted "a rocket scientist" resulted in 217 hits from the forums.

Board tracker shows to be active for us. If they don't want to index us there isn't much we can do. A spider would completely kill the server. So again... If you don't like using something thats broken - use Google.

Board ID# 617: Xbox-Scene (X-S) - http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php - Active

Well, it's not so much that it doesn't return any results, but rather that the function doesn't work at all. It simply doesn't process - and never has, for me. It just sits there at that filling dog image, saying it's "Fetching search results" and the status bar shows "Waiting for v2.boardtracker.com" (or "Transferring data from v2.boardtracker.com" depending on its mood). No matter what the status bar shows, it's never returned a single successful query in the countless times I've wanted to use it. =\

Search also doesn't have to be a labor intensive process. There are sites far larger than xbox-scene, that use IPB's default search facility, perhaps with a few modifications or restrictions to make it less server-intensive. I'm not asking, like the countless others, for the default search to be restored, but perhaps an alternative to be looked into. At the very least, replace that broken BoardTracker gibberish with something that actually might return a meaningful result, like Google, maybe even Google Groups (which now seems to index forums as well). But the fact is, as has already been mentioned, it's impossible for Google to index everything because their crawler would kill the site. So that means there are tons of topics and lots of information here that's impossible (almost literally) to locate.

Not to mention invalidating the traditional moderator statement of "Use the search"!

The 3 people that have replied to your thread work hard here for no money. The Admins are the only ones that would implement "changes." In a direct request for "change" Google is a valid option and even linked to from BoardTracker.
You can also just go straight to Google and search your query with the phrase site:forums.xbox-scene.com if you wish.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=s....xbox-scene.com

The administration has (repeatedly) stated they will not reimplement the board's native search. Also, that BoardTracker and Google are here to stay.

The moderators will do the best they can, as they always have, to help out regular members when they have problems. That is why reading the same post over and over gets tiresome. It is almost as if people don't search as to why search doesn't work.

This entire topic has had pretty much one topic in mind: that BoardTracker simply DOES NOT function in ANY capacity, and this link is proof of that.

I acknowledge that there is currently no way you're going to turn the IPB search back on, but that's not what I'm asking. I'm asking you ("you" being any admin or person of powar) to suggest alternatives to the entirely broken and unusable BoardTracker search that is currently making finding information impossible.

I may sound like a broken record to some people, but the same message keeps getting repeated so far, and that is a message of apparent disregard for the currently unusable state of the BoardTracker search engine. It's being shrugged off like "it just doesn't work like I want it to". The simple fact is, BoardTracker completely does not function at all, and I don't understand why there's any confusion to the matter as it's as simple as clicking "Search" (as any newbie would do) and entering any query whatsoever. Either you'll be greeted with "No results" (as I had for the past couple attempts, but not when writing OP), or you'll get an infinite wait at the filling-in dog (as I got while writing OP). Whichever one you get, you don't get any results. At all.

Please wait while we find a fix to your problem (BESIDES USING GOOGLE!!!)

The same search came up with 35,900 results in this forum on Google. You say that you simply want an alternative to BoardTracker. GOOGLE!

You mean beside using the Google link that most people would just use. Selected terminology in a Google search works fine. I have even tracked down hard to find multiple accounts here etc.

We know the board search doesn't work.
We are also now aware that you have brought to attention Board Tracker is problematic and not operating.
This same type of thread gets closed because it is one big merry go round with the same comments riding it .
The situation is simple.
Xantium reads these threads. He will now be aware of your concern on the search. If he decided to change anything I am sure he will add to this thread after re-opening it.
You don't have to thank me for closing the thread or even PM me to complain.
No matter how much you ask the same question none of the Moderators here can do anything about it.
Admin will have their reasons for it being this way with the search and we all have to respect that.
It takes a few more minutes to find something but it can be done with the Google Search (Did I already say that)
Your concerns are noted and Xantium will re-open and add to this if he feels there is anything else to add.
If not then you will have to manage as we all do.
Thank you for letting us know.

Functioning XS Search