22 replies to this topic

[Doug Nye]

Frustrated of Farnham here. I am sure I remember a great thread on David Bruce Brown and his similarly ill-fated riding mechanic Tony Scudelari, or Scudelar?  Try as I might - including the 'Archive' here - I cannot find it. 'Search' doesn't seem half as effective now as it used to be prior to that 'improvement' process some time ago. Any pointers gratefully accepted.

 

DCN

Edited by Doug Nye, 06 November 2014 - 10:13.

[275 GTB-4]

This one?

http://forums.autosp...ari#entry558121

[Tim Murray]

There are a few mentions of 'Scudalari'/'Scudelari'/'Seudalari' in this other thread mainly about Bruce-Brown:

http://forums.autosp...gp-winner-ever/

He also features in Bruce-Brown's entry on Motorsport Memorial:

http://www.motorspor....php?db=ct&n=90

although there they call him Scudellari. Can we pin down the correct spelling?

Edited by Tim Murray, 06 November 2014 - 11:16.

[f1steveuk]

"Improvement", that says it all!

[Duc-Man]

On the Vanderbuild Cup Races website it is 'Tony Scudelari (aka Anthony Scudalari)'. Guess it depends if you speak italian or english.

 

http://www.vanderbil..._tony_scudelari

 

And yes the search here became pretty useless.

[Tim Murray]

To be fair, the search engine works a lot better now than it did in the first few months after the 'upgrade' in August last year. You do need to call up the 'advanced search' option by clicking on the little gearwheel to the right of the search box, which is not immediately obvious. Its major failing is that it doesn't display results in chronological order, which can be a real pain at times, but otherwise I find it works OK.

[Vitesse2]

Google's site search now works very well here.

 

Searching for Scudalari, adding site:forums.autosport.com to the search term brings up three threads. Here's demo on 'Let me Google that for you'.

 

Searching for Scudelari, adding site:forums.autosport.com to the search term brings up five threads - including this one!

[Disgrace]

I personally use the advanced search function in the top right (the little logo to the right of the search bar) which can be broken down into three parts:

 

1. Match: decide whether you're more likely to find what you're looking for in either posts or thread titles. Then you can look for content in posts or thread titles ("only search in content" or "only search in titles").

 

2. Find in forum: select the individual sub-forum (you can search TNF archive by itself).

 

3. Display results: use accordingly with match function, i.e. if you're searching in thread titles, display as topic list and if you're searching in posts, display as posts.

 

There are other functions which you can use if you have more information, but these three are crucial when looking for something blind. If you use the default options, your results will be fairly useless. Hope this helps.

[Collombin]

Tim alludes to the fact that the searches don't always appear in chronological order, even when they should.

When this happens, does anyone know what order they are appearing in? It might be helpful to know.

[Vitesse2]

Tim alludes to the fact that the searches don't always appear in chronological order, even when they should.

When this happens, does anyone know what order they are appearing in? It might be helpful to know.

The default is by 'last update time' (ie most recent post) in descending order from the most recent. There are other sorting options you can choose once it has matched your search term, the most useful of which is title. I can't see why anyone would want to sort by number of views or replies though.

[Collombin]

I can't see why anyone would want to sort by number of views or replies though.

I've spent many a lunch hour reading old threads on particular topics - sorting by replies is a helpful way of finding the ones that take about an hour to read!

[Tim Murray]

Tim alludes to the fact that the searches don't always appear in chronological order, even when they should.

When this happens, does anyone know what order they are appearing in? It might be helpful to know.

If you can make any real sense of the order in which they appear, I'd love to know.

 

For a quick overview of the problem try searching for your own posts here - call up advanced search, enter your username in the 'author' box, select 'Nostalgia Forum' from the menu, select 'results as posts' and check that the 'last update time' default option is selected. Then press the Search button and see what you get.

 

When I do it I get my last half-dozen or so posts correctly listed in chronological order. Then it appears to have arbitrarily selected a particular thread and displayed all my posts in it (but not in chronological order) before moving on to another thread, listing all my posts, etc, It doesn't do this consistently, however.

 

if you do this test, make sure you continue at least onto the second page of your post listing to appreciate the full effect. As far as I can tell, this is not related to operating system or browser as many of the other 'upgrade' problems seem to be, as I've now had the same results on two different computers running different versions of Windows, and with various browsers.

 

It was also noted a while back that some of the older threads now also display their posts non-chronologically when accessed.

Edited by Tim Murray, 06 November 2014 - 15:17.

[RStock]

Frustrated of Farnham here. I am sure I remember a great thread on David Bruce Brown and his similarly ill-fated riding mechanic Tony Scudelari, or Scudelar?  Try as I might - including the 'Archive' here - I cannot find it. 'Search' doesn't seem half as effective now as it used to be prior to that 'improvement' process some time ago. Any pointers gratefully accepted.

 

DCN

The search function on most forums is the same way, practically useless. I've found that by using google and typing in the specific words and name of the forum I am searching produces much better results.

[Lee Nicolle]

Google's site search now works very well here.

 

Searching for Scudalari, adding site:forums.autosport.com to the search term brings up three threads. Here's demo on 'Let me Google that for you'.

 

Searching for Scudelari, adding site:forums.autosport.com to the search term brings up five threads - including this one!

I have had to use Google to find things on this site. True and sad!

[Ray Bell]

Just what is the 'gearwheel' supposed to represent?

And why are intelligent people supposed to recognise what it means?

[275 GTB-4]

Looks like Doug may be down at the Shepherd and Flock mulling over the mystery of forum searching

[Doug Nye]

Looks like Doug may be down at the Shepherd and Flock mulling over the mystery of forum searching

Errrmmmm??????

[275 GTB-4]

Yes, quite, DCN wouldn't be seen dead in such an establishment...

[BRG]

Why ever not?  Farnham’s top destination for real ale and quality pub food. And for TNFers, it has a motoring claim to fame as it is situated on what is probably the largest inhabited roundabout in the UK.

 

It's a very nice pub - once you can work out how to get to it.

Edited by BRG, 08 November 2014 - 18:15.

[Doug Nye]

When we were house hunting back in 1971 we looked at a house on the Shepherd & Flock roundabout. I was quite attracted by the notion of "We live on an island...a traffic island", but - perhaps wisely - my missis thought better of it. If anyone else is interested in such parochial chatter, I am assured that the Shepherd & Flock pub does indeed do very good food, and beer, and it's at the foot of the Hog's Back road, on the A31 at the start of the Farnham Bypass. Mike Hawthorn would have driven past the pub, through the centre of what became this island site, up onto the old Hog's Back road on his fateful final drive in his Jaguar 3.4...

DCN

Edited by Doug Nye, 08 November 2014 - 19:46.

[Magoo]

I have nothing intelligent to contribute to this discussion, but I have also had trouble with the search function since the site revision and I appreciate the guidance. 

 

Thank you! 

[275 GTB-4]

This one?

http://forums.autosp...ari#entry558121

Bill...I found this one easily just by selecting an obscure word and that word only...Scudalari...its always a good idea to apply the KISS principle with databases...however, if you are searching for bill smith that may not help at all!

[cpbell]

The search function on most forums is the same way, practically useless. I've found that by using google and typing in the specific words and name of the forum I am searching produces much better results.

 

 

Much more effective.