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Forum: Bug Report and Feature Requests

Possible issue with Category Search

GreyWolf 🚫

As a result of a side comment in another thread, I decided to search 'True Story' and 'Do-Over' in Category Search. What I get are Do-Overs, with or without 'True Story' (yes, there are, apparently, some with both).

'True Story' crossed with 'Alternative History' reveals no hits (as I'd hope would be true).

However, 'True Story' crossed with 'Post Apocalypse' gets hits, even though none of the first page actually contain the 'True Story' tag. 'Far Past' does not get hits (when crossed with 'True Story').

Yes, I have 'All' selected at the bottom, not 'Any'.

All settings are left at default on the search form besides the two categories, and I have no Category Exclusion Preferences set.

I'm pretty sure something, somewhere, is broken. Either that or this is a strange behavior I'm not comprehending.

Replies: bk69 Keet Grey Wolf Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

bk69 🚫

@GreyWolf

Odd.

Of course, I just did a quick test, and found five stories that contained both 'true story' and 'snuff' so...

Replies: Switch Blayde

Switch Blayde 🚫

@bk69

found five stories that contained both 'true story' and 'snuff' so...

But those stories have both of those story codes.

The bug GreyWolf is bringing up is that you do a search on "true story" AND "DoOver" and get stories WITHOUT the "true story" code.

Replies: bk69

bk69 🚫
Updated:

@Switch Blayde

The bug GreyWolf is bringing up is that you do a search on "true story" AND "DoOver" and get stories WITHOUT the "true story" code.

Odd. I got eight of the DoOver/'true story' ones... all had both. Note that a few had a bunch of codes and it took a second or third look to locate the 'true story' tag, tho...

Replies: Grey Wolf

Grey Wolf 🚫

@bk69

Could be breaking only for some people? Or it really is user error?

I get 159 hits with just 'DoOver' or with 'DoOver' and 'True Story'. However, other categories show none or just the correct ones (for instance 'True Story' / 'Paranormal' works just fine).

Behavior is consistent for me, just consistently a bit off. Cookies? Cache? Who knows.

Keet 🚫
Updated:

@GreyWolf

If you do the category search, under the title "Category Search Results" it shows what it is showing. For "True Story" + "DoOver" it only shows DoOver. Same with "True Story" and "Time Travel": it only shows Time Travel.

It seems only "True Story" is ignored. "Fairy Tale" and "Time Travel" show Fairy Tale [AND] Time Travel under the title.
It's not the full Science Fiction section that's wrong. "True Story" and "Space" produce the expected result True Story [AND] Space, strange.

Replies: Dominions Son

Dominions Son 🚫

@Keet

"DoOver" it only shows DoOver. Same with "True Story" and "Time Travel": it only shows Time Travel.

And If you go back to the category search page from the first page of results using the back button, you should still see all the selected categories checked, but in this case, going back true story has been unchecked.

I wonder if it's doing that because there are no results for the combination?

Replies: Keet Switch Blayde Grey Wolf

Keet 🚫
Updated:

@Dominions Son

I wonder if it's doing that because there are no results for the combination?

I wonder if it has anything to with the key value being "true" and it's interpreted as a logical value instead of the keyword "true".
ETA: if I use the back button "True Story" remains checked.

Replies: Dominions Son

Dominions Son 🚫

@Keet

ETA: if I use the back button "True Story" remains checked.

I'm getting mixed results for that. Sometimes it's still checked, sometimes it's unchecked on going back.

Switch Blayde 🚫

@Dominions Son

but in this case, going back true story has been unchecked.

I actually did that to make sure I checked it. And it was still checked.

Grey Wolf 🚫

@Dominions Son

Sometimes it tells me there are no results, though. And sometimes it works properly. It's consistent by keyword, though. The ones that work, work. The ones that return nothing return nothing. The ones that seemingly ignore 'True Story' do that.

Grey Wolf 🚫

@GreyWolf

Checking on this - it seems to still be just as broken. It's not a huge request, but it seems obviously wrong, and if something is wrong this way, it may be wrong for more people than just me.

As a further data point, this behaves the same when logged in with an incognito window, or in a different browser. So, it's not cookies or cache or something like that.

Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

@GreyWolf

Sorry, didn't notice the thread properly:

The category search page ignores the 'True' tag when used in conjunction with any of the following tags:

'fiction', 'hight Fantansy', 'Fanfic', 'superhero', 'ScFi', 'TimeTr', 'PostApoc', 'doover', 'aliens', 'vampire', 'werewolf', 'zombies' and 'djin'.

As it should.

Replies: bk69 palamedes Switch Blayde Dominions Son Grey Wolf

bk69 🚫

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

As it should.

I dunno... I've seen definite zombies before.
(Also, there was a special forces unit in WWII who were unofficially referred to as 'zombies'. Bunch of backwoods Quebec trappers who didn't understand English, they were scary, scary guys.)

palamedes 🚫

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

The category search page ignores the 'True' tag when used in conjunction with any of the following tags:

'fiction', 'hight Fantansy', 'Fanfic', 'superhero', 'ScFi', 'TimeTr', 'PostApoc', 'doover', 'aliens', 'vampire', 'werewolf', 'zombies' and 'djin'.

As it should.

Are you saying that none of these is real ?

Replies: bk69

bk69 🚫

@palamedes

Are you saying that none of these is real ?

Well, aliens are certainly real. Mostly they're from Mexico, tho...

Switch Blayde 🚫

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

The category search page ignores the 'True' tag when used in conjunction with any of the following tags:

'fiction',

I just did a Category Search on "true story." Nothing else. Stories 3–8 have both true story and fiction.

Replies: bk69

bk69 🚫

@Switch Blayde

The search ignores the combined search terms, but doesn't ignore stories with both codes... seemed pretty clear from Laz's explanation.

Dominions Son 🚫

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

The category search page ignores the 'True' tag when used in conjunction with any of the following tags:

As it should.

I'm not sure I agree with the as it should part.

I would think it should force "No Results" rather than ignoring one tag.

Also, what would you/the system do on the submission end if an author posts a story tagged as True Story + Fiction + Do Over?

Replies: bk69

bk69 🚫

@Dominions Son

Also, what would you/the system do on the submission end if an author posts a story tagged as True Story + Fiction + Do Over?

It clearly allows it, since there are stories that are so coded.

Grey Wolf 🚫

@Lazeez Jiddan (Webmaster)

I have no real problem with this explanation, though I'd really much prefer if this was made obvious on the search results screen ('True Story has been ignored', or the like). Otherwise it looks exactly like a bug.

However - there are actually stories that are coded 'True' and 'DoOver'. I don't know about the others, but since stories actually exist with that coding, it's interesting to be able to find them, if nothing else as curiosities.

Also, the 'as it should' implies that stories shouldn't be able to be coded with both. If so, the code tool should enforce that. It shouldn't be the case that something can exist but not be searched for using the obvious tool to search for it.

I disagree with 'As it should' for 'aliens', minimum. While I'm not a true believer, there exists quite a bit of alleged 'non-fiction' about aliens. One can certainly plausibly claim they've had an alien encounter.

Replies: joyR

joyR 🚫

@Grey Wolf

One can certainly plausibly claim they've had an alien encounter.

One anal probe does not an alien encounter make.

Replies: Dominions Son Grey Wolf

Dominions Son 🚫

@joyR

One anal probe does not an alien encounter make.

So how many anal probes does it take?

Replies: joyR

joyR 🚫
Updated:

@Dominions Son

So how many anal probes does it take?

None.

Why?

Because for any claimed encounter to be worthy of consideration as true, the incident has to be tested thusly;

Upon returning to their home planet, the aliens face their world's press and describe their actions, if those actions justify the enormous expense involved in their mission and their actions don't get them lynched for being moronic money wasting imbeciles... Then the claimed encounter might be true.

Imagine the response if the astronauts NASA sent on the inaugural mission to another life supporting planet returned and announced their trip a success because they created a few crop circles and stuck a probe up some farmers asshole...

Replies: Dominions Son awnlee jawking

Dominions Son 🚫

@joyR

Imagine the response if the astronauts NASA sent on the inaugural mission to another life supporting planet returned and announced their trip a success because they created a few crop circles and stuck a probe up some farmers asshole...

They would be lauded as heroes by the government bureaucracy.

awnlee jawking 🚫

@joyR

because they created a few crop circles and stuck a probe up some farmers asshole

And yet we humans harvest faecal material, condense it into a pill/capsule then swallow it in order to improve our digestive systems' biomes - an interesting and promising method of treating some chronic gastic/bowel disorders.

AJ

Grey Wolf 🚫
Updated:

@joyR

Some of this is dependent on the meaning of the tags. The tag in question is:

True Story A true story, according to the author.

While I'm not sure any of the others might be 'plausibly' true (maybe?), 'aliens' has a certain level if only because there's such a significant volume of 'true' stories about aliens out there.

After all 'True Story' + 'paranormal' isn't filtered, yet there's roughly the same level of 'proof' for aliens and paranormal activity.

My opinion is: if the tags can be placed on a story using the tools as they work today, one should be able to search for them. Being able to tag, but not search, is wrong. Having the search rejection be 'silent' is also, secondarily, wrong.

I'd be perfectly fine if the SOL 'True Story' tag were defined to exclude things that, in the opinion of 'The Management', cannot be 'True', and the tools would not let stories be so tagged. Until that's done, and as long as 'True Story' is definitionally in the eye of the author, tag away, but allow search so others can find these gems and enjoy them. Or be amused at them, of course. Or suggest a change in tagging.

I'm hardly going to be offended if nothing's changed (this all started as a lark, and I'm unlikely to search for these outside of testing), but I do think this is a bug, not a feature, as it works today.

Replies: joyR

joyR 🚫
Updated:

@Grey Wolf

'aliens' has a certain level if only because there's such a significant volume of 'true' stories about aliens out there.

There have at times been significant reports of dogs eating homework, but multiple reports didn't help make them believable.

Replies: Dominions Son Grey Wolf

Dominions Son 🚫

@joyR

Some kid last year actually had video of his dog stealing and chewing up his homework.

Replies: joyR

joyR 🚫

@Dominions Son

Some kid last year actually had video of his dog stealing and chewing up his homework.

There you go..!!! That video is all the proof you need that aliens exist.

Grey Wolf 🚫

@joyR

There have at times been significant reports of dogs eating homework, but multiple reports didn't help make them believable.

I agree, yet they seem believable to large numbers of people, unlike dogs eating homework. The bigger point is that 'True Story' is entirely author-defined, and therefore can encompass things that are highly implausible.

Replies: bk69

bk69 🚫

@Grey Wolf

believable to large numbers of people, unlike dogs eating homework

look, just because I had to rub a steak over my homework to get my dog to eat it doesn't mean that he wouldn't.

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Forum: Bug Report and Feature Requests

Possible issue with Category Search

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