Guest Mael Posted November 30, 2010 Report Share Posted November 30, 2010 Hi, I used to visit AFF on a daily basis several years ago, not long after it first started, and have come back in the hope of something to read (I've been reading HP again and got the urge to read some fanfiction, hehe). But unfortunately... I'm quite shocked at the site. 7 years and it looks just like it did back then... I can't seem to find any way to search, sort, or filter stories to find ones that I want to read! Am I just missing it or is there really no ability to do so? All I want to be able to do is filter stories to only show certain 'Rated', and be able to sort by things like published date, amount of reviews, votes, etc. But I just can't seem to! I remember back in the day when this wasn't really a problem... There wasn't thousands upon thousands of fics within categories, but now that there are, it's impossible to find what you want as there are hundreds of pages to look through. This type of filtering/sorting ability is ubiquitous with sites like this nowadays. Why hasn't AFF got it? Has it really not progressed at all during its 7 years? I really hope I'm just missing it! There are several stories I'd love to be able to discover again and re-read, but I have absolutely no hope finding them with this system... Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DemonGoddess Posted November 30, 2010 Report Share Posted November 30, 2010 First of all, the current search function is definitely outdated. Not only that, it is not designed to search a database bigger than 200MB. As ours is 7.7GB, you can see the problem with the current engine. We recently paid to have a much stronger search API installed at the root in the server itself. As this is something which required shell access, it's not something I was able to do. Instead, the hosting company did. While Sphinx search is enabled for the forum, currently, it's not yet set up in the archive. The reason for that is that the search script itself has to be rewritten to allow for it to be used, and to make it so we don't go into query overload when it does. As the Sphinx engine allows for 2000 returns on a search, I do have to be careful in just HOW this is done, or the search function won't work AT ALL. I'm also redoing the search FORM, so that we can have more search options than what is currently there, such as the ratings field. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ApolloImperium Posted November 30, 2010 Report Share Posted November 30, 2010 Thanks for dropping by Mael! In answer to your question, with the outdated software that the site is running, that type of search isn't available at this time, please see DG's response as to how we are trying to achieve it.. Please keep in mind, we are still running the original archival software that the site started with and unfortunately the company that created it folded. This means that the upgrades we have done are cobbled into the existing software, and take time to do to ensure that they work. Right now the biggest priority is to keep the site running and the database (which is over 7 GB) from crashing again. We are working on re-writing all of the software from the ground up, but this takes time and money. Everyone that works on the site is completely volunteer. We have someone doing the coding, but it's done in their free time since they have a full time job/life outside the site to attend to and the site doesn't currently have the funds to pay them so that it can be more of a priority. The site makes money from advertising, but on average, it is just enough to pay our hosting bill each month with very little left over to allow us to add the extras in. Believe you me, we know that people want features like this, but until we can get more advertisers in for monthly revenue or people assist by donating to the site, it isn't going to be possible for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mael Posted November 30, 2010 Report Share Posted November 30, 2010 Thanks very much for the very informative replies! I completely understand the issues you're facing as I'm a webmaster myself. I'm glad to hear you are actually in the process of adding the functionality I detailed. I look forward to your progress and thank you for your great work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DemonGoddess Posted December 1, 2010 Report Share Posted December 1, 2010 Oh, did have one thought, there is always the option of looking through the pair specific sub sub categories. Granted, we do not have the hp subdomain sorted yet, but a good many of the stories belonging to specific pairs are in their appropriate categories. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest unbekannte Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 I had exactly the same question, good that it's been answered. I used to read fanfiction on restrictedsection.org and I really like their advanced story search. The search function here is quite confusing but I'm glad you're going to improve it. It would be great to filter the storys by word count, category (Humor, unresolved sexual tension, first time, plot what plot, alternative universe, violence etc.), date... and to be able to include or exclude pairings. I'm still not sure if I'm able to finde als Draco/Hermione storys by Draco/Hemione or if I have to search for Hermione/Draco, Granger/Malfoy, Hermione Granger/ Draco Malfoy, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest unbekannte Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 I forgot, it would be great if the summarys of the search results would specify the parings involved in the story. Often you find something like "general" or "male/male" but you never know who's meant by that unless the author described it in his summary. Perhaps it should be somehow standardized, to know what you're expecting . Another point is if you're searching for the story title, you get a list of stories but without summarys, but so many have similar names so it's hard to find the one you're actually looking for. It would be great to find a short summary there too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DemonGoddess Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 unbekannte- As you can see, the search function has to be rewritten to accommodate the more advanced engine. The kinds of features you're talking about, would have to be written individually for each subdomain, as each subdomain has its own set of tables. The ONLY part of the search function that works across all the subdomains is the author search, as that is a centralized table for the entire archive. I think you can tell the more features I'm asked to add, the more complicated this task becomes. Let me get it working better in a general sense first, and then I can see about adding other features subdomain by subdomain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest unbekannte Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 Thanks for your answer. I know it's complicated, there are so many storys. I'm sure you'll do your best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ApolloImperium Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 Also - All this information was covered in this week's news post found here: http://www2.adult-fanfiction.org/forum/index.php/topic/19504-site-news-1-22-11/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jesse'sOtherGirl Posted August 23, 2011 Report Share Posted August 23, 2011 I would absolutely LOVE to be able to search by tags, like M/M, F/F, etc. I can't wait for the new search engine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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