See discussion at Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical)#Fullwidth_to_standard_width_redirects. It may interest you. This, that and the other [ talk 02:17, 11 May 2008 (UTC)
Hello Rainman, since i do not know how to draw flags I'm asking you, if you could draw the '91-'95 Macedonian flag where the sun rays are of the same length. I have found just a small version. could you draw the flag acoording to the other flags of wikipedia? thank you Korpas ( talk) 15:38, 6 January 2009 (UTC)
rainman, did you have a chance to add this modification to the search? (as per: Village Pump Search Question) -- stmrlbs| talk 20:52, 15 June 2009 (UTC)
![]() |
The Technology Barnstar | |
This barnstar is for listening to our problem and so quickly coming up with a great Search Enhancement! Thank You!!! stmrlbs| talk 05:59, 17 June 2009 (UTC) |
I thought you might be interested in this RFC: Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/User_page_indexing because the reasons given for indexing the User pages involve the wikipedia search versus google. -- stmrlbs| talk 23:25, 29 June 2009 (UTC)
rainman, what are the differences in the way wikipedia searches and Google does? I figured since you've worked in this area, that you would be more aware of the differences. People think they are going to find all instances of a word on the net with a google search, but that is not always the case. You still sometimes have to do a separate search to find all instances of something on wikipedia, whether it is a google site search or a wikipedia search. examples:
One thing I've noticed is that Google seems to ignore for the most part the EXTERNAL LINKs section. Have you noticed this? Example:
(we can just continue the conversation here as I have you in my watchlist now :)) -- stmrlbs| talk 03:49, 1 July 2009 (UTC)
adding the check ALL/NONE box really makes the setting up the search a lot easier. But, something seems to be wrong with the advanced search where all the boxes are checked -- stmrlbs| talk 01:38, 2 July 2009 (UTC)
rainman, does Wikipedia have a Sitemap defined for the major search engines? Is it defined somewhere? I was wondering how the User Pages are defined (as far as priority) currently in this sitemap - if there is one. -- stmrlbs| talk 19:45, 2 July 2009 (UTC)
FYI, the fourth Cambridge meetup will occur on the afternoon of Saturday 1 August. Charles Matthews ( talk) 14:02, 26 July 2009 (UTC)
Another Cambridge meetup is planned for the afternoon of Saturday 14 November. Please contribute to the page and come along if you can. Charles Matthews ( talk) 14:32, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
Hi, can you have another look at WP:VPT#Search page (if you're not watching it anyway)? We really need a way (as I think I mentioned before) of adding help links on the search results page. (Normally things like this are done through a MediaWiki: page, so that each project can customize its own interface, but in that thread you say there is no such page in this case.)-- Kotniski ( talk) 16:58, 30 October 2009 (UTC)
thought: if nothing at all matches the search query, MediaWiki:Search-nonefound is shown in addition to MediaWiki:Searchmenu-new. But the latter message refers to "checking the search results below". Perhaps Search-nonefound should be shown instead of Searchmenu-new, with the "create page" option added there? Rd232 talk 16:10, 1 November 2009 (UTC)
Hi. Could a link to the help be provided for Special:Search like at Special:Contributions ? I've proposed this at WP:VPT. We'd need a mediawiki page to specify the link I suppose ? Cenarium ( talk) 18:58, 5 November 2009 (UTC)
rainman, why is it necessary to have to enter the exact title of an article - exact including punctuation - in order to find an article in any of the logs? Especially the Deletion log? Why can the search not find a keyword in the title? That would be so much more user friendly. You will see a lot of people asking "what happened to my article" because they can't find it in the deletion log. I couldn't find a title because I searched for "Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus" [1] instead of "Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus" [2]. Ack! Thanks for any help you can give. stmrlbs| talk 03:06, 17 November 2009 (UTC)
Thanks for your note at VPT indicating that the indexer had stopped, and would be restarted. I'm thinking that hasn't happened, and I'd like to explain why I think this, so you can let me know if my thinking is off-base. I first assumed that the indexer needs to make sure every new page title is in the database, so it would crawl through the new page list chronologically. Then I realized that the indexing is full text, so it has to reflect any change to a page, so perhaps it crawls through the recent change list, of which the new pages are a subset. In either case, my starting assumption is that, at any point in time, there is an earlier point in time such that all changes prior to that time are indexed, and all changes after that time are not yet indexed. I opened the New Page file, did a binary search looking for titles recognized, and identified Reynoldston, New York, created at 22:57, 19 May 2010, as in the database, and the next created file Blanket High School, created at 23:46, 19 May 2010, as not in the database. I did that check Monday evening. Tuesday morning, I checked again, saw that Blanket High School was still not indexed, and surmised that the indexer was not doing anything.
You confirmed my guess, and said it would be restarted.
However, this evening, I just checked again and it is still not the case that Blanket High School is indexed. It occurs to me that perhaps with a restart, it doesn't pick up where it left off, so maybe it is indexing away, but in a different section of changes. However, you can imagine that my first guess is that the indexer would start exactly where it left off, so the fact that it still hasn't indexed Blanket High School leads me to wonder if it really is in action.
I hope I'm not being too much of a pest, but I am working closely with a new editor who has created a fine new article, Terrain Gallery, and I'd like to report to the editor when the file is indexed. Is it possible that the indexer is not yet working, or is it the case that my approach to testing this is flawed?-- SPhilbrick T 22:43, 25 May 2010 (UTC)
You have seen the site notice about the next Cambridge meetup, this Saturday 29 May. I thought those who have been in the past should have a personal invite, too. And reminder! Charles Matthews ( talk) 21:39, 26 May 2010 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Meetup/Cambridge 8 will be on Saturday 24 July. Hope to see you there. Charles Matthews ( talk) 20:39, 21 July 2010 (UTC)
The Search Index has not been updated since 12 August - i.e. 6 days ago.
I have reported that
here but nothing has happened.
In April you resolved this, as reported
here. Any chance you can look at this again? or tell me who to contact? - Thanks
Arjayay (
talk)
07:59, 18 August 2011 (UTC)
On 18 October, I explained an increasing number of problems with search results on the Wikipedia:Village pump (technical) page. Briefly:-
You replied with this diff
[3]
including The problem was with search9 which had a stale version of one of search index slices.
The problem has returned. A search for "refered"
[4] alternates between 11 matches, 6 of which I corrected 6 days ago (5 are in URLs etc so cannot be corrected) and 12 Matches which I have just corrected the 7 new cases.
I suspect there is another "stale ... search index slice" - whatever that means. Could you look at this again please.
Arjayay (
talk)
18:39, 9 November 2011 (UTC)
I have reported this at Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical)#Weird_search_results but thought a direct notification to you might help. Arjayay ( talk) 09:25, 23 November 2011 (UTC)
Search results are not including changes I made on 25 February, whilst refreshing a search generates different selection of results. Looks like the old "stale version of one of search index slices" again.
Could you look at this please. Thanks -
Arjayay (
talk)
19:27, 29 February 2012 (UTC)
The search index has failed to update for three days.
I have reported this at
Wikipedia:Village pump (technical) as instructed in
Help:Searching#Delay_in_updating_the_search_index.
I don't know whether this is a separate problem from the "stale version of one of search index slices" or not.
Arjayay (
talk)
19:06, 11 March 2012 (UTC)
Sorry, it's me again.
After a couple of days of random search results (different numbers of matches when pressing refresh - usually typical of "stale slices") the search index has stopped updating; causing a backlog for us
Wikignomes. I have reported this at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical) but usually get a quicker response by messaging you directly. Thanks -
Arjayay (
talk)
16:15, 7 September 2012 (UTC)
Hi Arjayay, Search indexing was stopped for a while in the past 24 hours. I had to turn it off so that I could migrate data from one of our data centers to the other. Sorry for the inconvenience! It should be back up and fully up to date now. If the problem you were expereincing is still present, please let me know! Peteryoungmeister —Preceding undated comment added 16:33, 7 September 2012 (UTC)
Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Förster resonance energy transfer, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Dipole moment ( check to confirm | fix with Dab solver). Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.
It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot ( talk) 08:54, 21 June 2014 (UTC)
See discussion at Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical)#Fullwidth_to_standard_width_redirects. It may interest you. This, that and the other [ talk 02:17, 11 May 2008 (UTC)
Hello Rainman, since i do not know how to draw flags I'm asking you, if you could draw the '91-'95 Macedonian flag where the sun rays are of the same length. I have found just a small version. could you draw the flag acoording to the other flags of wikipedia? thank you Korpas ( talk) 15:38, 6 January 2009 (UTC)
rainman, did you have a chance to add this modification to the search? (as per: Village Pump Search Question) -- stmrlbs| talk 20:52, 15 June 2009 (UTC)
![]() |
The Technology Barnstar | |
This barnstar is for listening to our problem and so quickly coming up with a great Search Enhancement! Thank You!!! stmrlbs| talk 05:59, 17 June 2009 (UTC) |
I thought you might be interested in this RFC: Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/User_page_indexing because the reasons given for indexing the User pages involve the wikipedia search versus google. -- stmrlbs| talk 23:25, 29 June 2009 (UTC)
rainman, what are the differences in the way wikipedia searches and Google does? I figured since you've worked in this area, that you would be more aware of the differences. People think they are going to find all instances of a word on the net with a google search, but that is not always the case. You still sometimes have to do a separate search to find all instances of something on wikipedia, whether it is a google site search or a wikipedia search. examples:
One thing I've noticed is that Google seems to ignore for the most part the EXTERNAL LINKs section. Have you noticed this? Example:
(we can just continue the conversation here as I have you in my watchlist now :)) -- stmrlbs| talk 03:49, 1 July 2009 (UTC)
adding the check ALL/NONE box really makes the setting up the search a lot easier. But, something seems to be wrong with the advanced search where all the boxes are checked -- stmrlbs| talk 01:38, 2 July 2009 (UTC)
rainman, does Wikipedia have a Sitemap defined for the major search engines? Is it defined somewhere? I was wondering how the User Pages are defined (as far as priority) currently in this sitemap - if there is one. -- stmrlbs| talk 19:45, 2 July 2009 (UTC)
FYI, the fourth Cambridge meetup will occur on the afternoon of Saturday 1 August. Charles Matthews ( talk) 14:02, 26 July 2009 (UTC)
Another Cambridge meetup is planned for the afternoon of Saturday 14 November. Please contribute to the page and come along if you can. Charles Matthews ( talk) 14:32, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
Hi, can you have another look at WP:VPT#Search page (if you're not watching it anyway)? We really need a way (as I think I mentioned before) of adding help links on the search results page. (Normally things like this are done through a MediaWiki: page, so that each project can customize its own interface, but in that thread you say there is no such page in this case.)-- Kotniski ( talk) 16:58, 30 October 2009 (UTC)
thought: if nothing at all matches the search query, MediaWiki:Search-nonefound is shown in addition to MediaWiki:Searchmenu-new. But the latter message refers to "checking the search results below". Perhaps Search-nonefound should be shown instead of Searchmenu-new, with the "create page" option added there? Rd232 talk 16:10, 1 November 2009 (UTC)
Hi. Could a link to the help be provided for Special:Search like at Special:Contributions ? I've proposed this at WP:VPT. We'd need a mediawiki page to specify the link I suppose ? Cenarium ( talk) 18:58, 5 November 2009 (UTC)
rainman, why is it necessary to have to enter the exact title of an article - exact including punctuation - in order to find an article in any of the logs? Especially the Deletion log? Why can the search not find a keyword in the title? That would be so much more user friendly. You will see a lot of people asking "what happened to my article" because they can't find it in the deletion log. I couldn't find a title because I searched for "Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus" [1] instead of "Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus" [2]. Ack! Thanks for any help you can give. stmrlbs| talk 03:06, 17 November 2009 (UTC)
Thanks for your note at VPT indicating that the indexer had stopped, and would be restarted. I'm thinking that hasn't happened, and I'd like to explain why I think this, so you can let me know if my thinking is off-base. I first assumed that the indexer needs to make sure every new page title is in the database, so it would crawl through the new page list chronologically. Then I realized that the indexing is full text, so it has to reflect any change to a page, so perhaps it crawls through the recent change list, of which the new pages are a subset. In either case, my starting assumption is that, at any point in time, there is an earlier point in time such that all changes prior to that time are indexed, and all changes after that time are not yet indexed. I opened the New Page file, did a binary search looking for titles recognized, and identified Reynoldston, New York, created at 22:57, 19 May 2010, as in the database, and the next created file Blanket High School, created at 23:46, 19 May 2010, as not in the database. I did that check Monday evening. Tuesday morning, I checked again, saw that Blanket High School was still not indexed, and surmised that the indexer was not doing anything.
You confirmed my guess, and said it would be restarted.
However, this evening, I just checked again and it is still not the case that Blanket High School is indexed. It occurs to me that perhaps with a restart, it doesn't pick up where it left off, so maybe it is indexing away, but in a different section of changes. However, you can imagine that my first guess is that the indexer would start exactly where it left off, so the fact that it still hasn't indexed Blanket High School leads me to wonder if it really is in action.
I hope I'm not being too much of a pest, but I am working closely with a new editor who has created a fine new article, Terrain Gallery, and I'd like to report to the editor when the file is indexed. Is it possible that the indexer is not yet working, or is it the case that my approach to testing this is flawed?-- SPhilbrick T 22:43, 25 May 2010 (UTC)
You have seen the site notice about the next Cambridge meetup, this Saturday 29 May. I thought those who have been in the past should have a personal invite, too. And reminder! Charles Matthews ( talk) 21:39, 26 May 2010 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Meetup/Cambridge 8 will be on Saturday 24 July. Hope to see you there. Charles Matthews ( talk) 20:39, 21 July 2010 (UTC)
The Search Index has not been updated since 12 August - i.e. 6 days ago.
I have reported that
here but nothing has happened.
In April you resolved this, as reported
here. Any chance you can look at this again? or tell me who to contact? - Thanks
Arjayay (
talk)
07:59, 18 August 2011 (UTC)
On 18 October, I explained an increasing number of problems with search results on the Wikipedia:Village pump (technical) page. Briefly:-
You replied with this diff
[3]
including The problem was with search9 which had a stale version of one of search index slices.
The problem has returned. A search for "refered"
[4] alternates between 11 matches, 6 of which I corrected 6 days ago (5 are in URLs etc so cannot be corrected) and 12 Matches which I have just corrected the 7 new cases.
I suspect there is another "stale ... search index slice" - whatever that means. Could you look at this again please.
Arjayay (
talk)
18:39, 9 November 2011 (UTC)
I have reported this at Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical)#Weird_search_results but thought a direct notification to you might help. Arjayay ( talk) 09:25, 23 November 2011 (UTC)
Search results are not including changes I made on 25 February, whilst refreshing a search generates different selection of results. Looks like the old "stale version of one of search index slices" again.
Could you look at this please. Thanks -
Arjayay (
talk)
19:27, 29 February 2012 (UTC)
The search index has failed to update for three days.
I have reported this at
Wikipedia:Village pump (technical) as instructed in
Help:Searching#Delay_in_updating_the_search_index.
I don't know whether this is a separate problem from the "stale version of one of search index slices" or not.
Arjayay (
talk)
19:06, 11 March 2012 (UTC)
Sorry, it's me again.
After a couple of days of random search results (different numbers of matches when pressing refresh - usually typical of "stale slices") the search index has stopped updating; causing a backlog for us
Wikignomes. I have reported this at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical) but usually get a quicker response by messaging you directly. Thanks -
Arjayay (
talk)
16:15, 7 September 2012 (UTC)
Hi Arjayay, Search indexing was stopped for a while in the past 24 hours. I had to turn it off so that I could migrate data from one of our data centers to the other. Sorry for the inconvenience! It should be back up and fully up to date now. If the problem you were expereincing is still present, please let me know! Peteryoungmeister —Preceding undated comment added 16:33, 7 September 2012 (UTC)
Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Förster resonance energy transfer, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Dipole moment ( check to confirm | fix with Dab solver). Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.
It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot ( talk) 08:54, 21 June 2014 (UTC)