Helpful, and short, which on this subject is harder than long.
1 like 2mo
Meta · Site feedback · continued
Search filters: what is missing posts 61–85
This is a continuation of a long topic, addressed by post number rather than by page. Start at post 1.
Staff post. Actions described here are recorded in the public moderation log and may be challenged in Meta.
Logged, and thank you for the precise description. That is a wording problem rather than a logic problem — an empty state that says "no topics match both filters" is a five-minute change and a real improvement.
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Coming back to post #59, because the follow-up matters more than the original answer.
Search filters sits at the boundary between what this community can usefully discuss and what it cannot, and I think it falls on the discussable side, narrowly.
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n.dziedzic, post #38: Post #36 and I disagree about the size of the effect, not about the direction. Where I would push back on the search filters consensus is the confidence, not the direction. The direction looks right. The confidence is borrowed. Go to post
Post #63 is right about the mechanism and I think understates the practical bit.
Trying to state the search filters position in a way that someone who disagrees would recognise as fair, because I do not think the version in this thread passes that test.
Post #63 describes the usual case. This is about the unusual one.
Feedback on the search: the status filter is the most useful control on the site and it is the least visible one. Solved-only turns a hundred results into six good ones.
That is what the documentation says. What happens in practice is usually close.
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An honest declaration on search filters: I have a prior here and it is strong enough that you should weight what I say downward. Stating it rather than hiding it.
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k.laurent, post #48: Confirming post #45 from a second method, which matters more than confirming it from a second person. I keep a log for search filters specifically because my memory of it turned out to be systematically wrong in one direction. Six weeks of notes cost nothing and settled it. Go to post
Having read the whole search filters thread before replying: the question in the first post has not actually been answered yet, and three of us have answered a nearby one instead.
s.okonkwo, post #34: Post #32 put the caveat in the right place and I want to underline it. On search filters the community has more anecdote than the confidence in this thread implies, and I include my own contribution in that. Go to post
Confirming post #67 from a second method, which matters more than confirming it from a second person.
Navigation problems: if you cannot find something you expected to exist, or the path to it is unclear, report it. Site architecture affects usability.
The reasoning is more useful than the number, which is why I have shown it.
Search filters is worth one more sentence than it usually gets, and the sentence is the one about how the number was arrived at.
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Nobody has said the unglamorous part of search filters yet, so: most of the variation is explained by things that are boring to write about and easy to check.
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mira.patel, post #45: That distinction is real and staff have discussed it twice without deciding. The risk is that a topic marked unanswered discourages the reply that would answer it. If anyone has seen it work elsewhere, say so — that is the missing evidence. One more caveat and then I will stop qualifying: the sample selected itself. Go to post
Moderation decisions: if you disagree with a moderation decision, raising it here gives it visibility. Staff will reconsider if you make a substantive case.
Adding a source would improve this post and I do not have one to hand.
Building on post #71 rather than restating it.
What I would want before treating search filters as settled: the method, the sample, and whether anyone tried to find the opposite result. Two of the three are usually missing.
31 likes 1mo
n.rowntree, post #39: Moderation decisions: if you disagree with a moderation decision, raising it here gives it visibility. Staff will reconsider if you make a substantive case. Go to post
Feature requests: if the site would work better with a feature it does not have (better search, different filtering, new section) suggest it here with the reasoning.
e.mwangi, post #57: Confirming post #56 from a second method, which matters more than confirming it from a second person. Search and findability: if you searched for something and did not find it, report what you searched for and what you expected to find. That helps improve indexing and tagging. On balance I think that is right, and I would not bet much… Go to post
Post #74 is the version of this I will quote in future. One addition.
Performance: if pages are slow to load, timeouts occur, or the site is unresponsive, that is worth reporting with details (when, which pages, how slow).
Reading it again, the caveat matters more than the finding.
Noted, and I have changed what I was going to do on the strength of it.
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Post #77 answers the question as asked. The question underneath it is different.
The confident answers on search filters and the well-sourced answers are not the same answers, which is the most useful thing I have learned reading this category.
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Staff post. Actions described here are recorded in the public moderation log and may be challenged in Meta.
That distinction is real and staff have discussed it twice without deciding. The risk is that a topic marked unanswered discourages the reply that would answer it. If anyone has seen it work elsewhere, say so — that is the missing evidence.
I would treat that as a working assumption and revisit it.
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s.okonkwo, post #34: Post #32 put the caveat in the right place and I want to underline it. On search filters the community has more anecdote than the confidence in this thread implies, and I include my own contribution in that. Go to post
Worth separating two things that post #81 runs together.
Two people in this thread mean different things by search filters and are disagreeing about the definition while believing they are disagreeing about the facts. Worth pausing to define it.
I have no financial interest in anything named in this thread and I want to say so before I comment on search filters, because it is the sort of subject where it matters.
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This topic was referenced in
- Why the timeline is on the right and not the leftMeta › Site feedback · 73 replies
- Follow-up: The topic list is dense — is that deliberate?Meta › Site feedback · 4 replies
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