Mary Ellen : forum comments they have written

Feature requests : new features you'd like to see at BookMooch

re: Would be good if search returned only the hits you asked for
NO--wait a minute. That can't be right, either.
If the basic search is coded as an OR search, then handing it the string AFTER YOU'D GONE should return every book in the database with AFTER in the title, and every book with GONE in the title, and every book with YOU'D in the title.
That is clearly not what happened!
Mary Ellen
10 years ago

re: Would be good if search returned only the hits you asked for
SORRY!! Oh, I'm an IDIOT. I said I took your point, but I wasn't really thinking -- duh. BIG apologies
If the search function at BookMooch is an OR search all the time, I've never noticed it!
I will take more care in the future.
I wish it would just accept my search terms, and search on them. Sigh.
VERY sorry to give you that dough-headed response above.
(Slinks away and shuts up.)
Mary Ellen
10 years ago

re: Would be good if search returned only the hits you asked for
Thanks for your reply! I take your point, but I don't believe the situation has to do with Boolean operators, either explicit ones or ones hidden from the user but coded into the search function. Whether you use an AND or an OR operator on my string of three search terms, AFTER YOU'D GONE, you can't end up with the string AFTER YOU'VE GONE.
That is, you cannot generate AFTER YOU'VE GONE by using AND or OR operators on the string AFTER YOU'D GONE; the search function is (generously, I'm sure, but not appropriately) giving me hits on a different search term from the one I entered!
It may be trying to (un)helpfully give me a broader search than the one I requested, in essence returning the wrong results and calling it a feature rather than a bug...
I'd just like the search to send me hits on the term I searched for. Seems straightforward; I'm not asking for the world.
Thanks!
Mary Ellen
10 years ago