Member Search doesn't bring up the name of a member

[Tossmoder☆]

1) The URL to the page you are on when the bug occurred.
Removed

2) What happened, in detail?
Went to look up member still on the member search page, typed in her username "still" (matches her display name) and it only pulled up one name: stillhoping.  I tried pulling up just names beginning with st and no still in that list either.  Her profile shows up when I click on her posts.

3) If you received an error message, what did it say?
No error message

4) What do you think should have happened instead?
Member search should have brought up a link to member still

5) Can you reproduce this on every pageview?
Yes.

6) What browser, version, and operating system are you using?
Firefox 19.0.2, Windows 7

7) Please attach a screen shot (JPG or PNG -- not GIF or BMP) if it is relevant.
NR

[Michael]

A brand-new search system just went into place yesterday. It's quite possible that something went wrong in the specific case of indexing this user. I have informed our sysadmin of the issue.

[earlene]

Our system is still not recognizing this user's name and she is a frequent poster. It's rather confusing for some of our members not to find her in the list. The only way to find posts by her right now is to happen upon them, or to click here username at the bottom of the page where it lists members online in the past 24 hours, or to follow her & select her recent posts from there.

Perhaps this is the case with other members, but so far that's the only one I know about.

[Michael]

Have her change her display name, and then change it back. This will trigger an automatic re-index of all of the forums users. This occurs any time there is a change to the member list. Example: New member joins the forum, a display name is changed, a member is deleted, etc.

[earlene]

Thank you, Michael. Will do.

[earlene]

Michael. I tried that on our Beta test site & it didn't work. I changed her display name to 'stilltrying' and the re-set worked. But when I changed it back to 'still' again, she does not show up on the member list. So if it's not working there, I suspect it won't work on our permanent site, either.

This is her user profile at the beta site: takeonestepatatime.proboards.com/user/2150/

And this is her user profile at the permanent site: takeonestepatatime.proboards.com/user/2150/

[Michael]

Mar 29, 2013 11:40:57 GMT -8 earlene said:

Michael. I tried that on our Beta test site & it didn't work. I changed her display name to 'stilltrying' and the re-set worked. But when I changed it back to 'still' again, she does not show up on the member list. So if it's not working there, I suspect it won't work on our permanent site, either.

This is her user profile at the beta site: takeonestepatatime.proboards.com/user/2150/

And this is her user profile at the permanent site: takeonestepatatime.proboards.com/user/2150/

I've been told that search has gone and borked itself again, it's being worked on now.

Search is now fixed. I'll see if I can trigger the process myself.

Update: So after all this we figured out the problem. Still is a stopword for indexing. Basically this users username won't ever be found because it tells the search system that it shouldn't index the word. We will be removing stopwords from user searches in the future, but for the time being the only way around this is to have the users display name as something OTHER then just 'Still'.  

[earlene]

Mar 29, 2013 12:41:54 GMT -8 Michael said:

Search is now fixed. I'll see if I can trigger the process myself.

Update: So after all this we figured out the problem. Still is a stopword for indexing. Basically this users username won't ever be found because it tells the search system that it shouldn't index the word. We will be removing stopwords from user searches in the future, but for the time being the only way around this is to have the users display name as something OTHER then just 'Still'.

Thank you, Micheal.

I have reported on our board and given members a work-around for if they want to look for posts by this member until the stopword 'still' is removed from the member search function.  (All they have to do is Follow her from her user profile & they will be able to find her posts that way. True, they won't be able to search, but as you say, it's temporary.)

We appreciate all your help identifying the cause of this and all the other help you have provided as well.  Thank you, again.