Nitpick on forum interface: searches bring up wrong post in unthreaded view.

[Chad Joan]

On 01/27/2013 06:50 PM, Vladimir Panteleev wrote:
> On Sunday, 27 January 2013 at 20:25:30 UTC, Chad J wrote:
>> I just searched for something in the property discussion. I wanted to
>> link a friend to one of deadalnix's posts, so I put "I'm so happy to
>> read this !!!!" into the search box and punched it.
>>
>> What it brought up was one of David Nadlinger's posts. I want to say
>> nothing bad about David Nadlinger's fine post; it just wasn't what I
>> was searching for. Now, deadalnix's post was on the page, so it wasn't
>> a complete miss, but I expected it to be the first one and it wasn't.
>> If I sent that link to my friend then he would probably read the wrong
>> part.
>
> Here is what comes up for me as the second result (first result is your
> post):
> http://forum.dlang.org/post/uagknsecziepoedcabvr@forum.dlang.org
>
> This is the canonical link for deadalnix's post. If your view mode is
> set to "basic" (default setting), it will redirect to this address:
>
> http://forum.dlang.org/thread/kdqrnl$13ft$1@digitalmars.com?page=3#post-uagknsecziepoedcabvr:40forum.dlang.org
>
>
> Note that the address contains the ID of the thread, the page number
> within the thread, and an anchor (hash fragment) which indicates the
> exact post on the page.
>
> I conclude that either of the following must be true:
>
> 1. You are seeing a search result different from what I'm seeing;
>
> 2. For some reason, your web browser is ignoring anchors in URLs (when
> handling redirects, or in general).
>
>> There's more frustration in this though: partially because the result
>> was unthreaded. It's unthreaded, so I can't just click on the post I
>> /actually/ want and get a new URL in my browser that I can copy-pasta.
>
> I don't see what prevents you from doing exactly the above, unless your
> web browser is removing the anchor part of the URL. The link would be
> longer than necessary, and would force the threaded-view mode, but it
> would still link to the respective post.
>
>> When I click on "View this thread in threaded view mode" it DOES NOT
>> go to deadalnix's post as my search initially intended: it still
>> selects David's post.
>
> The URL hash fragment, which contains the ID of the specific post that
> got you on that thread page, is not sent to the server. However, you'd
> only see that notice if you either scrolled up, or your web browser is
> ignoring anchors in redirects. The notice applies to links without an
> anchor.
>
>> Now I have to scan through all of the 7625342 subtopics in the
>> property discussion /by hand/ and find the one I'm interested in.
>
> Alternatively, you could right-click the post title to obtain a
> canonical link to the post, which should work with all view modes
> (unless you are using some kind of web browser which ignores anchors in
> redirects).
>
> It is documented here:
>
> http://forum.dlang.org/help#canonical
>
> (If you are using a web browser which does not understand anchors in
> links, please scroll down to the section "Canonical links".)
>
>> Please fix?
>
> Specific suggestions on improving the software are welcome.

Hey, thank you.

You are somehow arriving at different URLs than mine.  I'm starting to 
suspect that dlang's (search engine)/(google invocation) is causing 
this, because it looks like the forum interface has all the necessary 
capabilities.

When I open your links I end up exactly where I want to be in either 
threaded or unthreaded mode.

I should be more specific.  I'll include links this time.

My query starts here:
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22+I%27m+so+happy+to+read+this+!!!!+%22&submit.x=0&submit.y=0&domains=dlang.org&sourceid=google-search&sitesearch=forum.dlang.org

It gives me one result.  I click it.  Awaaaaay...
http://forum.dlang.org/thread/kdqrnl$13ft$1@digitalmars.com?page=3

That one wasn't what I wanted.  So I switch to threaded:
http://forum.dlang.org/post/dozuyhtyzqgmluyplmyd@forum.dlang.org

After lots of scanning, I arrive at my desired destination:
http://forum.dlang.org/post/uagknsecziepoedcabvr@forum.dlang.org

-------

I tried a different experiment, starting with your links.

First I start at the unthreaded link you gave:
http://forum.dlang.org/thread/kdqrnl$13ft$1@digitalmars.com?page=3#post-uagknsecziepoedcabvr:40forum.dlang.org

Then I click "View mode: threaded" at the top.  I end up here:
http://forum.dlang.org/post/dozuyhtyzqgmluyplmyd@forum.dlang.org

The above is not where I hoped I'd end up: usually when I do that it's 
because I want to take the post I was anchored on and introduce the 
context it appeared in.

...

There /is/ something that I think the forum interface could do to help 
in situations like these:

If viewing in basic mode, every post should have a "view this post in 
threaded mode" type of link.

I suppose it would also work if the "View mode: threaded" link would be 
generated in such a way as to include the post's ID/hash/whatever in an 
anchor/hash fragment in the target URL.

The former would be more useful in general because it allows me to find 
context for specific posts of my choosing, and not just ones that my 
point of origination was merciful enough to anchor me at.  The latter 
would not save me from dlang/google's search giving me an unanchored 
link.  I do, at some level, intuitively expect the latter to work.

HtH