New search capabilities for The Oil Drum
Posted by Super G on February 28, 2010 - 8:30pm
Many readers (and staff) of The Oil Drum have pointed out that it is difficult to find older Oil Drum content. Up until now, readers have had two ways to find older content: using Google site search or looking up by date using the archives page. We now offer a new way to search using an Apache Solr search engine hosted by Acquia. Solr search, unlike Google, enables you to sort and filter results. You can try it out by entering your search terms in the "Advanced search" box to the left, or by going here. Feedback is welcome.
Thanks to André Angelantoni for advice and encouragement.
“The infrastructure of suburbia can be described as the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world.”
—JH Kunstler
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Many thanks Super G and André. This will be a very helpful feature!
You're welcome, though I must give Super G all the credit because he implemented it. The faceted search results look great!
Lots of useful filters.
Sometimes the old search can find stuff the new search can't. For an example search for "Mamba's virtual charmin" using both ways.
Testing:
"Walter Youngquist"
http://www.theoildrum.com/search/apachesolr_search/%22walter%20youngquis...
"jay hanson" 2005
http://www.theoildrum.com/search/apachesolr_search/%22jay%20hanson%22?fi...
"radiation hormesis" author Cellier
http://www.theoildrum.com/search/apachesolr_search/%22radiation%20hormes...
I wanted to see again the results of the survey regarding questions about Peak Oil and the Future.
But the "Survey Monkey" page doesn't display the results any more.
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/5186
http://www.surveymonkey.com/sr.aspx?sm=Up5DUIASuWiOv4TyiyK6SBwfqHaAMra5q...
It is a problem when the inputs we are working from are no longer there--in this case the Survey Monkey.
I saved a few questions when the information was still available.
What I have regarding question # 5 is this:
5.- Predicting the outcomes arising from Peak Oil is nearly impossible. However, if you had to choose, which of the following scenarios would best approximate your view of the future?
A combination of renewables, conservation and technology
will make the transition away from oil relatively smooth.
% of responses = 3.5 %
Peak Oil means the end of growth. There will be large dislocations and unrest over time. There will be some disaster areas and some successful areas on the planet but the average living standard is going lower.
% of responses = 49.1 %
Peak Oil and resource depletion in general will eventually
result in a large dieoff in human population, via wars, famine, etc.
% of responses = 20.7 %
This is a nice addition.
How does everyone feel about the relative merits of the forum format vs open blogs like this? I really prefer a phpbb setup like peakoil.com has but that site is...overridden with various stripes of posters that really aren't worth the time and trouble, let's say. But the ability to see the latest posts at a glance and keep a thread going on a given topic for essentially forever are preferable to the TOD blog layout, IMO.
I don't think there is any plan to change our current format.
It is fairly easy to monitor comments with our set up; it probably would not be with the peakoil.com setup. That is likely one reason for the difference in results. I expect we would have the same problems with their format.
I don't like phpbb forums at all.
I just wanted to personally thank SuperG for all his hard work. Maintaining a functional web site is hard work and SuperG doesn't often get the kudos he deserves.
The new search capabilities are an Excellent addition to The Oil Drum and will allow me to quickly retrieve some of the longer comments I've made that had previously been too much trouble to resurrect.
Thanks!
-- Jon
Echo- great feature and always a great tech maintenance level on the site- Up time is great!!!!
And also standing ovations to all personnel and contributors- Cheers.
This is a very good idea, I hope it works the next time I search an article. Up to now, I NEVER found what I had read some years ago, I began with making my own database but it is never complete and when I need to cite TOD, I never again find it and I was each time sure to have read it here.
I have an additional question: How do I cite TOD-articles in scientific literature, I mean I cannot cite TheHubbleWebTelescope...? Maybe somebody knows even the LaTeX-code??? :-)
-Snomm
Several of the commenters have changed their Oil Drum names to their real names, to make citations easier. Most of us who write posts who haven't freely give out our real names. I am Gail Tverberg. Heading Out is David Summers. Prof. Goose is Kyle Saunders. There is a problem with those that don;t give out their names, like WebHubbleTelescope.