Website Fuzzy Search (?)

[Spiswel]

It would be immensely helpful if HS could include fuzzy search (not sure if this is the technical term) in its search features.

Currently, trying to use even an advanced search does not seem to include any of the contents of a mod's description, meaning it is harder than expected to
- find out if multi-sizes mods include a body size you use even when that information is written in the description
- find out if you were credited as a contributor to other mods

Examples : trying to look up my own name even just to see contributors listings and according to the site, I simply do not exist



Comparison : XMA, which searches description fields for matches, allows to find mods where I am listed as a contributor only


other example : searching "asym" to try and dig up asymfaces works or asym tattoos works turning up nothing, not even the original asymfaces frameworks

 

[anna]

Search is a very hard problem, and I'd rather it require you to be more precise than be way too broad like XMA. Descriptions actually are included in the search parameters, but they're weighted very low.

Ideally you'd be able to find things with "asym" in the title by just searching "asym", but currently it doesn't work that way. Presumably it's not a good enough trigram match to trigger any results. Search is not my forte, and I know it could be made better, but I currently lack the resources to do so.

I will endeavour to improve search when next I touch that part of the code, though!

 

[Spiswel]

I'd like to ask if there's been an update in improving this aspect of the website search features since I last checked. (it's OK if not im just curious o.o)

Currently, trying to look up something like "asym" to discover any mods with "asym' in the title, tags or description doesn't count mods that have it in the description or tags, only if it's part of the actual name.



This is just an example ofc, but it is still my honest belief that search being made broader would help a lot with discoverability (or for looking up your own contributions)

 

[anna]

I'd like to ask if there's been an update in improving this aspect of the website search features since I last checked.

No, because it's very not simple. It's not like I can go in and switch on a "now search is good" switch. ;-; I have done a lot of searching (lol), thinking, and researching, but it remains difficult to come up with a solution that satisfies everyone. I have some ideas on this front, though.

 

[Spiswel]

No, because it's very not simple. It's not like I can go in and switch on a "now search is good" switch. ;-; I have done a lot of searching (lol), thinking, and researching, but it remains difficult to come up with a solution that satisfies everyone. I have some ideas on this front, though.

I'm necroing this thread up because my initial post about the difficulty of finding things stands lol

 

[Alloragamer]

I'm adding to this as I would also like fuzzy search or some other improvements to the search system. Alongside it being currently hard to find items, it is also hard to exclude certain things from search because the exclude filter only looks through tags, and not mod names or descriptions. People frankly, do not tag their mods well if at all.
I don't know if the solution is for a "fuzzy search" through all fields, or if suggested tags per mod type that a user can select when uploading a mod will help, or if it would be easier to have the search look through both tags and mod names, but yeah. As is, both searching for and trying to exclude things from searches is incredibly difficult.

 

[noé]

adding in a request for this; i often find that the filters do not correctly filter items when i'm trying to search, and it'll often filter out things i actually want

i.e if i'm searching for "male viera hair" via the filters, i only get back a fraction of what i'm looking for, however if i check mods i found that should be having those filters applied, they're absolutely posted correctly i.e flagged for male viera... the most common theme i usually find is that they're not just for male viera (as my example, since it's my most searched combo)

i am posting this from mobile so i can't provide examples, but i use filters a lot more than tags since not everyone tags their stuff a lot if at all. the tagging system is also great in it's own right, however not everyone uses it. this means when searching, a lot of stuff just... doesn't show up unless you do not set much if any parameters at all.

as i said in the vanilla creatives server:

i'd rather catch stray unrelated stuff while getting everything i want to go through than keep having stuff not show up i actually want to see.

and if you're worried about folks not wanting to have a fuzzy search pushed on them (yourself included), i would make it a toggle underneath the search bar; that way you can set it to be something people opt-in or opt-out of. add a little (!) next to the fuzzy search to explain what that is on hover and you're done.

i really hope you'll add this; at least a few people have told me that they can't actually seem to find mods on heliosphere because the search is "worse" than xma. i think it's hurting helio as a result. please reconsider your position; i think it'll benefit everyone in the long run if you add it as a toggle.

thank you for all that you do.