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Author Topic: Internal Search & External Links (such as Google) don't work?  (Read 2568 times)

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Internal Search & External Links (such as Google) don't work?
« on: December 25, 2018, 05:18:01 PM »
Hi Guys!

Have read many of the posts here over many years.
GREAT info!

Thanks to all those that help others so much!
(Such as Ger21, Obviously he is NOT the only one, simply one that always comes to my mind)

For whatever reason, all external Links appear to be re-directed to the Main Page.
This includes all Google searches.
Then in addition the Internal Search Page fails to work also.  (Has an error pointing towards the English dictionary?

Soooooo...
The end result is that it makes it near impossible to quickly find information now.
NO External or Internal search works.   :'(
You have to slog through each individual post to try to find what you need.
Not very efficient at all.
So have been avoiding the site altogether as it isn't very usable now.

Is there something I'm missing?

Tnx, RockMeister   ;D

« Last Edit: December 25, 2018, 05:30:59 PM by Rockmeister »

Offline ZASto

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Re: Internal Search & External Links (such as Google) don't work?
« Reply #1 on: December 25, 2018, 06:52:22 PM »
OK
Since NFS does not give a ... for such a knowledge base contained in this forum, here is a workaround for broken links.

This one, obviously, does not work: http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,38540.0.html and will redirect you to the NFS home page  >:(

But this one should: http://forum.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,38540.0.html

So, replace http://www. with http://forum.


If moderators find this usefull, topic could be renamed and toped.

ZASto  8)
Make no mistake between my personality and my attitude.
My personality is who I am.
My attitude depends on who you are.
Re: Internal Search & External Links (such as Google) don't work?
« Reply #2 on: December 26, 2018, 12:05:46 PM »
Ty for your quick & informative reply ZASto!
Will try that & using cached copies.  : )

Sorry, had not caught the thread about the search function & other issues prior to my posting.  (Was quite frustrated at nothing working)
(Mods are welcome to move this thread if required)

As a general rule am happy with my purchase & use of MACH3.
However it requires quite a bit of searching to use & having the database down sadly multiplies the effect.

Unfortunately, it looks quite "Hokey", for a SOFTWARE company to have minor website forum software issues that result in major issues of use.
Looks like disabling or fixing the spell check in internal search would fix that part, and the re-direction most guys can fix, so the 2 major issues are actually minor to fix.
Having EITHER issue fixed would be very useful.



Hope they take it seriously & fix it soon!

Offline vondeliusc

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Re: Internal Search & External Links (such as Google) don't work?
« Reply #3 on: January 04, 2019, 05:43:10 PM »
Why does NFS refuse to fix this simple search function, which makes troubleshooting IMPOSSIBLE?
It used to work-What could be MORE important than taking a bit of time to fix something so critical?

PLEASE, PLEASE,  P L E A S E   have someone qualified do this simple repair so WE can do repairs!

Could there at least be a statement from the company?
-Christian

Offline hof

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Re: Internal Search & External Links (such as Google) don't work?
« Reply #4 on: January 05, 2019, 05:18:40 AM »
It looks to me as they've lost admin access to the forum server and can't fix anything anymore and they want to setup a new forum instead as a solution.
My biggest fear is that they won't be able to transfer any posts from the old forum.

Offline vondeliusc

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Re: Internal Search & External Links (such as Google) don't work?
« Reply #5 on: January 06, 2019, 01:47:10 AM »
It looks to me as they've lost admin access to the forum server and can't fix anything anymore and they want to setup a new forum instead as a solution.
My biggest fear is that they won't be able to transfer any posts from the old forum.

Somebody still owns the domain. And there are still being posts posted. I personally run a SMF forum, so it is ridiculous that NFS as a company cannot do, or pay someone to do, a simple repair of the forum/database,
and that it is apparently such a low priortity to them. Certainly does not instill any confidence in me of their future.
Very sad they don't have the backbone to make a public statement as to the state/future of this resource that
supports THEIR product.
-Christian

Offline smurph

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Re: Internal Search & External Links (such as Google) don't work?
« Reply #6 on: January 09, 2019, 10:45:16 PM »
It was not a simple repair.  It wasn't a "minor" software issue.  It would take me 10 pages to describe the sequence of events.  And it is not done yet.  It caught us at a bad time, right when all of our resources were devoted to other things.  It is a new year, guys.  Let's all make a resolution to not make assumptions.  :)  We are a small business, not some giant conglomeration with an army of web forum techs.  We live in the real world, have families, need time off, and do the holiday things as well.  Sometimes we get stretched thin.  It happens.  Sorry for the inconvenience. 

Then I started reading all of these conspiracy theories!  None of that is even close.  Give us a break, guys.  I'm not saying it was the aliens, but it was the aliens!  :)

Steve

Offline vondeliusc

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Re: Internal Search & External Links (such as Google) don't work?
« Reply #7 on: January 10, 2019, 12:01:02 AM »
Steve-
On behalf of everyone: Curse the evil aliens! Have they no respect that we superior humans are trying to conduct CNC operations?!!

Thank you for an actual response to the issue. I know how 'fixing stuff' goes, so I feel your pain. An official response would have been
nice right off the bat.
That being said, I use the manual as much as I am able, but with something as complicated as CNC control software,
it is really nice, and REALLY important to be able to search through issues, especially with such a large user base, having the availability
of that group of users who have typically experienced and solved the same problem(s).
While the product is important, just saying, the machsupport forum is equally important to a HUGE group of Mach users.
Thanks for the direct response.
-Christian
PS a SMF database backup is always a good idea, as well as a complete host backup, so if what seems to have happened happens, you can always revert to a blanket overwrite to a known good configuration.

Offline smurph

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Re: Internal Search & External Links (such as Google) don't work?
« Reply #8 on: January 10, 2019, 01:45:42 AM »
It wasn't an issue of backups.  We backup everything but do not keep backups from the beginning of time.  The issue was that the forum version was too old to run with the version of PHP that PayPal now requires.  The forum version could not be updated due to the fact there were manual changes to the database that prevented the SMF upgrade scripts from running (one of the reasons).  So we had to move the forums to a server that had a down-level version of PHP that it could run on.  THIS is what broke all of the search links.  The manual changes were done by someone that no longer works on the forum (or the aliens) and nobody else knew what they were to back them out.  This required a painstaking install of each release of the SMF software and a review of it's associated DB tables/fields to compare with our DB to see what/where/when the changes crept in. 

Also, the SMF upgrade script was updated to use mysqli_query() at some point but the older 1.1 database upgrade scripts were not implemented correctly.  Like I said, I could write 10 pages on what all happened.  We seriously considered just starting over from scratch!  But we decided to put whatever effort was required into saving the data for posterity's sake.  It worked out.  But at one point, it we thought it would have to live on the temp server forever. 

Now we have to get the them back right, as the old theme is not compatible with this version of SMF. 

Steve

Offline vondeliusc

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Re: Internal Search & External Links (such as Google) don't work?
« Reply #9 on: January 10, 2019, 03:20:18 AM »
Thanks SMF, and PayPal, Google, SolidWorks and all software 'developers' everywhere for 'needing' to change everything.
Apparently they don't understand 'it is not broke don't fix it' because we HAVE to fix it then.
I am glad you are not starting over from scratch because the amount of data conserved in user's posts and solutions
is immeasurable IMHO. Thanks for your work. Even though not accessed daily by most, 32,000 folks appreciate your efforts.
-Christian