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Subject: 
Re: Official and Unofficial theme categories
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.admin.database
Date: 
Fri, 8 Jan 1999 20:01:26 GMT
Viewed: 
3781 times
  
Todd Lehman writes:
> "James Brown" <galliard@shades-of-night.com> writes:
> 
> > Todd Lehman writes:
> > I think I understand the concepts a bit better from reading other posts on
> > this thread but just to make things clear (in my head) you're looking for
> > something that would use a relationship key (or set designation, or
> > fuzzy catagory) as it's primary search criteria and function something like
> > this:?
> > 
> > [snipped Santa examples]
> 
> Yup -- pretty much like that, in terms of relevance matching and neighboring
> categories (up, down, sideways in the graph).
> 
> 
> > >   - what you like about search engines
> > 
> > As an interface tool they're great for ease of use, but still  configurable
> > enough (well-designed ones, at least) to keep the most perverse techno-geek
> > happy.
> 
> Do you have a wish-list in mind of all the possible things you'd love to see
> be configurable?

Actually, it depends a great deal on what the engine is searching - I'll come
up with a list when my brain is less broken. (:
> 
> 
> > >   - what you dislike about search engines
> > 
> > My single biggest complaint about search engines isn't an issue with this -
> > I find it very unlikely that any of the Lego sets will try to get a • competitive
> > edge by maximizing hit potential. ;)
> 
> I guess that's because so many search engines index things based its purely
> the textual content rather than on attributes characterizing the content...?

Absolutely.  (although, the niggling little voice in the back of my head says
"why not get Todd to add a text search as well?"  I'm trying to beat it down,
though.)
> 
> 
> > >   - what you've never seen before in a search engine, but would like to • see
> > 
> > Stunning configurability, and super ease of use.  I beleive in faeries, too.
> 
> Aw, configurability is just grunt work and lots of field testing.  Of course
> its still very helpful to know the types of things on wish-lists before
> putting major pieces in stone.
> 
> But when you say "super ease of use" -- that's the real design challenge!
> In your mind, what qualifies as "super ease of use?  Can you give 5 examples
> of queries you'd enter and the results you'd expect back in order for it to
> qualify as "super ease of use"?

again, when my brain is less broken, I'll post something real.
> 
> 
> > >   - the most frustrating search-engine experience you've ever had
> > 
> > Most things internet ;)  Seriously though, I really think this project needs • to
> > take a serious look at ways to minimize irrelevant hits.  I think you're • going
> > a long way towards it with the fuzzy catagories line, but the single most
> > frustrating thing that search-engines do is pull in irrelevant hits.
> 
> What other types of things can make (for example) LEGO-set or LEGO-theme
> searches more relevant or irrelevant?  Certainly, having lots of categorical
> classifications is a good start.

I know this would be clunky, but how about a two-tiered interface?  You enter
what you're looking for, and the engine comes back with a list of fuzzy
catagories, with the number of 'hits' in each catagory?

> 
> Another thing that comes to my mind is tracking nicknames on sets.  If you
> type in "retrostation" it should give you 2150 (whose official name in the
> U.S. is "Train Station."  If you type in "big yellow castle" it should give
> you 375/6075 at the top, followed by other big and/or yellow things or
> things with big, yellow, and/or castle in their names.

Seems straightforward - all it means is adding another relationship
possibility.



Message has 2 Replies:
  Re: Official and Unofficial theme categories
 
(...) You mean indexing on content like the set name, human-entered comments, and all that, yes? With the option to disable matches on certain fields? (...) Maybe two-tiered along with one-tiered on the same screen? The two-tiered stuff at the top, (...) (28 years ago, 9-Jan-99, to lugnet.admin.database)
  Re: Official and Unofficial theme categories
 
(...) I feel much better now... Lets see. I would say that ideally, each of the following criteria could be treated as part of an equation (<>= (value), !(value), etc) - in other words, have them treatable as logical expressions. Set number set name (...) (28 years ago, 10-Jan-99, to lugnet.admin.database)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Official and Unofficial theme categories
 
(...) Yup -- pretty much like that, in terms of relevance matching and neighboring categories (up, down, sideways in the graph). (...) Do you have a wish-list in mind of all the possible things you'd love to see be configurable? (...) I guess that's (...) (28 years ago, 8-Jan-99, to lugnet.admin.database)

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