I just wanted to say, that something I would really like to see is an "in-game" search feature.  Type in a keyword, and the current game's threads are searched for references to that word.  It would make searching for history events, and many other things, really convenient.

Is this possible?

I'm not sure about other browsers, but I know you can do that with Chrome with a Ctrl+F, and then putting in the keyword in the search box. It'll highlight all of them in the thread, regardless of page, and you can tick through until you find the post you're looking for.

I imagine other browsers probably have a similar function that works for RPoL.

It's not the same as having the feature in-game, but it does work in the games!

That would be really neat to have, but I just tried that within my Chrome browser and couldn't get it to work.

It looks like my CTRL+F search is limited to just the text on the current page and does not extend to other, not-currently-displayed, pages within the thread (unless I first display the entire thread, that is).

@SunRuanEr, is there a particular setting or feature that you turned on within Chrome to make this happen?

I current use that method myself, but I would love to see it search all threads at the same time.

You have to hit the "all" tab to see all posts in the thread, then the CTRL+F works throughout the posts.

Um...not that I'm aware of. I don't usually futz around with browser settings, so it should be whatever is the default. Did you start searching with the first post of a thread, or from a later page?

If it makes any difference, I was testing (to make sure that it /did/ search the entire thread) by going to the top of the first page before I started to search. As I tabbed down through the search hits (using the little arrow provided in the search box in Chrome), it was going down past the first page just fine (The thread I tested went through posts in the high 60s, so that was at least the third page in.)

If you start searching from the end of the thread, it might not work as nicely.

[Edit for clarity: I did /not/ hit 'All', I just went to the top (first post, page 1) of the thread before starting to search.]

[2nd Edit: For whatever it's worth, it's /NOT/ working now. I don't know why it worked earlier, but I do swear it worked earlier! Obviously, I did something that I didn't realize I did.]
This message was last edited by the user at 20:07, Wed 19 June.

Yeah, ypu have to hit the ALL button for the search to work.

I don't think the OP was talking about searching within a single game thread (which your browser should be able to do out of the box).

I think he was talking about the ability search within all the threads of a single game, from one place (similar to how most forum boards have the ability to search all threads, not just in the current thread).

I second this request: search feature that goes through all threads would be very useful.

I also agree that this would be useful. Even if it has to be limited to a single thread, it would still be helpful for game threads over 1k posts where, unless it has been changed, the "all" funtion ceases to work...

I would be all for adding the feature, but I would like it if it had an option to indicate which threads you wanted to search instead of just defaulting to all of them.

(Yes, I know, I can search individual threads via my browser but if we're adding features let's get the most out of them...)

I play in some games that have a /LOT/ of threads. Like, pages and pages of threads. Generally I have an idea of where what I'm looking for is, and I don't necessarily want to waste time having to flip through every search-ping from the other threads if I've already got it narrowed down to 2 or 3 in my head. Something as simple as a checkbox to tick for 'All threads' or 'Search these threads only' would make a game-wide search a lot more useful, in that regard.

...or perhaps if, instead of something that returns like a browser search does (where it highlights every instance of the searched-for word/phrase), if you could do something like:

Search game for - "potato chips"

...and get a return of:

"Potato chips" found in -

Thread A (2 mentions)
Thread B (5 mentions)
Thread F (1 mention)

So that it would narrow down what thread needs to be searched afterwards, because you either A) might already know that some of those threads aren't what you're looking for, and B) could then just skim said thread/search the individual threads one at a time. Sometimes, re-reading a thread is good!
This message was last edited by the user at 15:58, Thu 20 June.

:: Chuckles::  last year i went  through   every...single..post..and listed the characters  who played  but  are no longer in the game..it  took me a Month or  slightly more ( granted  i was doing it after posting  and RL stuff.

 I look back over the  threads to  find  names, or places  i don't have in my stack of  'scracth paper' notes . we added  an 'go to ' notice  from  players leaving and  arrive  a different thread, it helps, by the  first 5 years of the games  didn't have that.

and?  I fall down the Rabbit hole reading the interactions and  'important'  scenes, ..so..yeah..i would  like to type in something and no where to go!

In reply to Jhaelin (msg # 1):

Searching all the posts in a large game for a single word would probably put a bit of load on the server (potentially leading to site lag).  And that's without somebody being malicious... "Grrr!  I was moderated.  I wonder what happens if I search my 175,000 post game for the word 'the'.  Then do it again and again."

This has been one of the main reasons previous requests for this feature have been turned down.
This message was last edited by the user at 16:25, Thu 20 June.

well?  i rather 'dig' for  my information, then allow  attacks on the  site

That...makes perfect sense. I'll take having to work to find something over compromising the site, any day.

In reply to bigbadron (msg # 13):

There should be a way to code simple restrictions against malicious searches. Minimum number of letters, exact phrases, no articles/overly common words (the, then, them, they, etc.)
This message had punctuation tweaked by the user at 17:23, Thu 20 June.

Agreed with LissaAzules in principle, but I want to acknowledge that what might be straightforward in general contexts may be a whole different beast on a site that is 24(?) years old...it's easy to offer developer suggestions from afar :D

In any event, if you save the "all" webpage on your computer, your computer will automatically make the documents searchable. It's not perfect, and you have to keep it up to date yourself, but once you've loaded the page in your browser it doesn't put any additional load on the site to save it -- it's already on your computer, you're just choosing where to put it.
This message was last edited by the user at 17:52, Thu 20 June.

Lets not forget the real crime here. That the "All" button is disabled once a thread closes...

Looking at my own game, that's just not true.  I have many multi-page thread, several of which are closed, and I have the "all" link right there.

If your thread has more than 1,000 posts, then the "all" link is disabled.  If this happens, it's purely the fault of the GM, as a notification starts popping up around 950 replies, both mentioning the size of the thread, and recommending to start a new thread...

In reply to Sir Swindle (msg # 18):

No, it isn't.  It's only disabled if the thread goes over 1,000 posts.

Another issue ... searching through every thread from the game menu would be a bit problematic in that the code doesn't render the exact message text that your character sees until a thread is physically opened - eg private messages, languages, hidden text etc.  Doing that for the 25 displayed messages in a single thread doesn't take much time, just a bit longer to render up to 1000 messages when showing All posts in that one thread ... but the overheads are getting a bit prohibitive to work out every single variation in all posts in all threads.

For games that you GM, if you're in the habit of downloading closed threads (as I already do as a matter of course for backups), then you can search them offline - in Win 10 I just use File Explorer to pick up instances of the word/phrase I'm after, then search for specific locations within each dowloaded documents, same as I might do for any other non-game file.  Easy-peasy.

For games that you play in, if you do have the need to search for specific text regularly, then once a thread is closed off it's probably worth you opening up All messages and saving/printing to PDF so you can do the same thing (that will render 'your' version of the posts - ie with the PMs you can see, languages your character understands etc).  Once you've done the initial work to save the backlog of closed threads, then there's not much effort to keep that file set up to date (just one at a time as you print each new thread to PDF once it's closed).

I did not know this... thank you!

That is super helpful.  I shall get to work on the backups.  That would make searching incredibly easy for GM.