Write Review
2,080,222 Total Reviews 3,926 New Reviews
8,766 Users Online

Chicago

Why can't TER reviews be searched by TER handle?confused_smile
HangingwithBears 1065 reads
posted

This is the most basic and important search function for a site like this. I've tried searching reviews using only a provider handle and I get no hits. I've even tried narrowing down the search range to the US and Chicago and still get no hits. Why must we know more about a provider than just her TER handle to get a hit? Why isn't her TER handle linked directly to her reviews in the review search engine? This certainly doesn't help newbies find their way around here.

Using the argument that there may be multiple providers with similar TER handles doesn't hold water. All modern search engines allow searching by substrings and we should get a list of all provider handles containing that substring. We could then narrow the search by submitting a longer substring until the search is narrowed down sufficiently to identify the desired provider. NO OTHER INFORMATION should be required to locate provider reviews!

I've tested this search mechanism many times and it always fails. How am I supposed to search for a provider's reviews if she has no other identifying information on her site except a TER handle? It makes no sense that her TER handle isn't linked directly to her reviews. Now, if an area code is available, hits will come up. Come on, we shouldn't have to know a providers area code or phone number to find her reviews. And providing an area code and/or phone number indeed presents a list of providers with similar handles. This is a major flaw in the review search engine making it difficult for newbies to find specific providers. Hell, it makes it difficult for me to find information without digging all over the net to find an old phone number or area code or a link to her reviews somewhere else. What a waste of time.


-- Modified on 5/23/2010 5:53:29 PM

193892791 reads

If this is a genuine concern, and not just a vent of sorts, than you should take this straight to Admin for their consideration.

Being familiar with the way sites operate, as you know you are, this is not the correct place to get the change you are asking for.



-- Modified on 5/23/2010 8:33:00 PM

ReplyQuoteReport
HangingwithBears689 reads

I keep thinking I'm missing something but maybe I'm not. If no one comes up with a workaround, I'll take it to admin. But I'd hate to push it up a notch before finding out if there's some other way to get the same result.

ReplyQuoteReport
OneGent1634 reads

Are you seeing/searching for a ton of providers that have no TER board presence whatsoever that still list a TER handle? What's wrong with doing a string search on actual board posts or board posts by author? If the TER handle is linked to the reviews (As it most assuredly must, else what good would posting someone's TER handle be?) then once you find a board post by the provider you should be set. Just expand your search to 9999 days, and you're good. Yes, you may have to search the newbies, national GD, and quite a few of the regional boards but that's actually probably easier than scouring google for that forgotten phone number that randomly got left somewhere.

ReplyQuoteReport
HangingwithBears451 reads

Yes, I'm talking about providers who don't participate on the boards at all but do have reviews here. For providers who do post occasionally, their reviews may be found by searching each board individually but only if they have a link to their TER reviews in their posts. Some providers don't have this set up so even if you find posts by them, you still can't get to their reviews. In any event, finding the board their posting on is a time-consuming manual effort, searching each board one at a time. Why can't all boards be searched at once? We're doing manual labor to overcome what modern automation should be doing for us.

Back to the providers who don't post on the boards but do have reviews here. Often, their web site or yahoo group will say something to the effect "see my TER reviews" but they don't provide a link. If they're not posting here and they don't provide other up-to-date searchable information, you get nowhere. Sometimes they'll list a new phone number that's not updated in their TER reviews so you get no hits. I've even seen new email addresses that haven't been changed in their reviews so that's useless as a search mechanism. It's like jumping through hoops to find these providers' reviews.

I've found that many of these providers use the same or similar handle on multiple ad sites. So, it should be a simple manner of entering the common portion of their handle in the review search engine and getting a bunch of hits for providers who have the same substring as what was entered. From that point,  general location, physical descriptions, etc. could be used to eliminate most of them.

TER handles are not directly linked to provider reviews. I'll use Sinful Sinthia as an example (sorry Sin but you're famous, lol). Enter Sinful1 in the review search engine and try to find her reviews. Nothing. Add more information such as Chicago, nothing. OK, that failed, now I'll go search the boards for her posts. I don't understand why all this manual labor is necessary. I should only have to enter her handle in the review search engine and her reviews should come up. Simple, fast, efficient, no time wasted.

ReplyQuoteReport
OneGent1554 reads

Isn't the one flaw in your logic that if a lady's reviews aren't linked to her online profile (one of the problems with searching the boards, as you mentioned) then searching by TER handle will prove fruitless anyhow?

I think this is one of those issues where what you're suggesting actually involves a handful of changes to the way TER indexes reviews and the way we search for them. Yes, it's technically possible but as with many places that may be run by non-techies this may take a while to implement even if a suggestion is approved. I think a more prudent method would be to educate newbie providers and add instructions in those places that provide TER links and talk about linking to reviews by clarifying how to find it properly.

Another question - if you have found, through laborious efforts, a lady's reviews... are there a lot? Methinks it would be equally difficult for hobbyists to post a review and search for a review for the ladies you're describing?

ReplyQuoteReport
Angela_Petite2703 reads

You use the search feature , you enter her email
or phone number if you don't have that you search
by name and area code. There  you have it!

 

-- Modified on 5/24/2010 7:28:08 AM

Related Link: http://www.angelapetite.com

ReplyQuoteReport
Hardwood469406 reads

ReplyQuoteReport
Post Reply Back To Forum
Register Now!