Why is a simple search so PAINFUL???

Ok so I'm trying to inquire about cancelling/suspending my motorcyle insurance since it will be in storage for the next 5 months. Using search terms like "WINTER INSURANCE CANCELLATION" gives me literally THOUSANDS of results, 99.99% of which have nothing to do with the topic. All it takes is for a poster to say "I'm going south for the WINTER" and bang! it shows up in the search results!

It's 2014 -- can't we have a search function that does better than this? Any suggestions?

Depending on your company it might or might not make sense. For example, State Farm in Iowa assigned a percentage of the annual premium to each month. December was, if I recall correctly, about 2% of the total. All of the winter months together were less than 10%. The only way to know about your policy with your company at your location in your state is to call, email, write to, or go see your agent.

MacD -

I'm not sure I understand?? I entered "WINTER INSURANCE CANCELLATION" (including the quotes) and I get exactly 2 hits. Now if you leave out the quotes, you're going to get everything that contains winter, insurance, cancellation, winter insurance, etc. I entered "I'm going south for the WINTER" (again, with quotes) and I got nothing related to insurance.

As Paul says, you really have to start with the company that has your policy and work from there.

20774 said:

MacD -

I'm not sure I understand?? I entered "WINTER INSURANCE CANCELLATION" (including the quotes) and I get exactly 2 hits. Now if you leave out the quotes, you're going to get everything that contains winter, insurance, cancellation, winter insurance, etc. I entered "I'm going south for the WINTER" (again, with quotes) and I got nothing related to insurance.

As Paul says, you really have to start with the company that has your policy and work from there.

Click to expand...

My post was more about the lack of search functionality rather than the topic of winter insurance. On the topic of winter insurance, Massachusetts DMV regulations require that the plate be cancelled and returned to the DMV before the insurance company will "allow" me to cancel the policy. I then have to go to the DMV next spring and reapply for a brand new plate. Of course it's not worth the hassle which is what the insurance companies want. What a racket!

It all ends well, however, as I found a Progressive offers a policy for $95 annually versus the $360 I have been paying with Plymouth Rock. At those rates I will be happy to pay 12 months.

But back to my original point, I also entered "WINTER INSURANCE CANCELLATION" (including the quotes) and I got the error message in the attached screen shot. Maybe you get something different because you are an administrator??

Bobby -

BTW...the search I was referring to was using the google "site" search feature. It's been discussed many times that the vBulletin search feature is really bad. Taking advantage of google's searching and database capabilities seems to work better.

But I do get the exact same search results as you using the forum search tool. The error indicates that words were likely too long. I retried the search and took out the quotes. I was able to get 199 pages of hits. Unfortunately, the results were for the individual words winter, insurance, and cancellation and possible combinations. Really not that useful for what you were trying.

As mentioned, the vBulletin search features are not that robust. It wasn't that long ago that the search tool was missing very obvious forum information...I recall do tests and finding that it completely missed things that would be applicable. The in-office tech support at the time rebuilt the index database for searching and that greatly improved the capability. But it's still not very robust.

About the only way that the forum search works is if you are limited with your search terms but at the same time being very specific about the word your searching for. Sort of like searching for "oil" but if you wanted to find anyone who has used "Motul" oil, you would use Motul and not just oil. To some degree, you have to have almost know the word you want to find in a specific post. So if you remember a post from a couple of years ago with "Kawasaki" in the post, you would use that specific word to find that post. But to search for insurance or policies in a generic sense, the forum is just not going to find it for you. I think that is one of the weak points of vBulletin.

Use the "site:bmwmoa.org xxxxx" in the google search box. You'll find better and applicable results.

Kurt

Thanks for your quick response. I will take that advice and I'm sure it will be helpful. I suppose my bigger gripe is with vBulletin. I deal with vBulletin on two other special interest sites and the functionality in all cases is REALLY BAD. If you have any influence I would strongly encourage that you look at different third party vendors. I am happy to provide you with a list of alternatives that would be better if you are interested...

Bob

One more example of vBulletin crazyness....

So I want to add a picture of my bike to the my profile. I can't see this option on my profile page. Searching "add profile picture" WITH quotes give the same error message as mentioned in my earlier post. Searching without quotes gives 227 pages of results.

So how do I add a picture to my profile? I minored in Computer Science in college and I consider myself technically proficient but the clunkiness of this Forum software makes me think about renewing my MOA membership...it needs a SERIOUS fix

Bobby -

Profile pics are added using the Settings feature in the upper right of the page. Look for Edit Profile Picture on the left-hand side.

In case others are reading this, most of the user settings are explained in this thread:

http://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?65269-User-Settings-Control-Panel-Explained

bobbymacd said:

I deal with vBulletin on two other special interest sites and the functionality in all cases is REALLY BAD.

Click to expand...

Care to elaborate as to what you are having trouble with?

If you have any influence I would strongly encourage that you look at different third party vendors. I am happy to provide you with a list of alternatives that would be better if you are interested...

Bob

Click to expand...

I would be interested as VB, while not perfect, seems to have the most flexibility all the way around.
Gary

Paul-did you read the question before you responded?

In checking things, I noticed that the settings for maximum number of characters in a search is currently set to 20. That's what stopped your search. When I removed the quotation marks, the maximum size of any word dropped to below 20, allowing at least some results to be found.