I know search is a hard problem, but I am finding all too often that search in Beyond does not pull up the results I'd want. For example, I'm playing a game and want to quickly look up the mechanics for Concentration... so I search "concentration" https://www.dndbeyond.com/search?q=concentration
Those results are useless. The weighting for generic terms seems to be terrible, especially if you're searching for Rules. I'd expect to have core-rules weighted more highly than anything if you're searching for terms such as that. Another example: https://www.dndbeyond.com/search?q=encumbrance - the result is a variant rule, and not the core rule.
Is there a plan to get search results more... useful for players? It feels at the moment as though the entire search engine is either not-geared at all or geared for DMs. There doens't appear to be a filter for Rules like there is for Magic Items or whatever either.
The search on DDB is subpar. If you dont already know exactly what you are looking for, you will likely have a hard time finding it. For example "encumbrance" is a variant rule, "carrying capacity" is the basic rule.
Here is an absolutely mind numbing example. Type in 'disease' and hit search. Now type in 'diseases' and scratch your head.
I wanted the DM rules for diseases but it didn't occur to me to add the s for several *minutes*. I ended up finding a link via a module I recalled had a link to the chart.
That was a painful experience. Thank you for continuing to improve search. It's still hasn't matured from Young to Mature.
Your first example, make the search and then click compendium since you are looking for a rule. That filters everything else out. Then click the link... there it is
Second example click the link to rulebook and it brings you right to the carry/lifting rules. What's the issue?
I think the issue is how users want to use the site vs how the site is currently created. It doesn't matter if there is a way to get to the data -- if users, trained by a decade of ever improving search engines, are going to use THAT as the primary navigation tool, it has to work. Because you can't retrain the users to not expect search results to be useful and present the desired data in the first few lines.
If it's easier to get to the desired data off your website by going to Google and doing a site: search -- that's a problem.
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Hi all,
I know search is a hard problem, but I am finding all too often that search in Beyond does not pull up the results I'd want. For example, I'm playing a game and want to quickly look up the mechanics for Concentration... so I search "concentration" https://www.dndbeyond.com/search?q=concentration
Those results are useless. The weighting for generic terms seems to be terrible, especially if you're searching for Rules. I'd expect to have core-rules weighted more highly than anything if you're searching for terms such as that. Another example: https://www.dndbeyond.com/search?q=encumbrance - the result is a variant rule, and not the core rule.
Is there a plan to get search results more... useful for players? It feels at the moment as though the entire search engine is either not-geared at all or geared for DMs. There doens't appear to be a filter for Rules like there is for Magic Items or whatever either.
The search on DDB is subpar. If you dont already know exactly what you are looking for, you will likely have a hard time finding it. For example "encumbrance" is a variant rule, "carrying capacity" is the basic rule.
Here is an absolutely mind numbing example. Type in 'disease' and hit search. Now type in 'diseases' and scratch your head.
I wanted the DM rules for diseases but it didn't occur to me to add the s for several *minutes*. I ended up finding a link via a module I recalled had a link to the chart.
That was a painful experience. Thank you for continuing to improve search. It's still hasn't matured from Young to Mature.
Hmm.
Your first example, make the search and then click compendium since you are looking for a rule. That filters everything else out. Then click the link... there it is
Second example click the link to rulebook and it brings you right to the carry/lifting rules. What's the issue?
I think the issue is how users want to use the site vs how the site is currently created. It doesn't matter if there is a way to get to the data -- if users, trained by a decade of ever improving search engines, are going to use THAT as the primary navigation tool, it has to work. Because you can't retrain the users to not expect search results to be useful and present the desired data in the first few lines.
If it's easier to get to the desired data off your website by going to Google and doing a site: search -- that's a problem.