Upset
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Dear Admins, Do You Really Want to Get Rid of Me?? 馃槙

In order to obtain a more or less complete chronological feed, I had bookmarked
"https://similarworlds.com/search-posts?q=[b]and[/b]"
which gave me every post that contains the word "and" (= 99% of all posts). I could live with that as a reasonable work-around.
Of course it wasn't perfect (there are some posts which do not contain the character string "and", of course) so I had also bookmarked:
"https://similarworlds.com/search-posts?q=[b]the[/b]"
and
"https://similarworlds.com/search-posts?q=[b]not[/b]"
It was an awkward work-around but sort of ok for me.

Those searches are no longer possible. All I get is
"Please add more relevant words to your search query."

"and" does not work anymore, but, lo and behold, "[u]end[/u]" works! ==> it's not that three-character strings are excluded from the search, but [u]specifically[/u] "and" and "the" and "not" (and maybe some more). ==> The admins are actively, [u]intentionally[/u] preventing us from using search engine tools as a work-around to get a complete feed.

As a result, I do no longer have a working feed. This is [u]catastrophic[/u]. You exclude me from enjoying other members' posts, and you exclude others from reading mine. This post will most likely be invisible to most users.

All I'm getting now is a tiny subset of posts which I don't have control over.

I don't get it. I do not understand your intentions. Why are you doing this? Why did you kill the only reasonable access to an (almost) unfiltered feed? What's the objective behind your decisions? What are you aiming at? Are you trying to attract a younger uneducated crowd perhaps? Are you trying to repel "power users"?

Really, I'm totally frustrated. Somebody is doing a bad job. 馃槖
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ninjavu51-55, M
Not that a technical explanation helps, but "and" is a stop word in searches. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_word) Same with "the" and I think "not". Ironically you had exploited the very reason why it's a stop word, because your search results included just about every post. Ingenious!

It would be interesting to hear the admins' reason for blocking your searches, considering you clearly know what you're doing. Hopefully they'll restore this functionality.
helenS36-40, F
@ninjavu [quote]It would be interesting to hear the admins' reason[/quote]
The admins remain silent about it. They just added "And" (upper case A) to their "stop word" list, because someone said "And" can be successfully used instead of "and".
The reason may be to tell me that I (and other tech-savvy users) are no longer welcome here. 馃槓
ninjavu51-55, M
@helenS 馃ぃ I asked a tech- and legal-savvy question of them a couple of years ago, and when I persisted after being ignored they rained hell upon me! 馃檮
helenS36-40, F
@ninjavu The option to "Block ALL content and contact from people over 56" as a privacy setting is another thing that drives me crazy.
ninjavu51-55, M
@helenS It's good to see that ageism is still alive and well. I'm going to start a middle-age-supremacy group. Sadly, you will have to be denied membership. 馃槒
helenS36-40, F
@ninjavu I could serve you coffee and cookies, wearing a French maid costume!
ninjavu51-55, M
@helenS OK, you're in, but only as an associate member in training. ;)