Lemmy (etc.): allow sorting preference for search (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 months ago by solrize@lemmy.world to c/fediverse@lemmy.world

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It's a pain that search results on lemmy show by default ordered by some useless relevance ranking. I can't think of a single time I didn't want newest first. I couldn't find a preference to request that. It would be great if there was one.

The suggestion on c/support on lemmy.world was to make this kind of request on github, but it seems anti-FOSS to me to require a Microsoft account for a fediverse request, so I'm posting here and hoping for the best.

Thanks for any consideration!

all 19 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[-] Blaze@sopuli.xyz 7 points 3 months ago

"anti-FOSS to me to require a Microsoft account for a fediverse request, so I’m posting here and hoping for the best."

It's more about efficiency and prioritization of actions than anything else.

Could the devs spend time and effort migrating the code to another repo, such as Codeberg? Yes. Would the benefits be worth the time and effort? Debatable.

You can just create a throwaway account for GitHub. Not ideal, but devs have said multiple times that they don't have the time to track feature requests elsewhere than on the GitHub (and it makes sense)

Alternatively, if having code on a FOSS repo is very important to you, you can request it on https://codeberg.org/rimu/pyfedi/, the repo for https://piefed.social/

[-] smeg@feddit.uk 2 points 3 months ago

You can just create a throwaway account for GitHub

I know I'm getting off-topic, but the last time I tried this it ended up being locked either because it didn't like a simplelogin email or because I didn't give it a phone number. Hopefully that was an edge case but I haven't tried again recently.

[-] solrize@lemmy.world -1 points 3 months ago

This is about getting issues to the devs, not hosting a copy of the code. Git is easy to self-host and that's what I do with my own repos.

[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 4 points 3 months ago

My suggestion is if you’re not willing to get heavily involved in the process of re-hosting the code, then you should just go along with the system the lemmy devs have chosen, which includes github.

By posting the feature request here instead of github, you’re volunteering other people’s time to improve things.

Generally speaking, if you want to make the world a better place you should volunteer your own effort and resources, not other people’s.

[-] Blaze@sopuli.xyz 3 points 3 months ago

Well put

[-] Crackhappy@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

There are some apps that are better at interpreting the results. Most are free with some premium paid features.

[-] solrize@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

I don't want the software to interpret the results, I just want to get them sorted newest first without having to click an extra time. Also this being a free software activist project, the idea of adding on a paid feature seems pretty far out of place.

[-] Crackhappy@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

Understood and agreed. It is indeed hard to get volunteers who are paid nothing to pay any attention to what you want.

[-] solrize@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago

Shrug, if this gets to the devs I'm sure they'll consider it. The main thing bugging me is the Microsoft angle that their suggested channel requires.

[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 3 points 3 months ago

The thing that bothers me is how you’re like a living breathing example of perfect being the enemy of good.

So Microsoft gets $25/mo or whatever it costs to host this repo. And humanity gets Lemmy. Not a bad trade overall. The devil gets his due and the rest of us get loaves and fishes.

But you gotta walk over to where Jesus is handing out loaves and fishes. You can’t just be like “uh can I get mine delivered?”

Sometimes you just gotta give the big evil corporation $25 so millions of people can have a decentralized platform for communicating.

[-] nnrx@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

I agree, the search results should default to sort by new. Regardless of what your default user setting is. This is how it works on https://old.lemmy.world

[-] solrize@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Aha, I didn't know about or forgot about old.lemmy.world. I'll try that now. But, I'd be satisfied with whatever default, as long as there is a way to change it.

[-] OpenStars@discuss.online 1 points 3 months ago

I just changed my default sort from Hot to New and then back again - so those two values for that option definitely work. If you are using some third-party client to access Lemmy, I cannot say the same for it - perhaps it has a bug? But most places on Lemmy I've been have these in their settings and they work - the issue is on your end.

Which is empowering bc you can play around with a bunch of different things and find a way that will work, rather than have to wait on the devs to decide to help or not:-).

e.g. you could bookmark this link: https://lemmy.world/?dataType=Post&sort=New. Speaking of, perhaps your bookmark to access Lemmy has a similar setting, but for Hot and that is overriding your default choice? Or after you set the default, are you certain that it is saving properly?

Anyway, I hope I gave you some interesting ideas to check up on:-).

[-] solrize@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Thanks, but that is showing posts and I am hoping to sort search results. Like:

https://lemmy.world/search?q=trump&type=All&listingType=All&page=1&sort=TopAll

First result is a month old. There is a pulldown to change it on a single result page, but no way I can see to change the default.

[-] OpenStars@discuss.online 2 points 3 months ago

Sorry for the misunderstanding.

This URL seems to work for new: https://lemmy.world/search?type=Posts&listingType=All&page=1&sort=New, so until they fix it in the UI you could bookmark that?

I imagine they will do a lot of work on the search feature at some point.

[-] solrize@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

Oh that's an interesting approach. Yeah I might try that. Thanks. I'm used to the magnifying glass icon being right next to the search entry field, but as long as it's just a link anyway, I might as well use a different link.

[-] OpenStars@discuss.online 2 points 3 months ago

Sometimes I want to find something, like an image that I have shared previously (for ease of reuse but also to reduce the load on the servers to not have to store it multiple times), and so I'll want to search comments (not posts) by sth like Top Month or Top Week, but ofc cannot:-(. So instead like a chump I just go through them one by one until I find what I wanted... It's annoying to visually see those options provided, yet they do not function as you would expect. So indeed, they need to do a lot of work on the search functions:-).

But this is a thought for the interim:-).