Strange results when searching
#1
Please excuse me if I am missing something obvious. I have hardly ever posted here before and some of the results I've been getting when searching for a specific episode of a TV show don't seem to make much sense to me. I figure the problem is far more likely something I don't understand than any kind of problem with the site.

I really like the show "Mr.Mercedes" but I've been getting very strange results when using the search facility on the site thepiratebay.org

In the past I seem to have noticed that certain punctuation marks are treated as blanks in a search. For example, if I enter "Mr.Mercedes" in the search box and then click on "Pirate Search", I have found in the past that is equivalent to entering "Mr Mercedes" with a blank instead of a period. But no longer it seems.

In order for me to find the most recent episode (S01E09), I tried to enter "Mr Mercedes" and then use the sorting facility and click on "Upload" to sort the list by most recently uploaded. I find that technique has usually worked best for me to find the most recent epsiode of any TV show.

But now, I find a marked difference between entering "Mr Mercedes S01E09" and "Mr.Mercedes S01E09". I have to enter the period in order to see the file. Even more strange is that if I enter "Mr.Mercedes S01E09" vs "Mr.Mercedes.S01E09", it seems to convert the second period to a blank but not the first period. I don't understand why. But I'd sure like to understand that.

In the past few weeks I've been noticing strange results when searching for the most recent episode of a TV show. I usually find the technique I described above works best. But I just get weird results when I include the "US" portion of the search in things like "Big Brother US S19E19" vs "Big Brother S19E19" although tonight there seems to be no problem with that search. I wish I understood what is going on there.

If there is any documentation anywhere that I should read about these kinds of searches, I sure would appreciate if someone could direct me to some instructions on how to search for specific episodes of TV shows. Thank you.
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#2
Just search for mercedes and check the video checkbox.   Rolleyes
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#3
I tried to replicate your results.

1 "Mr.Mercedes" Results: https://imgur.com/a/f6z6l
2 "Mr Mercedes" Results: https://imgur.com/a/w77wP
3 "Mr Mercedes S01E09" Results: https://imgur.com/a/QbSxS
4 "Mr.Mercedes S01E09" Results: https://imgur.com/a/zHVm0
5 "Mr.Mercedes.S01E09" Results: https://imgur.com/a/wDLGZ

The only difference I see between searches is that the search box does not remove "." but the search url contains them. Why, I have no idea.

1 "Big Brother US S19E19" Results: https://imgur.com/a/XlcqJ
2 "Big Brother S19E19" Results: https://imgur.com/a/OyIH7

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Brothe...TV_series) <--- Bases on that it looks like their are different region versions and "US" stand for the American Version.
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#4
TPB search is a bit of a mystery to us just as much to you. I've no doubt it does what you say but I've no idea why it would do so.

But when it comes to searching, less is generally more. I've never noticed the problem because I don't search that way.

(Oct 04, 2017, 23:56 pm)Sartre Wrote: Just search for mercedes and check the video checkbox.   Rolleyes

I search that way.

If you are logged in when you search then double-check your preferences and make sure the default sort order is set to "Uploaded (Descending)". If you search without logging in, it shouldn't be necessary to click on Uploaded to have them sorted most-recent-first--it is the default.
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#5
Definitely something new and broken going on.

If I search for Sniper Ultimate in HD-Movies, I get 0 results. If I search for Sniper.Ultimate in HD-Movies, I get results, even those that contain only 'Sniper Ultimate' without the period.

If I search for Sniper in HD-Movies, I get 0 results that include Sniper Ultimate. If I search for Sniper. I get results that include Sniper Ultimate

If I search for Sniper in all (no category selected), the results include Sniper Ultimate in HD-Movies.
If I search for Sniper in all video, the results do include Sniper Ultimate in video, but do not include Sniper Ultimate in HD-Movies.
Yet it includes other results in HD-Movies like Sniper.Reloaded and AMERICAN SNIPER

Any time I include a period in the search query, it gets removed from the search box. So if I enter Sniper. and hit search, then hit Search again, I get different results.
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#6
(Oct 07, 2017, 12:40 pm)Glenn1963 Wrote: Definitely something new and broken going on.

If I search for Sniper Ultimate in HD-Movies, I get 0 results. If I search for Sniper.Ultimate in HD-Movies, I get results, even those that contain only 'Sniper Ultimate' without the period.

If I search for Sniper in HD-Movies, I get 0 results that include Sniper Ultimate. If I search for Sniper. I get results that include Sniper Ultimate

If I search for Sniper in all (no category selected), the results include Sniper Ultimate in HD-Movies.
If I search for Sniper in all video, the results do include Sniper Ultimate in video, but do not include Sniper Ultimate in HD-Movies.
Yet it includes other results in HD-Movies like Sniper.Reloaded and AMERICAN SNIPER

Any time I include a period in the search query, it gets removed from the search box. So if I enter Sniper. and hit search, then hit Search again, I get different results.

Try clearing the cache for each website search, that solved the problem for me.
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#7
Based on that premise, searching for sniper and sniper. should give the same result, not consistently 2 completely different results. Still happens 10 hours later.

This goes beyond browser cache. Multiple F5s and even using a different browser doesn't change the results.

A first-time search using a new criteria can't possibly be using cached results; it's never retrieved these results before. Yet it will be missing valid torrents in that result.

And this only started happening recently.
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#8
(Oct 07, 2017, 23:48 pm)Glenn1963 Wrote: Based on that premise, searching for sniper and sniper. should give the same result, not consistently 2 completely different results. Still happens 10 hours later.

This goes beyond browser cache. Multiple F5s and even using a different browser doesn't change the results.

A first-time search using a new criteria can't possibly be using cached results; it's never retrieved these results before. Yet it will be missing valid torrents in that result.

And this only started happening recently.

I found it best to use a proxy or disable add-ons and let the ads run, then clear the cache.
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#9
(Oct 08, 2017, 13:09 pm)contrail Wrote:
(Oct 07, 2017, 23:48 pm)Glenn1963 Wrote: Based on that premise, searching for sniper and sniper. should give the same result, not consistently 2 completely different results. Still happens 10 hours later.

This goes beyond browser cache. Multiple F5s and even using a different browser doesn't change the results.

A first-time search using a new criteria can't possibly be using cached results; it's never retrieved these results before. Yet it will be missing valid torrents in that result.

And this only started happening recently.

I found it best to use a proxy or disable add-ons and let the ads run, then clear the cache.


Thanks very much to everyone who replied. Very much appreciated.
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#10
(Oct 07, 2017, 23:48 pm)Glenn1963 Wrote: Based on that premise, searching for sniper and sniper. should give the same result, not consistently 2 completely different results. Still happens 10 hours later.

This goes beyond browser cache. Multiple F5s and even using a different browser doesn't change the results.

A first-time search using a new criteria can't possibly be using cached results; it's never retrieved these results before. Yet it will be missing valid torrents in that result.

And this only started happening recently.

Adding to this, I noticed that the search is only matching on full word matches, requiring an asterisk for partial word matches.  Also, for some reason case sensitivity is being forced in some instances while not in others, at least for the searches I have done.  Here are some examples to test:

"adam ruins everything" = full list of all episodes except S02E12 (no clue why that episode doesn't show up) edit: now that episode is showing up
"adam ruins everything s02" = zero results
"adam ruins everything s02*" = full list of season 2 episodes including S02E12 (why require an asterisk?)
"adam ruins everything s02e12" = zero results (why does it ignore case in the first three words but not ignore case in the S and E?)
"adam ruins everything S02E12" = correct single episode gets listed

Want some really strange behavior?
Search for "adam ruins everything" under the "tv-shows" category, and then change the sort order back and forth between ascending and descending, and look at the "approx found" value change.  wha?
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