Templates search box items seem off.

Dear lookandbuyme,

Thanks for bringing this up. I tested the specific searches you mentioned and I am indeed seeing the same behavior you have described.

I then tested this search option with some other keywords that are more closely tied to specific concepts (such as “football”, “birthday”, and “animal”) and the results seemed much more appropriate, so it appears the search just configured to return a more broad set of results for general keywords like “art” and “mens” which could apply to a wider range of items.

That being said, it also appears that the search for "men" is returning a number of results that seem more appropriate for women's items, and those same templates are also being returned if you search for "women" instead.

Regardless, I will mention this to our technical team and, at the very least, we will treat your comments in this regard as a suggestion on how this search tool could be improved.

If you need any further assistance with your account, please feel free to contact our Customer Support team by mousing over the “Help” tab and selecting the “File Support Case” option.

-Mike

Thanks Mike...


Just so you know it has NOT always shown like that. The "MEN or MEN'S" had men looking templates only, on the masculine side. It has been awhile since I listed in men's but it had around 40 (maybe less). Was very easy to determine which template to use because it was a smaller number.

The womens has always had way more but they were not intermingled in mens like they are now.

"Art" I am not sure, as just had a few things I wanted to list there. Maybe someone else who uses art will know for sure.

Thanks

FYI...CAT is another category, kitten and kitty show different ones, but are related. Cat seems totally off.

..dog has a couple that are off, as see no connection with dog and a "BBQ" template except for hot dogs (and dogs like bbq's) "In the mail" template ...only connection I see is dog chasing mailman.

Table..."hip hop" template??? Unless table dancing the hip hops????

Now..there could be a reason for the connections..but some seem rather strange and have not always been that broad.

Just figure if you are checking, these others may want to be checked at same time.

lookandbuyme,

No it was not always like this. This has happened with one of the RECENT site updates and is HUGELY time consuming to have to look through pages of unrelated templates to find one that applies to what you are searching for.


Auctiva,
I probably use more of a variety of templates than most due to the items I sell.......
We also really really really need some new templates. Several templates are really unusable because of images or words on them and several more are just too juvenile.
Jewelry, Art, Furniture, Cameras, Watches, Antiques, Vintage are a few that are really in need of help and are lacking in terms of selections....there are several others. We could use templates for "real" art, "fine" jewelry, antique/vintage cameras, etc etc.
Have already tried using the "make suggestion" link but nothing is ever added...suggestions are not taken and the "new" templates have to be at least a year old already and some that come up on the search now as "new" are even older.

Totally agree with trinkets.

templates are old and we need some working updates.

Auctiva, AMEN on the words on templates! We have been asking for new templates for about 2 to 2 1/2 years now. NOW, There were 17 holiday templates issued in November 10, 2010 (unfortunately, November for most sellers is past their "seasonal listing" items time.) but were great for the next year.

Last templates that were announced, I believe there was an outside person that did and I thought she did an EXCELLENT JOB!!! Her templates were simple, cute and something for everyone. Seems some were basically same template but different color variations. I think she is one who did holiday ones that had red and green border/green and red border and some others that were similar. (those red/green - green/red can actually be used year round).

And please not too much fru - fru! A little goes a long way, as too much takes away from item rather than enhances it.

There are some nice templates that if the writing specifying just as example BABY, there are some cute templates there that could be used with other items BUT having baby across top blows that. Perhaps same template with BABY (or whatever baby is just example of one) removed???

There are others but this is just example?

I am finding this is more and more categories.

This has NOT always been like this...so something has been done to change it to this mess that has no rhyme or reason. It is a time waster to go through all these templates that are not relevant to the subject that was put in.

How difficult is it to go into the keyword box put in subject you are looking for and remove the the ones that do not apply to that subject?? (the ones I checked are in the proper category)

This is where the folder for favorie templates that people have asked comes in. With that folder we could muddle through a hundred templates and put my favorites there to avoid the congestion created in some categories now.

Please do something to undo whatever messed this up.


Hoping to hear an update on this???

Hi lookandbuyme,

I understand that you are looking for an update on when the template search functionality may be refined to return more accurate results for keyword searches such as those you have mentioned, but I'm afraid I do not have any new information to share on this topic at present.

As I mentioned previously, I have made our technical team aware of how this is working so it can be investigated further, but I am not certain when we may be able to update our system to improve the results returned by this too.

I'm sorry that I cannot offer you more encouraging news at this time, but we do appreciate you bringing this behavior to our attention.

-Mike

Thanks for response...

Please keep in mind, this is NOT asking for some new feature to be added this is a "FIX" of something that use to work. This worked great for MANY years.

I can only assume an update along the line knocked some of these around.

Unless auctiva did intentionally like some of the other improvements done in past that turned out to be things that mattered to us.

It is unreasonable that we should have to go through a 150 templates that do NOT apply to subject at hand when maybe 20 TOPS actually apply to the subject put in in case of mens. In other categories it could be hundreds plus with 10 or less that are applicable.

Unfortunately, there is no go around for this problem.

This is a "fix" of a previously working item that in some areas still works...so not like the wheel is being reinvented.

I am hoping your tech team puts this has a fix and treats accordingly with an ETA. Honestly this is a time waster for those who use the categories messed up. It is like muddling through a pile trash for a few coke cans.

I am also concerned a future update or whatever was done will be done to the other categories and then we will have a super mess!! Since it seems to be unknown what caused it this is a very good possibility I would think.

Thanks again.

Search By color......Some more examples for BAD keyword searches

Brown - and you get templates for Late Spring Blue, Peach Floral, PINK

Red - and you get Camera BLUE, Checkered Flag YELLOW, Checkered Flag BLUE, Eat Your Vegetables (YELLOW), Grapes


This really isn't a hard thing to fix. This is a matter of CHANGING the KEYWORDS/TAGS for those templates, which is what was changed to add them to the unrelated searches to begin with.

It is not a technical issue and there is no reason it needs to take months to get fixed. It is nothing that needs to be changed with a future update of the system either. It is a VERY SIMPLE FIX.
These unrelated templates are nothing but time consuming to go through for no good reason.

Do you have any idea how time consuming this can be to go through unrelated templates??

If we want a blue template, for example, and search for a blue template we should not be getting yellow or pink templates.

Here is a good one....

Type in the word.....Bat
and you get
Beauty Skin Care, Bird Bath, Decorative Tile, MEN's SWIMWEAR, Summer Swim wear, Pink Cosmos, The Perfect Getaway etc

Auctiva this does need to be dealt with, as previously mentioned it previously worked and no longer is functioning.

Who wants to put subject, etc., in search box only to have to look through 200 templates when only 10 apply.


I can only assume this was done so it appears there are more templates for each search than there really are.

Frankly, in this case less is more. It is time waster go through irrelevant templates.

Auctiva, few questions:

Is this going to be fixed?

IF so ETA?

If not is there a go around that I have not found?

The recently used may be a solution for those who do not list a variety of different items. I find I am using same templates over and over because looking through irrelevant ones is a time eater...and time is $$$$$.


Thanks for updating us on this.

Type in the word....light
You get...Fly Fishing, Flight of Santa, Hanukkah, Rudolf etc

Can you type in JOKE....(no don't go there, no templates but this has become one)



SHOES: Shows 106 templates esimate LESS than 40 apply to shoes...and this less than 40 leaves in very borderline ones.

Here is small list: There are MANY, MANY MORE that have NOTING to do wih shoes.

buttons
denim flower border
denim pocket
fabric & daisies
eastwood
eye wear
ferocious
forest camo
quality denim
quality denim his
quality denim hers
red hats
red hat society
red light
risque
rosie (like the cleaning strong woman I guess, Guess if she picks up shoes she qualifies???)
salsa dance
sew true
shabby purse
shades
XOXO (now I think even a shoe lover would not put this one in shoes??)



Auctiva, again, this problem seems to be growing. Why are you changing this? If there is a reason then perhaps telling us we may possily understand???

It sure makes more work for us. This is like going to produce section of grocery store and having meat, chips, cookies, popcorn, nuts, drinks, can good, frozen items all mixed in with the produce. Though would be funny to see, would get old shopping there all the time.



Thanks

Hi Community,

Thanks for keeping us posted with additional examples of this issue. As I mentioned previously, our technical team is aware of the template search behavior that has been mentioned over the course of this thread, but I still cannot offer any specifics about when the issue may be addressed.

We are going to be looking into making some improvements to the template selection interface as a whole in the future and we will be looking into this search issue as part of that project as well.

At this point, we do not need any additional examples of template searches that are not working as expected so this thread has been closed. I will, however, update the thread to let you know when the issue has been addressed or any new details become available.

We apologize for any inconveniences this issue may be causing.

-Mike