I'm not even sure this is the right place to ask but here goes. :unsure:

Either the problem is me or the problem seems to lay in how products are tagged (keyworded?) and how the search function itself is coded.

For example.  Doing  a search for "victoria 4 armour" ends up with with products that may or may not be for V4, most aren't, and may or may not be related to armour (I got a  bra back to that search!).

The keyword returns are even more mystifiying as the seem to be anything at all under the sun BUT what I'm looking for.

So, in spite of trying to limit the search to one broad product (V4) the search coughs back just about anything it can find anywhere in the Maretplace it may find it.

This isn't just an issue with V4 but with any other model I put in though the responses to V4 are, by far, the worst.  Not unexpected because it has the most products.

What makes this unfortunate is that when I can't easily find a class of product (clothes, unifrom, nurse, for example) I tend to go elsewhere to find it.  This may be frustrating to me but it certainly isn't helping the vendor any because I may not find a jewel in the dreck.

Incidentally repeating the exact same search terms will often yield a different result set.

I suspect that, in part, this has to do with tagging/keywording of product by the vendor.  A lot of V4 stuff seems to be accompanied by every imaginable keyword so that should I look for hair I end up with complete character sets instead of just hair.  There may be some cases where I'm not the slightest bit interested in the character set or its parts. Maybe that's why I'm looking for just hair.  This isn't limited to the example cited, it applies to but to a lot of V4 product.

In fact, some V4 product seems tagged/keyworded to return it so that no matter the search term it will appear.  For eaxmple what appears in the first page of returned product after clicking Victoria 4/Hair right on the first page of returned product?  "Single and Both Hand Mudra Pack".  Huh?!

In short, no matter the cause, both the vendor and the site are losers in the end when I can't easily find what I'm looking for because I'll go look at another site for it.  It's that simple.  There are only so many hours in a day, you know! :biggrin:

The other thing that doesn't reflect well on 'Rosity is that the organization of the Marketplace appears more akin to a flea market or garage sale than an organized marketplace.

I come back because there is treasure in there and I've been very pleased with what I've found when I've been able to find it.

It's not just V4 but general but the sheer number of competing products for V4 makes it the best illustration.

Anyway, either I'm doing something wrong or the organization of the Marketplace needs an overhaul as does the search function within it.  I'm prepared to deal with a flea market eviornment for freebies but I'm not with product for sale.  Curiously, right now, the freebies section seems better organized and easier to use and locate product that the Markeplace does.

I'd love to be able to support the artists who have things for sale but if I can't find things I can't do that.  It's frustrating. :cursing:

Sorry about the near rant but the past day or so has been tear my hair out frustrating while I'm trying to locate something that may go in with what I have in mind without major modification.

Thanks up front for both reading this and, I trust, being understanding.

Happy Rendering

ttfn

John

Hello,

We are aware that our search needs to be worked on and I assure you that we are working very hard to improve the search.

You can search by theme and depending on what you are looking for, that may help a little bit.

Thank you for your loyalty and patience while we continue to try and make this the best possible Marketplace it can be : )

Have a wonderful day!

HI Kristi

Thanks for your message.

As I wrote my interest is in finding product and arttwork, on 'Rosity, largely the same, so that newer and less well off vendors who can't really afford much in the way of an advertising budget can have their work found.

I know there's no such thing as "perfect" search and that there's no way of preventing someone from "gaming" the system so that their product (s) always get a high return ranking.  If there was I'm sure Google would have got thier paws on it or developed it by now.

From a customer perspective I'd like to see "all in one" character packaging discouraged as far too often I find some part of the package be it clothing, hair or a pair of shoes that would work with what I'm doing but end up not purchasing because, for one reason or other, I'm not interested in the character model itself. 

On a personal level there are two vendors, both of whom make frequent appearences as Vendor of the Month because of that and a couple of other thing, who I won' t purchase from on the general principle that I feel they're gaming the system.  I've no proof they are mind you but I can't escape the feeling that showing up on just too many search results that may have little or nothing to do with what I entered makes no sense other than they've included just about everything in the description/jkeywords/tags to ensure that it happens that way.  Both of whom do a lot of, or almost exclusively, "all in one" character packaging.

That's no flame bait, it's an observation and if they can get away with that they way things work right now more power to them.

To me a creative community thrives when there are a wide variety of choices and differences that one can look at and learn from. When that's not present the community suffers, including the successful vendors.

Good luck with improving the search function and criteria, I mean that, because we all will benefit if product is easier to find.

Happy Rendering

ttfn

John

P.S. Enjoy what's left of the weekend!