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Why does itch.io search suck so bad?

A topic by iofhua created Oct 06, 2023 Views: 1,235 Replies: 4
Viewing posts 1 to 3

If I use the search bar on itch.io to search for:

In Heat = nothing related turns up

Fear and Hunger = all the mods for Fear and Hunger, but not the game itself (the game should be the first result)

Slime Girl Smoothies = nothing related turns up

Each of these are the name of a specific game on Itch, but Itch can't find them. If I do a good search "itch.io in heat" or "itch.io fear and hunger" or "itch.io slime girl smoothies" then the relevant game is the first result on google.

Why? The built-in search for your game platform is absolute suck. How can it possibly be this bad?

Moderator(+1)

I thought it was a bug when I read it, then tried it myself. Slime Girl Smoothies? A game by that name is the first result. In Heat? Likewise. Fear and Hunger doesn't, but I have a suspicion that the game used to be on itch.io and was removed. Are you searching with NSFW mode disabled, by any chance?

It is a mature horror game and does show up as first result if you search for fear hunger or fear & hunger (for me). With fear and hunger, it shows up lower (or not - search is random and truncated after all).

So, yeah, mature browsing not enabled issue. Plus, the search knows the difference between & and and.

Thanks I changed that bit in my profile settings.

Is there anyway to search for mature games when you're not logged in? Like by adding !safeoff or something?

(+1)

Not with the search box. You cannot even find creators with adult content there.

But the setting is bugged. I told them many times, but they ignore the issue. "( ) Show content marked as adult in search & browse".

As a user, I expect to not see such content in browse, unless that tick box is ticked, and for that I need to log in, promising itch, that I am 18+ or whatever they ask at account creation. Granted, I fail to find the info that adult content is not shown otherwise, but for search it works. Why does it not work for browse?

You just need to select any of the adult tags. Like adult itself. Now you can browse all the adult games that have tagged adult.

That works for not logged in, as well as for logged in and not selected the tick box.

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