ok, here you go, updated GTS search patches for 0.18.0rc1. notice how they're on my repo? these are completely unofficial. do not bug anyone but me about them.

1. improved hashtag search. status: upstreamable, mostly.
   • doesn't require # prefix to search hashtags
   • searches for matches anywhere in a hashtag: Mac now matches VintageMac as well as MacOS
   • includes hashtags when not specifically searching for accounts or statuses, like most Mastodon-compatibles
   • doesn't change existing tag sorting. popularity and/or recency might be more useful
2. offset paging for searches. status: not upstreamable yet.
   • more compatible: many clients can't do ID paging
   • allows paging hashtag search results: Mastodon API has no concept of IDs for hashtags, so ID paging can't work for those anyway
   • possible performance issues: see comments on why main doesn't have it already. personally, i haven't noticed and i run this instance on a tiny VPS
3. remove search restrictions. status: heretical.
   • searches any post on your instance (except other accounts' private/direct posts, and accounts that have you blocked)
   • includes public, unlisted, your own private and DM posts, and private and DM posts that are replies to you
   • expanded search is default: revert to standard GTS behavior by adding scope:classic or in:library operator to search query
   • definite performance issues: this means searching more posts! GTS does not use either PG full-text indexes/operators or SQLite full-text virtual tables, and this patch doesn't change that.
   • doesn't include alt text of media attachments, or polls, because main doesn't

i may add more patches to this list in the medium future as i add more functionality to my own instance, for example, date range operators (before:date, after:date), post property operators (has:image,has:poll, has:cw, is:sensitive, visibility:public), threading operators (to:user@instance.tld, is:reply, -is:reply), sort operators (sort:oldest, sort:newest, sort:favs) and maybe PG full-text indexing if i have a really good day (i really don't wanna figure out SQLite's weird shit! someone else do it!)

randos don't debate me about Fedi search. my clients can't set per-post interaction controls yet so i'll just block you.

here's the final iteration of my Mastodon advanced search patch: https://github.com/VyrCossont/mastodon/pull/8

this enables full-text search for posts you haven't interacted with, as well as full-text search for accounts, and includes several advanced filtering operators and parser fixes.