Hi,
This is unworkable. I understand the reason why a part of the search
function is removed, but I find it very annoying and it gives many
wikipedians a real headache.
1. When you have made a new article, you want to find more possible pages
for links to that article. That's one of the whole wiki-experience.
2. When you want to make a new article, you want to search if there are no
paragraphs somewhere similar to your new article.
3. Sometimes there are synomyms of the same thing. You can solve this with a
redirect. Yes absolutely, but you have to find those possible redirects and
if you can't find them, people will write double articles.
4. Normal (read-only) users of the Wikipedia want to find simple things.
Eg.: Search for 'Purple Rain' on the dutch wikipedia. No results. Normally
it should point you to the Prince article.
Every site, with a minimum of a a few pages should have a search system and
when the sites are as large as the Wikipedia sites, it should have an
advanced search.
I remember how I discovered Wikipedia. I was installing a few Mozilla
searchengines (mycroft) and found one for Wikipedia. I tried it, but to my
suprise I came on a google search. So I lost interest. Later the
search-engine was back and I became totally obsessed by the Wikipedia.
The last point I want to make is: I can understand that decisions of
upgrades of sotware and hardware are made by the sysops on location, but
when these kind of important and critical changes are made by people from
the other side of the Ocean, without consulting the hardworking people on
this side of the Atlantic, people can become very upset. I can't feel
anything of a community-feeling in this way of acting.
Cheers,
Jeroen (Dutch Wikipedian)