Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Korussian]

In a recent post, I showed how to remove recruiter postings from the Korean job forums. About 10 people have installed my script since last night. Today, I'd like to offer something even easier to implement and more useful:

The search tool on ESL Cafe is, how you say, pretty bad. Instead, I rolled my own custom Google search that zeroes in on ESL Cafe forums and works remarkably well.

Just bookmark this link and search to your heart's content, with no slowdowns or pauses because you're searching too often. What do the results look like? Pretty much the same as any Google search - dead on and easy to read.

Detailed instructions and screenshots are on my website. I encourage you to visit or comment so that I can tell how much demand there is on these forums for custom tools like this.

If you're more nerdy like me and use Firefox, I also created a much more intuitive and fun ESL Cafe search option as a Greasemonkey userscript. When you click on the "Search" link here in the forums, instead of going to the old search page, I intercept your click and show you a popup box where you can enter your search terms. You hit enter, and you get the results from that same amazing custom Google search above.

Here's a screenshot of what it looks like.

Update: I've now updated with a new script to allow you to block posts from any username you enter the first time you run it. I tested it for myself, but I'd appreciate your comments on whether or not it works for you.


Disclaimer:
Please read the disclaimers in my previous thread linked above. I am not a professional programmer, so please let me know if you find any bugs after installing the Greasemonkey userscript.

[sojourner1]

Wow, you're good. Maybe you should be working in the IT industry.

[Korussian]

Thanks, Sojourner1. I used to work in the IT Industry in Canada, but I have a lot more autonomy these days ;)

[ciccone_youth]

Awesome. It works really well, too!

thanks!

[Korussian]

Thanks for trying it, ciccone_youth.

I'm glad to see some people like using these tools as much as I do.

Next time, I'm planning on posting my script for blocking posts that were originally written by the one or two annoying users (obv. present company excluded!) :) I'll be curious to see if there's a desire for it too.

[curlygirl]

Nice-uh! Good work champ - worked like a charm with 2 search words. I shall definitely use this tool in future.

[Korussian]

As previously mentioned, I've now updated, with my script for blocking users on ESL Cafe.

[Teelo]

Will you script me a firefox plugin to make me think I have an avatar?

[Korussian]

Yes, here you go. It also solves one of your other complaints about this site: that images cannot be embedded in posts.

[Draz]

I think I'm not nerdy enough. I have no idea what to do with the scripts to install them.

[poet13]

Now take it down, and ransom it to Dave.

[bassexpander]

Not saying your hard work is bad, but I'd be a little leary of installing a script from someone I didn't know. It would be a heck of an idea for our porn poster to come up with, steal some passwords using a keylogger or something, and cause havoc.

BTW, I just type "university" in the "posted by" line and do a search like that. It clears out 99% of non-uni jobs.

[Korussian]

That's a good point Bassexpander, and those kinds of shenanigans are definitely possible with regard to userscripts.

One bright spot is that, unlike most (non-open-source) software, you can view the complete userscript source code before you install it, to ensure there's nothing untoward happening. Obviously, most people wouldn't know what to look for, and in a long enough script it's pretty do-able to obscure things even from those who do.

I know this is unrealistic, but it would be nice if several other people from this community could take a look through my userscripts, and comment that my code is safe. Failing that, please don't install my userscripts if you're unsure of what they do and how they work - the bugs they fix may not be worth the hassle if they turn out to cause you other problems.

Never having written javascript before this month, I know I'm probably writing the code stupidly. It would be great if someone could help point out bugs and even suggest how to fix them.

[Draz]

[losing_touch]

The search works well .... I will try the others one of these days. This is the most critical.