Question:
http://www.basenotes.net/cgi-bin/bas...?Notes=Incense

Answer:
there are four CdG's in the "Incense" list and they all share the word incense in their of notes. I have a feeling that a scan was done of the database for the word incense and that the CdG offerings in the Incense series list the actual ingredients and don't mention incense. And I hope thats clear because if that's the case then a lot of stuff was missed.
for instance: parfums*PARFUMS Series 6 Synthetic: Dry Clean Fragrance notes:
Ozone, Aldehydes, Nail Polish, Bay Leaf, Essence, Rose Oxide, Metallic Incense, Dissolvent Vapours, Gaiacwood
parfums*PARFUMS Series 3 Incense: Avignon
oops - no notes listed
so the scan was limited to reading notes and missed 5 that had the word Incense in their name. there are many, many listings without notes

Answer:
Whatever the reasons may be, the directory search sometimes delivers strange results.Bandit has incense and not much else, but you won't find that searching by notes. I have not sufficiently tested this but my impression also is: only those fragrances are found which have a corresponding note entry in the pyramid. Fragrances without a pyramid are thus not found (the whole CDG Incense series).
The search for frags including 'incense' has 83 results
The search for notes including 'frankincense' has 31 results.
I thus found Passage d'Enfer , but still no Avignon, Kyoto, etc.

I though I'll combine the two searches, entering'incense frankincense' but naturally that's interpreted as 'incense and frankincense', and delivers 'Your search found no fragrances, please try again.' And once the machine starts that it seems as if it goes on strike. I must shut down and start anew. (Does anybody else get that? I miss a button where I could clear invisible prior entries in the notes field the reply quotes a lot of empty spaces, separated like that: " , , .."). It is possible to enter more than one note but watch out: something like 'lily of the valley' seems to be four different note requests to the database!

Answer:
Yes, only those listing notes or having a complete pyramid can be found that way. No notes, no notes search.
A nice addition that probably has been suggested already would be a search within the reviews field. Searching the reviews for the term "incense", CDG Incense Kyoto would come up.
And yeah, not having an option of OR search in the notes to enter, for instance, olibanum OR frankincense OR incense OR opoponax, can be a bit inconvenient, but not having or searches may be due to performance reasons, as may be the case with the reviews search.

Answer:
Originally Posted by narcus Whatever the reasons may be, the directory search sometimes delivers strange results.Bandit has incense and not much else, but you won't find that searching by notes. I have not sufficiently tested this but my impression also is: only those fragrances are found which have a corresponding note entry in the pyramid. Fragrances without a pyramid are thus not found (the whole CDG Incense series).
The search for frags including 'incense' has 83 results
The search for notes including 'frankincense' has 31 results.
I thus found Passage d'Enfer , but still no Avignon, Kyoto, etc.

I though I'll combine the two searches, entering'incense frankincense' but naturally that's interpreted as 'incense and frankincense', and delivers 'Your search found no fragrances, please try again.' And once the machine starts that it seems as if it goes on strike. I must shut down and start anew. (Does anybody else get that? I miss a button where I could clear invisible prior entries in the notes field the reply quotes a lot of empty spaces, separated like that: " , , .."). It is possible to enter more than one note but watch out: something like 'lily of the valley' seems to be four different note requests to the database! this could be that Grant is not a database expert. neither am I.
The hang up on your machine is hard to diagnose without knowing the browser and it's version, the operating system and it's version and the amount of ram you have and what sort of video hardware and software is in use. it's enough to make one person lose their mind and I used to freelance at it on Macintosh's. Windows experts don't have any idea how to get two machines configured exactly so that fonts will print from one machine and should that machine die, it's back to re-foramatting all the line breaks in the designers document.
The loss of the Pyramid I don't understand, there are loads of us willing to search for the notes and email them in. But the newest stuff doesn't get notes.
The search feature that searches all basenotes forum entries might help but like most web searches these days, you can't search the results of your first search, drilling down to the answer as it were.

Answer:
I am sure, it will be the ultimate target to improve and widen the note information until it's complete. As I understand, BN is an ongoing project. There have been lots of changes and improvements in the past half year, and I am afraid I have not even familiarized myself with half of them yet - congrats and a big Thank You, Grant!
But there is more than technical problems. We have a Babylon in categories and names in the web world of perfumes. Just take brand names: you find Givenchy under G, Dior under C, like Chanel, and Puig under R (as also Rochas). Any logic? This is not only BN, others have similar 'systems', and i will not even touch on gender categories. What are these international fragrance institutions there for, if not for streamlining? Fortunately, perfume names are messed with in a lesser degree, but there are puzzling things going on too.
I have given up on notes, no matter whether they are in English, French, or German. There are just too many to be familiar with (in three or four languages, if BN isn't your only source). I suppose others may have the same problem, and in the case of incense/frankincense its clearly a matter of database design. Different values for the same item should be systematically eliminated, and I would suggest to have a combo box also for note entries. There could be similar faults concerning other notes.
Side remark: Does anybody know why there is no grouping by Family? I find that classification often more helpful than note details, but I realize that there are several different systems around.


Answer:
there are also limitations that the forum software throws out in the middle of developing a forum. some limitations can be gotten around by buying a more expensive package and some may be limitations that keep spammers from taking over and others I can't wrap my puny mind around but they're there.
We're not getting spammed. I like that.