I notice that when one searches for reviews by reviewer the database only returns results for DVD Video. Is there a way to provide combined search results that cover theatrical, dvd video, video games, audio etc.?

Without reformatting of some sort, there isn't really room for combined search results, as I'd want to include a column indicating what type of review each entry is. It's technically very much possible to do, but I'm not a graphic designer or anything. Tell me how to format it and I'll do it.

Video games couldn't be included without considerable effort since they're stored in a different database with a different set of users.

Ha! As it turns out I am a graphic designer. I'll work something simple up and send it to you. You're thinking separating each class of review out completely or just adding a column that shows what kind of review each item in the list is (like on the 'view popular' screen in the reviewer tool)?

I think keeping video games out is probably fine. I mainly want to be able to see all of a reviewer's work in the DVD/theatrical/Audio DVD realms.

It's been capable of doing that for a while. Using Aaron Beierle as an example:

DVD Video
Audio
Theatrical

A column was what I had in mind.

Basically, I'd have to have five columns in the very limited space allotted, and there's not really enough room for a fifth. This, or something similar, came up before, and no one wanted to lose any of the current columns or drop the font size, so it stayed as is...

Edit -- hmm...or I could just list them one after another in groups, rather than having another column... I dunno...

That's what I'd recommend. Sort of like this:

Theatrical Reviews:

Review 1
Review 2

DVD Video Reviews:

Review 1
Review 2

etc.

Then you could add a very simple index across the top that jumps the visitor to each of the classes.

Way too complex? Let me know if you want to work with me outside of the Forum. This is exactly the sort of thing I do for a living. Geoff and I know each other outside of DVD Talk so perhaps we could bring him in on the discussion?

I'm not married to this idea. Just seems like a simple user convenience that would be great to add (assuming that the back end wouldn't be too hard to do) to the functionality of the site.

I was looking through the files, and it turns out I'd already written combined search functionality. Oops. I was using it in the 'bio' pages for the "Search for all reviews of...'s reviews" links.

I decided against the grouping. It's too big a pain to go through tons and tons of pages of reviews trying to figure out where one group begins and another ends. I know I could add links to go directly to a particular grouping, but...I dunno, I just don't like the idea.

I don't know how many users really want to get results for audio, DVDs, and theatrical releases all in a single search. Theatrical and DVD, maybe, but all three...? I'd guess the only real appeal would be easy linking for reviewers to say "here are all my reviews". For you, the URL would be:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/list....reviewType=All

If 'All' reviews are selected, then the 'Reviewer' column is replaced by a 'Type' column.

I might go back later and making the display of columns a little more intelligent.

That's very cool. Yeah, I like to browse the reviewer's reviews and see what they've been writing about in all of the fields. Not so interested in video games though. Just figured that if I like to do that then there must be others like myself.

Oh, yeah, I definitely see the appeal there, and I think I've made that functionality better after reading your request. It was more in terms of general searches that I don't think combining results would be too helpful, since if someone's searching for text, they probably have a specific group in mind. When searching for a specific reviewer's work, that's a different scenario entirely. Re-reading my previous message, I sounded a little snippier than I intended. Apologies.

No problem! Thanks for looking into it!