@ Cole
re: Hmmm…still experiencing the same behavior.
Apologies, it seems a regression was introduced in 8.4 that prevents this from working like it should. That said, there is a “Plan B”. Instead do this:
Go to the Connections : Settings admin page and change the Directory Home Page to the search results page.
Now, instead of using the home_id shortcode option use the force_home shortcode option set to true like so:
[connections force_home='TRUE']
Like before, this will need to be added to each instance of the shortcode on the original page.
I’ll have the home_id shortcode option fixed in the 8.4.1 update scheduled for for release Sunday night.
re: Is there some way to have home_id look for a page slug?
No, that is not needed… the ID is used internally to get the page’s permalink, that permalink should be set as the for action which is not happening because of the regression.
Again apologies!