forum's search system is crap

[rebel28]

I'm trying to search "how to make a....." and as a result I get

"One or all of your search keywords were below 3 characters or you searched for words which are not allowed, such as 'html', 'img', etc, please go back and increase the length of these search keywords or choose different keywords."

 

Whose idea was this, because it doesn't work, no one searches for "html" or "img" or any sort of code. Only idiots do.

You shouldn't put restrictions on searches, because then the member can't find what he wants.

And then he has to go find it manually, and that sucks.

[AncientSpaceAeon]

I think it's forbidden to search for "how", "to", "a". This really needs to be fixed, but this is not google. (google looks simple, but intruth it's the most powerfull search engine the world ever had.

[Dark0ne]

Think of it another way. You've got a database with over 1 million table rows in it, one for each post made. Within each post are between 1 and 10,000 words each. If you search for "a" in that database you won't get a result back from the server for about 10 minutes and you'll probably bring the server to a grinding halt for everyone else.

[rebel28]

yes, but who searches for "a", I know I wouldn't

I know it's hard to get the server running right, but it's really difficult to find the right thing otherwise.

[rebel28]

hmm, maybe you could make it so the user can't search a word less than 4 letters, unless there is a bigger word also.

For example:

not okay "a day"

okay "a long tireful day"

 

Would this be possible?

[TheTerminator2004]

The search engine works a little bit like Google, in that by default it searches for posts with any of the keywords in, and then sorts the list by the number of times a keyword occurs in it.

 

So searching for 'a day' would be even longer and slower than just 'a', and searching for 'a long tireful day' would be even worse.

 

But when it doesn't index words less than 3 characters on, that means it doesn't need to search 60% of the database, as words less than 3 characters long are the most common (things like if, to, no, I, a, etc).

 

Also, my advice is to navigate to the subforum you want to search in (for example, General mod talk if you want help making a mod), and searching with the search bar at the bottom there. As opposed to clicking the search link at the top of the forum, and searching from there, as that only displays individual posts, rather than threads - which makes it a lot less useful imo.

[Vagrant0]

Generally, when searching, you should just try to shorten the words searched for to just the important bits. It may take a little bit more effort to sit down and think about what those bits are, but you honestly can't expect the webserver to read your mind and do everything for you.

 

That said, I think that some exceptions should be made for certain words, like "map", or when things are combined as a single phrase "Two Handed (or Two_Handed)". In the later case, it should be treated as a single clause, instead of multiple clauses (two, two_handed, handed).

 

But, this is why it is usually best to just use google or the wiki when you're dealing with one of those things that can't be asked without a 3 letter word.

[Thor.]

It would be a good idea link a search engine like google into the nexus, i mean i would make it my home page if the nexus had one lol

 

ps the search engine is alright in my opinion, you just have to dig a bit deaper and use the advanced search option.