Search problems

[lardman]

Two things - the 30s between searches is a bit annoying, could it be reduced to 10s or thereabouts to make it easier to do searches of different parts of the forum (e.g. Customs finished and WIP)?

More importantly, if I try to search for e.g. "big ben" (with or without the quotes in the search dialog) I get the response:

The following errors occurred with your search:
1. Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms.

So obviously this search is not working for some reason as a Google site search turns up the threads I'm after: "big ben" site:http://www.hisstank.com/forum/ - Google Search (http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22big+ben%22+site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.his stank.com%2Fforum%2F&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a)

The question is then whether quotes are ignored and there's also a character limit on the search (which generates an error message that has nothing to do with the error that actually occurred), or whether there's some problem with the internal db search engine?

It would be useful to know if quotes around a phrase will search for that phrase specifically or if they are simply ignored and also whether Boolean operators can be used on the search page?

Thanks :)

[lardman]

No-one?

[Shin Densetsu]

It's because searching within a vbulletin forum is flawed. Not sure if vbulletin will address this in the future. You're better off searching through google, and when searching within here, set search to "thread titles". Even then though, not all the relevant threads show up in the search.

[lardman]

Thanks :)

[Tony_Bacala]

Also, regarding "big ben" - Minimum search characters is 4, and each of those words is 3. Hence the "no results" message.

But yeah, I would use google for most things if possible.

site:hisstank.com "big ben" would get you what you're looking for.

[lardman]

Also, regarding "big ben" - Minimum search characters is 4, and each of those words is 3. Hence the "no results" message.

Yes, I assumed that was the problem, and that I was getting an error message that has nothing to do with the problem ("your search terms are too short" would be better), which would lead one onto the question of how to search for phrases rather than any combination of words entered, etc., etc.


But yeah, I would use google for most things if possible.

site:hisstank.com "big ben" would get you what you're looking for.

Yep, seems like Google is indeed the way forward. I wonder if it would be worth saying this on the search page to avoid frustration on the part of would-be searchers?