search bar, ...more than four letters? Options

[*xcaitlinx*]

ugh...what's really been pissing me off is how you have to enter words that are four letters + in the search bar. it's hard when you're trying to search something with "the", "or", "an", and other short, common words. a lot of the time i don't get the same results or any results at all if i just enter one word because i can't put "the" in. i think it'd be better if there was either no word letter minimum, or the minimum should be 2 or 3 letters. four is a little high IMO.

[jennyjenny]

I agree.

It should be like 3.
Because things like sex, bra, dog, cat, blah blah blah.. so on.
yeah.

[xenosaga]

yeah. there are credible words that are only 3 letters long.
it annoys me when i search too.

but then again..if you use the four letter words..you're still going to find it.

i agree, but it will also take a while for you to find that specific topic you are looking for.

[allboutme2987]

agreed

[talcumpowder]

Um... Also, the member search doesn't seem to work when there's and underscore in the name. As in... I can search for my name, but Sherry_Vu and OmG_iTz_KiMi "cannot be found" even though I know that they're members. =/ Kinda annoys me sometimes.

[*mipadi*]

Words like "the", "and", "a", and so forth typically get filtered out of search results, because they would a) return too many unintended hits and b) dramatically increase the score of returns. (I don't know if IPB ranks returns or not, but this is the reason why search engines like Google filter out these words.) These words are commonly unimportant--how many searches actually require "the", "and", and so forth?

There's also the point that words like "and", "or", and "not" cannot be searched for because they are Boolean expressions, meaning you can use them in searches such as "Weezer AND music" to find threads containing "Weezer" and "music," "beans OR squash" to find threads containing "beans" or "squash" (but not necessarily both), and "harry NOT potter" to find threads containing "harry" but not "potter". As such, these words cannot be searched for because they are reserved.

One thing you can do is work around this limitation by making sure certain words are included or excluded, using + or - signs. This will help refine searches.

As for the 4-character minimum, I think this is done to limit how hard a database is hit during a search. Searching a database is a processor-intensive task, especially when tiny little sequences that will commonly appear are searched for.

[sadolakced acid]

i have an idea of solving this!

everyone types keywords the the begining of thier topic.

however, if there are any words with less than three letters, the letters que are added.

so, like if the topic's about dogs.

then you'd type dogque in your post as a keyword

so when someone wants to search for it, they can type dogque.

[[Scr3amin][Horro...]

^LOL hiQUE
Yes I agree it should be 3 not 2. Just cause.

[*iNyCxShoRT*]

I completely agree with you Caitlin Man it gets so irritating, when I make a new topic I'm afraid it might be closed because the search bar didn't help me at all

[iiTsDAYNA]

Well agreed! Its extremely annoying! AHHH!

[Paradox of Life]

Yeah. I usually end up combining words just to be able to search and then it says nothing can be found. I couldn't search Lil Bow Wow and stuff..

[xquizit]

Fixed. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

[talcumpowder]

Roxy, did you fix the underscore thing too? Or is that a Reiri-only problem...? Because I seriously cannot search with underscores.

[xquizit]

Roxy, did you fix the underscore thing too? Or is that a Reiri-only problem...? Because I seriously cannot search with underscores.

That's a problem I can't really do anything about.

[talcumpowder]

Really? Aw man.... -pout- Darn.

[*mipadi*]

Um... Also, the member search doesn't seem to work when there's and underscore in the name. As in... I can search for my name, but Sherry_Vu and OmG_iTz_KiMi "cannot be found" even though I know that they're members. =/ Kinda annoys me sometimes.

I just did a search for omg_itz_kimi as a test, and I got results back.

//Edit
A search for Sherry_Vu also yielded results.

[toodlepops.]

Ooh, I'm glad it's fixed now.

[talcumpowder]

I just did a search for omg_itz_kimi as a test, and I got results back.

//Edit
A search for Sherry_Vu also yielded results.

Oh yes, I love my computer so damn much. But seriously, does anyone else get that?

[*xcaitlinx*]

thanks for fixing it roxy

[*incoherent*]

i was just thinking about that today and was going to make something like this.

sometimes people know the thread they are looking for so they just type in the title so its easy to navigate to, but some of them are less than 4 letters long or include "a".

i believe one time it let me type in one with words that were 2-3 letters long, but i dont remember.

[*autumn.*]

i was just thinking about that today and was going to make something like this.

sometimes people know the thread they are looking for so they just type in the title so its easy to navigate to, but some of them are less than 4 letters long or include "a".

i believe one time it let me type in one with words that were 2-3 letters long, but i dont remember.

well it's your lucky day because it has already been fixed.

[WhiteLotus*]

Yay it's finally been fixed! That was the only problem that I had with the Search button.

[yellowgurl]

i have an idea of solving this!

everyone types keywords the the begining of thier topic. 

however, if there are any words with less than three letters, the letters que are added.

so, like  if the topic's about dogs.

then you'd type dogque in your post as a keyword

so when someone wants to search for it, they can type dogque.

lol. i like the idea =) sometimes i'd get so angry when i can't search words that are 3 letters. Maybe the limit should be lower.

[*autumn.*]

Maybe the limit should be lower.

If you read a couple of responses in this thread, you'll see that the problem has been fixed! Partay-tay.

[*Azarel*]

It's always been this way. What I mean is, whenever I search for anything by Eve (X_angawhomps), the search feature tells me she doesn't exist as a member. Boo. :[

(edit: Apparently Gigi's old username (barelyy_coherent) comes up like that too, so I don't believe the problem with searching for users with underscores in their usernames has been fixed. :x Sorry if I'm presenting redundant points.)