Search Issues

[XtinaBeardieMom]

Hey there Alex & Mods,

You know I love this place, but the 3-character minimum on the search function is driving me crazy!! For example, I had heard of an amazing little handicapable dragon named LG whose owner is a member here - so I tried to find the thread by searching for "LG" but it wouldn't let me. Finally found it here eventually viewtopic.php?f=3&t=82921. I've also been extremely frustrated when I can't search for something in relation to vitamin "D3", or like one time I was looking for something that had to do with a "T8" fixture.

Is there some way I can get around this through the advanced search options? Is the 3-character minimum really even necessary to implement at all?

Thanks for your time!
-Christina

 

[beardie]

There are a few problems with having less than that.

1) The site would have to index (making it searchable) every 2 character word. As it is, 3 characters is a lot of extra processing it does each time a post is made.

2) 2 characters are very likely to have false positive matches.

In general, the need for two character search terms is small, and the cost is large. I think the original default for the forum software was 4 or 5 characters. I could TRY is, but it will not apply to any past posts. That would end up causing the site to do a TON of processing to index 2-letter words historically. I'm just concerned about the load this may cause. The character limit is a "performance" setting in the software.

 

[XtinaBeardieMom]

There are a few problems with having less than that.

1) The site would have to index (making it searchable) every 2 character word. As it is, 3 characters is a lot of extra processing it does each time a post is made.

2) 2 characters are very likely to have false positive matches.

In general, the need for two character search terms is small, and the cost is large. I think the original default for the forum software was 4 or 5 characters. I could TRY is, but it will not apply to any past posts. That would end up causing the site to do a TON of processing to index 2-letter words historically. I'm just concerned about the load this may cause. The character limit is a "performance" setting in the software.

Ah, got ya. No big deal then, sounds like changing it would be an unnecessary pain. Hopefully you can understand my frustration though lol

Take care Alex, hope you're doing well!

 

[beardie]

Yes... I do understand what you mean. It would be nice, but I have concerns about performance in enabling it to less than 3 characters.

 

[XtinaBeardieMom]

Yes... I do understand what you mean. It would be nice, but I have concerns about performance in enabling it to less than 3 characters.

Valid... I never knew how much extra work the tiniest little change could cause!

 

[beardie]

Yeah... computers and technology... it's a love-hate relationship.