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Lads...The F@cking search option

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  • 28-12-2007 10:52pm
    #1
    bombidol
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,638 ✭✭✭


    The search term you specified (in) is under the minimum word length (4) and therefore will not be found. Please make this term longer.

    If this term contains a wildcard, please make this term more specific.


    Seriously. i put in about 8 words.
    Post edited by Shield on


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    #2
    AlmightyCushion
    Moderators, Education Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 35,079 Mod ✭✭✭✭AlmightyCushion


    Were all the words over 4 characters in length? If not, that is your problem. Each word has to be over 4 characters in length.


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    #3
    Karl Hungus
    Closed Accounts Posts: 29,130 ✭✭✭✭Karl Hungus


    That's something that really frustrates me about the search.

    I mean, here I am, I want to search all posts for the letter E, yet I am denied?! :confused:

    Why can't I search for the letter E?


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    #4
    Pacifico
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,115 ✭✭✭Pacifico


    Karl Hungus wrote: »
    That's something that really frustrates me about the search.

    I mean, here I am, I want to search all posts for the letter E, yet I am denied?! :confused:

    Why can't I search for the letter E?

    It'll break the Internet


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    #5
    Karl Hungus
    Closed Accounts Posts: 29,130 ✭✭✭✭Karl Hungus


    Pacifico wrote: »
    It'll break the Internet

    Yeah, fair point... And I already did that once, so I best not do it again and piss people off... :(


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    #6
    Sparky
    Registered Users Posts: 22,231 ✭✭✭✭Sparky


    Quick fix is to type the word twice till its over 4 letters

    ie:

    lowlow warning light

    thethe wire

    2424


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    #7
    AlmightyCushion
    Moderators, Education Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 35,079 Mod ✭✭✭✭AlmightyCushion


    Spankeh wrote: »
    Quick fix is to type the word twice till its over 4 letters

    ie:

    lowlow warning light

    thethe wire

    2424

    Would that not just skip over words like low and search for words like lowlow?

    Edit: I created a thread in test with "low" in the post. A search for lowlow doesn't pick it up.


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    #8
    Terry
    Registered Users Posts: 26,061 ✭✭✭✭Terry


    Karl Hungus wrote: »
    That's something that really frustrates me about the search.

    I mean, here I am, I want to search all posts for the letter E, yet I am denied?! :confused:

    Why can't I search for the letter E?
    site:boards.ie That's something that really frustrates me about the search.


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    #9
    zAbbo
    Registered Users Posts: 11,987 ✭✭✭✭zAbbo


    lets say you want to search for 'hairy wrestling men'

    what you'll need to do is add * to the 'men' part to bring it up to 4 chars and enable wildcard searching.

    eg.

    'hairy wrestling men*'

    now quit your whining :)

    Boolean Operators FTW!


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    #10
    Zapp Brannigan
    Registered Users Posts: 8,326 ✭✭✭Zapp Brannigan


    Karl Hungus wrote: »
    That's something that really frustrates me about the search.

    I mean, here I am, I want to search all posts for the letter E, yet I am denied?! :confused:

    Why can't I search for the letter E?

    We don't want to encourage your drug habit. That's why you're not allowed watch that one episode of Sesame St. Me on the other hand, well I'll never look at Kermit the same again... :(


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    #11
    FruitLover
    Registered Users Posts: 2,534 ✭✭✭FruitLover


    Karl Hungus wrote: »
    Why can't I search for the letter E?

    Because it's E-vil.


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    #12
    Cantab.
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,444 ✭✭✭Cantab.


    Eh what kind of search algorithm is being used? Surely more efficient methods can be implemented? I guess the boards archive is massive at this stage so I can see why there's a 4 term minimum search. But how do google get around this problem?

    Is the system restricted to using a vBulletin search? If not, would a quick-fix solution be to utilise an embedded google search?


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    #13
    AlmightyCushion
    Moderators, Education Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 35,079 Mod ✭✭✭✭AlmightyCushion


    It's not a 4 term minimum search, it's just that all words you search for have to be 4 characters or more.


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    #14
    Giblet
    Registered Users Posts: 11,980 ✭✭✭✭Giblet


    You could index all words with 3 letters or more, but you would increase the load and length of each search.


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    #15
    Jesus Wept
    Registered Users Posts: 25,243 ✭✭✭✭Jesus Wept


    This reminds me, when you go to advanced, it's a nightmare searching through the list of forums with how it is setup.

    Any chance it can be made a bit more user friendly?

    803634604415111075705148_this.jpg

    Could the size of the box be increased?
    And to a lesser degree of importance/necessity, the Forum headers be put in bold/larger font or diff colour?

    :)


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    #16
    Orion
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,807 ✭✭✭✭Orion


    Google is your friend. site:boards.ie as one of the search terms. Problem solved ;)


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    #17
    Karl Hungus
    Closed Accounts Posts: 29,130 ✭✭✭✭Karl Hungus


    FruitLover wrote: »
    Because it's E-vil.

    Oh dear...

    I don't know what's worse, that joke, or the fact that I actually smirked at it. :o


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    #18
    Cuddlesworth
    Registered Users Posts: 13,995 ✭✭✭✭Cuddlesworth


    Cantab. wrote: »
    But how do google get around this problem?

    An insane amount of hardware and a search algorithim that its based on.


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    #19
    DeVore
    Business & Finance Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 32,387 Mod ✭✭✭✭DeVore


    They also omit simple search terms like "the" "of "and" and a lot of other common terms etc..

    vB's search engine is pants but we arent about to rewrite it. There are workarounds, as detailed above...

    DeV.


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    #20
    Sully
    Moderators, Education Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators, Regional South East Moderators Posts: 24,056 Mod ✭✭✭✭Sully


    Its nothing to do with vB. The same problem is with all boards, including the rival Invision Power Board.

    The problem boils down to the database, I assume its MySQL here. Apparently, its a database thing and not the board.


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    #21
    TimTim
    Registered Users Posts: 804 ✭✭✭TimTim


    DeVore wrote: »
    vB's search engine is pants but we arent about to rewrite it. There are workarounds, as detailed above...

    Someone has gone and replaced vB's search engine with Sphinx which is supposed to be a billion times better.

    Of course there are a few quirks with it but nothing that I can see that is show stopping if an admin ever decides to do this.

    http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showpost.php?p=1283359&postcount=387


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    #22
    Eoin
    Registered Users Posts: 21,257 ✭✭✭✭Eoin


    Sully wrote: »
    Its nothing to do with vB. The same problem is with all boards, including the rival Invision Power Board.

    The problem boils down to the database, I assume its MySQL here. Apparently, its a database thing and not the board.

    I doubt that it's entirely down to the database. Inefficient queries, storage and indexing by the application is more likely. I'd think MySQL is less memory intensive than Oracle.


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    #23
    regi
    Registered Users Posts: 3,279 ✭✭✭regi


    I've seen the Sphinx thing. I might even play with it sometime, looks good.


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