60 seconds between searches? For reals?

About This Message Board
21

… 15 seconds, and we are still here …

22

Well, now searches just come up with blank pages, whether I’m on mobile or a PC.

23

Thanks again for the reduction in search delay. Now: Please remove the prohibition against “too short” words. Skies are not always blue; short words are not always common. (And even if they were, you already have the 500-hit throttle.)

24

I’m not seeing any problems with the vB search engine; it brought stuff up fine for me today.

You will always get better results searching with Google; here’s how to use it on the SDMB:

https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=638051

As for changing the search criteria so that it works on searches of less than three letters … no can do. The smaller the search criteria, the more oomph it takes from the system and we’re just not that robust to do these small letter searches. Sorry.

Jenny
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator

25

Am I allowed to ask what kind of hardware/system is being used?

26

It’s not a prohibition, it’s an old vB database issue. It doesn’t set those words for cross reference because some of them are so common they would blow up the database. Don’t know if that’s fixed in later versions.

27

I must say… me, and other DBA’s (Database Administers) are rolling our eyes. Sorry to seem condescending but queries against a database that has proper indexes are the cheapest actions that can be taken. Inserts and deletes can be more expensive because relational integrity has to be checked. But queries are absolutely straight forward and are not a big deal. If they are a big deal… just add the proper indexes and everything is just fine.

28

Why does anyone use the lame native search function here? Just use the Google site search.

29

Since the Search ends after 500 hits anyway, if there are 500+ hits then searching for a 3-letter word should be FASTER than searching for a 10-letter word. But I see now that 4-letter searches (but not 3-letter) are now allowed. Is that new?

How do I search for Tim R. Mortiss mentioning ‘witchcraft’ WITHOUT getting results where you posted in a thread with ‘witchcraft’ but didn’t mention it yourself? The how-to guide for searching seems to concede the impossibility: “Note that its not possible to find all posts by QED that mention gas.” ***Most of the searches I do have this form.

30

It’s not fixed in this version. And we’re not scheduled for an upgrade anytime soon that I’m aware of.

Does it work in Google at all?

Jenny
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator

31

Well, I don’t know shit about database administration but this particular problem is something I’ve heard about vB search a long time ago. In fact, looking now, it seems that blocking the short words was a patch because it was messing things up.

But if you are just rolling your eyes at my explanation of the mechanics of it, that is fair enough because like I said, I’m pretty clueless about it.

32

You’re allowed to ask. You may not be allowed to know the answer.

33

We use a hosting service, so I don’t know if anyone here actually knows what hardware we’re running on. It’s probably a safe bet that we’re on some sort of server farm, maybe as a virtual machine of some sort.

34

I’ll concede that point. Not that I’ve ever done that type of a search, but I could see the value of it.

35
  1. Did you see that link Tuba Diva posted? For those of us not programmers, it’s a nightmare of complexity.

  1. I use it mostly for “new posts.”

  2. I love the 15 second rule. I never have a problem now.

36

Well, technically, he can know then answer, but then… ::cocks pistol::

37

Hamsters. Isn’t that in the FAQ?

38

I concur wholeheartedly. Kudos!