# Any reconsideration of the two minute search interval? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [April 22, 2013, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-reconsideration-of-the-two-minute-search-interval/656423 "2013-04-22T18:53:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Astral\_Rejection](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/258eb7/32.png) [@Astral\_Rejection](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astral_Rejection)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-reconsideration-of-the-two-minute-search-interval/656423/41 "2013-05-03T16:15:09Z")
I will note that I browse the dope almost exclusively by phone, and for whatever reason the built-in search seems to time out quite often, forcing me to a blank server fail page with no chance of ANY results, typo’d or not. At times like this, the two-minute wait seems especially egregious. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-reconsideration-of-the-two-minute-search-interval/656423/42 "2013-05-03T16:58:30Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > Folks, most of you seem to not be aware of why the two-minute delay between searches was put in the system to begin with. > > It’s not because we wanted to mess with you, it’s because prior to that implementation the system was often unstable, with slowdowns and crashes as a frequent part of everyday life. > > The vBulletin search engine is very system-intensive – so much so that heavy demand and multiple searches would literally bring the system to its knees. It’s like vB’s own built in DOS attack. > > Jerry found that slowing down searches with a two-minute delay between them stabilized the system and allowed everyone to read and write posts, which is what this is all about, no? > > That was quite a few years ago and now we have like five times the volume we had then and so because of that I’m really hesitant to lower the time between searches. I think this is perfectly understandable, as I think we’d all prefer to be able to read threads in a timely fashion than to wait less on searches if we had to choose only one. But, aren’t you guys now hosting the board on a multi-server setup, with one dedicated as a slave for mysql queries? I seem to remember that being announced a while back. If that’s the case, search should put far less of a burden on overall board performance than in the previous single-server situation. A quick Google search shows that there are further improvements one could do, e.g. replicating the database to the slave server and searching on that so you don’t lock the tables people are reading the forums from, but they may be unnecessary if the current setup is capable of handling the search load. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-reconsideration-of-the-two-minute-search-interval/656423/43 "2013-05-03T18:42:03Z")
> [@Anonymous User](#): > > Why not just get rid of it? It’s not like it’s of much use anyway and I doubt anyone actually uses the search feature extensively. > > Get rid of it. That way people wouldn’t see it, they would forget about it, and then there would be no more complaints. > > All keeping it does is agitate people. > > However, the two-minute delay when using the “find all posts by this user” should be lifted if you do decide to remove the regular search function. The search feature drives the “new post” function and certain functions when you click on a username and look for “posts by this user” etc. If we lost the search function we probably wouldn’t have those functions any longer as well. For me, I use “new posts” all the time. I son’t think the volume of complaints is that overwhelming to justify turning off a feature to eliminate them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-reconsideration-of-the-two-minute-search-interval/656423.md?page=2)