# Can't do a search for a poster?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-do-a-search-for-a-poster/69032>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [June 16, 2001, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-do-a-search-for-a-poster/69032 "2001-06-16T11:12:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2001, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-do-a-search-for-a-poster/69032/1 "2001-06-16T11:12:57Z")

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I tried to do a search for my friend’s username (he is a relatively new poster), but got an error…

His username is **Mr O** , is that too short for the search dealy? I’m guessing it probably is…

Hmm…

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**Author:** ![reprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2001, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-do-a-search-for-a-poster/69032/2 "2001-06-16T11:18:10Z")

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Try a search using “match partial” - I find it works a lot better for usernames where I’m not exactly sure of the appropriate case or whether there’s an underscore.

I’m also not sure whether he’d show on a search if he hasn’t actually made any posts.

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**Author:** ![reprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2001, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-do-a-search-for-a-poster/69032/3 "2001-06-16T11:20:56Z")

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That’s odd - I just ran a seacrh on Mr O and your posts didn’t show up as a hit on it.

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**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2001, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-do-a-search-for-a-poster/69032/4 "2001-06-16T11:52:31Z")

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Mr O needs to contact me or TubaDiva, as his username isn’t recognized by the search engine. You need to have at least three consequetive alphanumeric digits in order for the search engine to be able to find a poster. I must not have seen his registration, as generally I write new users if they have an unsearchable name, and ask them what they’d like to change it to.

Lynn

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**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2001, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-do-a-search-for-a-poster/69032/5 "2001-06-17T02:47:47Z")

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Thanks, **Lynn** , I’ll let him know! I thought that might be the case (actually, I seem to remember reading it somewhere or other, but wasn’t entirely sure).

Firing off an e-mail to him now…