# how come I can only seach once every 30 sec? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [March 2, 2003, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-i-can-only-seach-once-every-30-sec/158672 "2003-03-02T23:05:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2003, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-i-can-only-seach-once-every-30-sec/158672/1 "2003-03-02T23:05:07Z")
I was performing a search today that returned no results. I was puzzled until I realized there was a typo. Okie doke, so I fixed the typo, then searched again. Eh? What’s this? I can only do a search once every 30 seconds? Hmm, well why? I can understand the one post per 30 seconds as rabid posters might get out of control and flood the boards (although a determined rabid poster could still this), but why not be able to get out of control with the searching? Also, how come the buddy button underneath each post looks so angry? Are those faces frowning? ---
**Author:** ![Berkut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Berkut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Berkut)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2003, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-i-can-only-seach-once-every-30-sec/158672/2 "2003-03-02T23:09:47Z")
Probably to keep people from flogging the hamsters. Searching places a large demand on the server. ---
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-i-can-only-seach-once-every-30-sec/158672/3 "2003-03-03T00:16:31Z")
The buddy icon is actually one guy with three heads. You’d be unhappy too if you had three different personalities that were buddies with three different classes of people and hated the other two. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-i-can-only-seach-once-every-30-sec/158672/4 "2003-03-03T14:13:18Z")
Searching is the most system-intensive operation and it really taxes the server, sometimes enough to shut things down for everybody else. It’s bad enough now that a lot of people doing searches (as we have had in the past couple of weeks, more so than usual) has seriously degraded board performance. And you want us to add to this problem by allowing you MORE searches in less time? Throw some gasoline on that fire, sure. your humble TubaDiva Administrator ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2003, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-i-can-only-seach-once-every-30-sec/158672/5 "2003-03-03T22:35:47Z")
Oh. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Carter_of_Mars)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2003, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-i-can-only-seach-once-every-30-sec/158672/6 "2003-03-04T12:32:45Z")
Methinks one search per 30 _minutes_ would be a great policy. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-i-can-only-seach-once-every-30-sec/158672/7 "2003-03-05T04:24:49Z")
Heh. **Tars** and **John** , you’re both very funny. 😛