Searching for time

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1

I love the SDMB and hate to be a nag, but I figured I might as well bring this up if no one else has noticed it yet.

Doing a search solely for the word “time” in GQ results in the following error after a long wait:



Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 30 seconds exceeded in /usr/local/etc/httpd/boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/includes/db_mysql.php on line 205

I timed it once, it was more than 220 seconds. I have also tried this at many different times of day. Now, I understand it. “Time” is a very common word.

The frustrating part is that any query including “time” also takes an interminably long time to come back, and sometimes you don’t even get an error message. It’s just a blank screen (on IE) or the search page doesn’t go anywhere (Firefox) leading you to think you forgot to click the search button.

Example: Searching for “groundhog” in GQ comes back in about 1.5 seconds with 31 results. Searching for “groundhog time” takes several minutes and never returns results. Until I realized I was doing a tough search I figured there was just a lot of server load.

I’m guessing there are other common words that exhibit this behavior. Is it possible to lock these words out of searches (since they don’t return anyway) or make the 30 seconds really take 30 seconds? Ideally the SDMB would start with the longest word in the given phrase and nest the search down from there.

2

There are words that are excluded - thought I’m damned if I can find one of the many threads that talk about it. I think some words have been added to the list. Maybe your suggestion is a useful one: I wouldn’t be surprised if “time” failed in most of the forums. Other words would work in some forums but not in others.

3

Four minutes 58 seconds before ‘timing’ out this morning. This seems like something the vBulletin people need to address with an update.

4

Ouch. I dislike the problem, but I appreciate the confirmation Squink.

5

Look for my posts in this thread.