# Things I Hate About the Search Function Here **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 28, 2007, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-hate-about-the-search-function-here/431519 "2007-12-28T20:56:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-hate-about-the-search-function-here/431519/1 "2007-12-28T20:56:43Z")
1.) Getting the following message > [@](#): > > This forum requires that you wait 120 seconds before submitting another search. You have 1 seconds to wait before another search will be allowed. 2.) _Not_ being able to select the date range when I’m trying to find a thread that’s 1+ years old, that I posted to, that I can’t seem to find using keywords (or the only keywords I can remember are 3 letters long), even though I know that the thread appeared in June of 2003, so I have to click back through 4 years worth of stuff because the only hope I have of finding it is by using the “Search by User Name” to try and find it. 3.) Not being able to search on things that are three letters, even though they’re a user name or a pretty damned unusual combination of three letters. 4.) Not being able to find a thread, that I know the exact title to, because for some reason the search engine just fucking hates me, despite keying in the thread title _exactly_. 5.) Not being able to search for a poster _and_ a keyword at the same time. And yes, it _is_ time for another bitch thread about the search function here. If you’ll check your Official SDMB Calendar, you’ll see that today’s the day for one, and I was selected to be the one to do it. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-hate-about-the-search-function-here/431519/2 "2007-12-28T20:58:38Z")
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan] 5.) Not being able to search for a poster _and_ a keyword at the same time. [/QUOTE] I am able to do this all the time. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-hate-about-the-search-function-here/431519/3 "2007-12-28T21:10:10Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself] I am able to do this all the time. [/QUOTE] It won’t work for a key word in a thread that isn’t in a post by the poster in question. I wish that we could search for threads that include two posters, me and another poster. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-hate-about-the-search-function-here/431519/4 "2007-12-28T21:21:20Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself] I am able to do this all the time. [/QUOTE] When’d they fix it, because it used to be that if you plugged one term into the keyword box and a posters name in the username box, you’d get an error message. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-hate-about-the-search-function-here/431519/5 "2007-12-28T21:25:56Z")
**Tuckerfan** , are you using IE or Firefox? If IE, you get the “1 second” message, and everything you’ve typed into the search page is lost. If you use FF, however, all you need do is hit back (or ALT-left arrow) and the page will reappear with all the stuff in it, wait a second, then hit the ‘search’ button again. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-hate-about-the-search-function-here/431519/6 "2007-12-28T21:48:16Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself] I am able to do this all the time. [/QUOTE] Me, too. That’s actually on of the (few) good features of the search function! Otherwise, I tend to agree with the OP. The search function sucks. Not to mention how sloooooooow it is. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-hate-about-the-search-function-here/431519/7 "2007-12-28T22:35:50Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] **Tuckerfan** , are you using IE or Firefox? If IE, you get the “1 second” message, and everything you’ve typed into the search page is lost. If you use FF, however, all you need do is hit back (or ALT-left arrow) and the page will reappear with all the stuff in it, wait a second, then hit the ‘search’ button again. [/QUOTE] Neither, I use Opera. What pisses me off is that the fucking thing tells me I have **one** second remaining, which means that by the time I’ve actually _read_ that far, one second has already passed, thus, said message is _useless._ It would be _much_ better, if there was less than, say, 10 seconds remaining, for it to just queue my request and _then_ act on it, rather than telling me I have **one** second remaining. Trust me, I _won’t_ notice the delay, if it holds my search for that long before acting on it. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-hate-about-the-search-function-here/431519/8 "2007-12-28T22:44:32Z")
From my admittedly non-developer knowledge of the subject (I devise the process flow and front-end of web apps and liaise with developers), there’s a submission “POST” protocol from your browser to the webserver, that would usually go straight to the PHP vB search function. If this is indeed the case, the amount of development required to “hold” your search for the requisite time, before submitting it to the search function via a different protocol, would not only use up some system resources itsef, but be so unusual as to require significant bespoke development, and therefore doubt be way beyond the capabilities of TPTB. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-hate-about-the-search-function-here/431519/9 "2007-12-28T23:02:49Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] From my admittedly non-developer knowledge of the subject (I devise the process flow and front-end of web apps and liaise with developers), there’s a submission “POST” protocol from your browser to the webserver, that would usually go straight to the PHP vB search function. If this is indeed the case, the amount of development required to “hold” your search for the requisite time, before submitting it to the search function via a different protocol, would not only use up some system resources itsef, but be so unusual as to require significant bespoke development, and therefore doubt be way beyond the capabilities of TPTB. [/QUOTE] If past experience around here is any guide, pretty much _all_ improvements are way beyond the capabilities of TPTB here. If we _don’t_ see some changes around here (like Ed mentioned in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=446080)), I’m outta here when my subscription’s up. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-hate-about-the-search-function-here/431519/10 "2007-12-28T23:08:21Z")
FYI: You _can_ search for three letter words. Just enclose the word in single quotes. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-hate-about-the-search-function-here/431519/11 "2007-12-28T23:16:59Z")
[QUOTE=Projammer] FYI: You _can_ search for three letter words. Just enclose the word in single quotes. [/QUOTE] Doesn’t work in the user names field, however. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-hate-about-the-search-function-here/431519/12 "2007-12-28T23:19:40Z")
So what’cha searchin’ for? Scandals? Naked ladies? ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-hate-about-the-search-function-here/431519/13 "2007-12-29T04:10:24Z")
Tai Chi sex 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-hate-about-the-search-function-here/431519/14 "2007-12-29T04:31:14Z")
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan] Doesn’t work in the user names field, however. [/QUOTE] Three letter user name searches work just fine. ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-hate-about-the-search-function-here/431519/15 "2007-12-29T05:19:22Z")
In all honesty, coming from someone who hasn’t been able to use the search function for the past month, I found a new creative way to find stuff. If you’re looking for a specific thread, and you recall the OP, I recommend just changing display options to display by thread starter and from the beginning. From there you can catapult your way through every thread available by fracking with the website address. I guess it doesn’t work well if you’re searching for a particular subject, in Cecil’s columns forum. But if you’re trying to find a memorable thread in MPSIMS, the Cafe, or the Pit and you can recall the OP it’s kinda nice. **Tuckerfan** , if I may use you as an example (being the OP), say I remembered your “search” pit a number of months or years from now I would just ask to display thread starters, from beginning, in descending order (“T” is farther to the back): [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?s=&f=5&page=\*\*1\*\*&pp=50&sort=postusername&order=desc&daysprune=-1](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?s=&f=5&page= **1** &pp=50&sort=postusername&order=desc&daysprune=-1) That gives me the z’s. So I just mess with the address, jump to… ummm… 150: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?s=&f=5&page=\*\*150\*\*&pp=50&sort=postusername&order=desc&daysprune=-1](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?s=&f=5&page= **150** &pp=50&sort=postusername&order=desc&daysprune=-1) That brought me to the p’s… too far. Let’s try [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?f=5&page=\*\*44\*\*&sort=postusername&order=desc&pp=40&daysprune=-1](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?f=5&page= **44** &sort=postusername&order=desc&pp=40&daysprune=-1) hey, there you are **Tuck**! Now I can browse not only this pit thread, but all of them. I know it’s dumb way of searching, but as long as we don’t have any timeouts I was able to find your threads in under two minutes. So when I miss the first shot instead of waiting I can scoop the thread up this way. Also, it’s kind of fun browsing some older threads along the way rather than waiting for the two minute delay. Sorted alphabetically the last Pit thread we have is [Pandas can f\*\*\* off!](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=136547), at my “150” search I can check out [Ok, here’s whats pissing me off this week!](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=377007), and evn though I was looking for Tuck’s thread I can check out **Tuba** introducing **Giraffe** as the Pit mod at page #44, [Your new pit moderator](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=315750). So in short, it’s a clumsy method, but one that I rather enjoy now. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-hate-about-the-search-function-here/431519/16 "2007-12-29T07:29:05Z")
I wonder if any of this would improve if they would quit steadfastly refusing to upgrade from a version of vBulletin that’s nearly three fucking years old. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-hate-about-the-search-function-here/431519/17 "2007-12-29T14:04:37Z")
The improvements won’t be significant. vB search is the problem (and is better than any other “out of the box” board system). What they have to do is use Google’s open search feature instead of, or in addition to vB’s own. Of course they would have to let the Googlebot crawl the site for that. And yes. Fricking upgrade already before you will have to migrate the database because it is completely incompatible to the new version of vB. If they upgrade there is a mod available at vBorg that does what I described above. Of course it only works with the latest stable version (3.6.8 I think). ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-hate-about-the-search-function-here/431519/18 "2007-12-29T14:24:12Z")
[QUOTE=Mighty\_Girl] The improvements won’t be significant. vB search is the problem (and is better than any other “out of the box” board system). What they have to do is use Google’s open search feature instead of, or in addition to vB’s own. Of course they would have to let the Googlebot crawl the site for that. [/QUOTE] And without an upgrade to the server that the SDMB sits on, none of these things will happen. ---
**Author:** ![Merkwurdigliebe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/74df32/32.png) [@Merkwurdigliebe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merkwurdigliebe)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2007, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-hate-about-the-search-function-here/431519/19 "2007-12-30T05:24:18Z")
Finally, Someone else bitching about the board. I’m so tired of this “don’t let the door hit you on the way out” attitude with regards to problems that need to be addressed. Let’s face it: The board sucks. Not the people or the content, mind you, but the actual servers and quality. We don’t have images, we don’t have avatars, none of the things that would require more bandwith. You can search only once every two minutes and it is very restrictive to boot. And for this we pay a yearly fee? WTF? We even have google ads. How is it so hard to make this goddamned place work. This fucking site feels like I’m on dialup half the time. Seriously, I’m left wondering what the fucking Chicago Reader is doing with this place. Is it the money? I’d really like to see a few things… An explanation (detailed, there’s plenty of techies here) as to why the site works like shit A detailed breakdown of where the funds go. No it’s not a democracy and participation is voluntary, but wouldn’t it be a good gesture of good faith? I’m so sick of lame excuses. There are far too many free boards on the net with much better performances and much better features. It simply doesn’t make any sense. The point is that we all deserve (for what we pay) at the very least a functional webpage that operates correctly. It’s a question of page impressions and ad revenue. The popularity of a website only increases its income (thus increased money for infrastructure upgrades). How can the size of the place be used as an excuse for any of this garbage that is going on? If I’m missing something here, then please explain to us why? Why the fuck does the site work so poorly? One search every 2 minutes is fucking PISS POOR. We deserve better. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2007, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-hate-about-the-search-function-here/431519/20 "2007-12-30T05:32:20Z")
I’d like to be able to search for keywords in posts rather than keywords in threads. Like, I’d like to be able to query up all the posts that have “chicken giblets taste like shit” and not have to wade through the threads to find them. I’d also like to be able to check out my first postings, but it’s like they don’t exist anymore. The earliest I can go back is like two or three years ago. Wah. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-hate-about-the-search-function-here/431519.md?page=2)