# Trouble with Search **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [April 22, 2002, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-with-search/105040 "2002-04-22T20:27:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![White\_Lightning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@White\_Lightning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/White_Lightning)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2002, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-with-search/105040/1 "2002-04-22T20:27:08Z")
Howdy. So I was looking for a thread ( **Manda JO** ’s ‘healthy rules for relationships’ thread from MPSIMS, definitely less than a week old, if anyone would care to save me here) because I wanted to link to it in another thread. Searched for it. Didn’t find it. Changed search terms. Didn’t find it. Changed search terms. Didn’t find it. Finally I picked one word that I _knew_ had been in the title (‘healthy’), searched all open forums (searching in title only) for the last 2 weeks (up until this point I had been searching one forum only, last week only, to try to keep the server strain low)… still didn’t find it. ‘Hmm,’ I think, ‘I wonder if there’s something weird going on here.’ So I look at the thread I had just been reading, pick a word from the title of that thread (‘diplomacy’), do a search on that word in thread titles from that forum (MPSIMS) in the last week. Nothing. Now, I know this thread exists, and I know this word is in the title – I’m looking at the thing. But it doesn’t show up when I search for it. Anyone else had this problem? Is this still the database-being-built thing? Thanks in advance for any help or advice or commiseration about this intensely frustrating experience (actually it was kind of a relief once I figured out that it wasn’t just me being unable to find this one thread. Although I still haven’t found it. I’m going through the MPSIMS thread list one by one now. _I will not be denied_!). ---
**Author:** ![donkeyoatey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@donkeyoatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/donkeyoatey)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2002, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-with-search/105040/2 "2002-04-23T00:45:18Z")
Did you find [it](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=109508) yet **White Lightening**?🙂 ---
**Author:** ![White\_Lightning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@White\_Lightning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/White_Lightning)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2002, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-with-search/105040/3 "2002-04-23T01:03:22Z")
Oh, geez. Now I need an egg-on-the-face smilie. So ‘healthy’ wasn’t in the title. I still searched rules, rule, rule\*, and relationships, relationship, relationship\*. Hey, **donkeyoatey** , thank you kindly. I knew someone would be along to help me in my misery sooner or later. I appreciate it. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2002, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-with-search/105040/4 "2002-04-23T01:20:22Z")
White Lightning - I picked a thread on page 2 of MPSIMS, that had been started a few days ago, and searched for a keyword in the title. The thread was found. (It was something about baseball.) I believe that very recent threads may not be indexed yet, and so a search might fail to reveal those. I would have to confirm though that there is indeed a lag time for index creation. Did you find an example of an old thread (more than a day old) that was not found through a search? (Example would need to include a link to the thread, and the search parameters entered.) ---
**Author:** ![White\_Lightning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@White\_Lightning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/White_Lightning)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2002, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-with-search/105040/5 "2002-04-23T07:37:28Z")
Never mind. Various other issues at work here. Thanks for helping me find the thread, **donkeyoatey**. Sorry to bother, **Arnold Winkelried**. ---
**Author:** ![donkeyoatey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@donkeyoatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/donkeyoatey)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-with-search/105040/6 "2002-04-24T00:23:14Z")
You’re welcome, **White Lightning**. Btw, I put “relationships” in the keyword box, “Manda Jo” in the username box and it was the first one found.