vB and Too-short Search Terms (a note for the tech people)

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1

I just upgraded the fathom board from vb 2.2.9 to 3.6.7. I noticed a really cool feature that they added somewhere in there–not sure if it’s in your version or if it was added in a later one, but it’s dang nifty, and something to think about if you upgrade if it isn’t in the version the SDMB is running.

You know the setting where you set the minimum number of characters for search terms? There is also a big text box where you can add words that can be searched for even if they fall below that limit. (The example they give is a board dedicated to php programming that has its search limited to 4 letters or more, might include things like “php” as an allowed search phrase.) Anyway, I just thought I’d mention it because it is pretty cool (for example, you could put “24” there because probably a lot of people who follow the show want to search for previous threads about it).

2

vBulletin 2.2.9? :eek: Old skool!

3

Yeah it was an impressive upgrade, since the (fairly automated) upgrade process involves upgrading to each and every version in between, including all betas and release candidates. It took a while.

4

That’s an option not available in the version of vB we’re currently running, alas.

I do not know of any current plans to upgrade the vB software though I could be pleasantly surprised, you never know, I’m always hopeful for better.

5

I agree that uncommon short words should be allowed if possible, but allowing “php” on a board devoted to PHP programming strikes me as rather useless, since you’d get too many hits. It would make more sense to allow “php” on a board devoted to some other subject, or on a general board like this one.

6

Is it (technically) possible on the new version to set the limit at 3 characters or more, then create a blacklist of words you don’t want indexed (‘the’, ‘and’, ‘sex’, etc)?

7

That IS cool.

One of these days I’m going to look forward to doing stuff like that. ::: filing away notes for future reference :::

8

I don’t think they were giving their example whole lot of deep thought, just coming up with something to demonstrate the concept.

9

Can I put in a petition now to have my username on the list of searchable 3-letter terms, if and when an upgrade to that version happens?

I am sooooo out of luck in the vanity-search contest. :smiley:

10

Might be for the best. Are you sure you want to know what people are saying about you? :wink:

11

I’m pretty sure it is, and I think that would be a better solution, if it had been implemented at the start. There are a lot of three-letter words in text, but most of those are just repeated instances of the common ones. Throw out the 30 or so most common 3-letter words, and you’d probably be left with a reasonably-sized and fairly useful addition to the database.

On the other hand, to turn that on right now would mean that the server would have to go back through the entire archive, and add all those newly-eligible words to the search index. I don’t know how long that would take, but I can’t imagine it’d be easy or fun.