# what strains the server more?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-strains-the-server-more/71814>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [July 9, 2001, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-strains-the-server-more/71814 "2001-07-09T12:20:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![curwin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@curwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curwin)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2001, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-strains-the-server-more/71814/1 "2001-07-09T12:20:10Z")

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On the subject of searching, what strains the server more?

a) One search that pulls a lot of threads (like a 2 year search, or all the posts by a specific user), but in which I only look at the first page or two, or

b) A much more limited search, but in which I look at like 10 pages.

In other words, is the bigger strain the initial culling of data, or is there a strain every time I hit next page?

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**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:** [July 10, 2001, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-strains-the-server-more/71814/2 "2001-07-10T02:37:39Z")

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That’s like asking “you wanna be shot or strangled?”

Please use search judiciously . . . the server does its best work when it gets to do it in little bites instead of huge unmanageable chunks of data.

Yes, it’s more of an inconvenience for you. . . but it allows more people to use the system at the same time as you. The greatest good for the greatest number, you know.

I would think that whatever you can do to limit your search parameters is going to be better, period.

your humble TubaDiva  
Administrator