Ok I don’t know if this was here before but when I use the new post feature and its a short thread or i read it fast (I can read 1500-2100 words a minute) and I click back I have to wait 120 seconds
I was wondering on the tech reason why for it
Not enough server capacity to handle all the searches that would result with a lower time limit.
That was the case with the old server (and IIRC (but I can’t find it anymore), I thought someone was trying to see if they could bring down the server by organizing members to put through lots of searches in a short amount of time. Either way, I think we’ve upgraded the server since putting the timer in place and I’d bet that if we got rid of it, we’d be fine.
And I don’t want to hear about using Google, searching the boards with Google isn’t the same.
Just in case it’s not clear,
[noparse]http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/search.php?do=getnew[/noparse]
the New Posts link* is a search.
*I’m assuming that’s what you’re using.
CMC fnord!
To add on to Crowmanyclouds’ when you’re done reading (if’s a short thread) don’t hit the New Posts button again (which is probably what you’re doing), hit the back button and the previous search results should still be there.
If you’re actually using the back button, you’re browser must be reloading the page for whatever reason, in that case, instead of just clicking on a thread, I’d suggest right clicking on it and hitting ‘open in new tab’.
If you click the “Back” button on your browser, you shouldn’t have to wait (at least, that’s the way it works on mine); but if you click “New Posts” again, it re-searches for the newest posts.
ETA: I guess that’s what Joey P just said.
IIRC, no one knew what the server capacity was (and that was on a different server anyway), but there was a suspicion that too-frequent searches were the cause of unspecified problems. That was never proven, but the 2 minute limit was kept as a precaution.
Imagine what a spammer could do if there was no board timer-it would take less than a minute to spread a cut-and-paste post of crap all over the board.
This is the search timer, not the posting timer.
It certainly isn’t. For the most part, it’s better. Yes, the built-in search has features that Google lacks (search for this word in posts by this user, and so on), but it’s also unreliable, and filters out half the dictionary.
We still occasionally have people complaining about performance issues (the last time was just in March) so I really doubt that we’ll be changing the search timer any time soon.
True, but there is a posting timer, too – admin configurable. I believe this board uses a 60 second value. It’s definitely designed to avoid spam floods.
As opposed to the 15 minutes it takes now?
This is what I do all the time, and I second Joey P’s recommendation.
I keep the SDMB front page (with the list of forums) open in my first tab. I open a forum thread list in a second tab. I open a thread in a third tab. No shortage of tabs to play with. This works very well. You can work with a page of search results the same way.
ETA: And when I want to look at links in a post, I open those in additional tab(s).
Or indeed since I use this technique continually, set your middle mouse button to “open link in new tab”. For all sites that consolidate links I just go through choosing links that I want to look at, clicking each one with the middle mouse button. Then read and close each tab.
I think some people either just like staying within the SDMB website and/or can’t be bothered remembering the terminology to search within a specific website. I personally search the board so rarely that I’m happy to use its own search function.
Not just that, but there’s definitely fewer active posters than there used to be. I get the reasons for not wanting to get rid of the search timer entirely, but surely it could be halved with no ill-effects for the boards?
Like I said, we still have people complaining about board performance at times. I wouldn’t expect them to change the timer as long as we continue to have issues.
Really? Besides the recent DDOS attack I haven’t noticed many issues. With fewer posters here, how can the board possibly be having semi-regular issues still necessitating a 2 minute search timer after all these years?
New Thread on Board Performance
Last post 03/12/2016, although to be fair I’m not sure if the “zapping” that some people describe is a performance issue or not. It does seem to happen more often when the board is also performing poorly overall.
Last complaint about sluggish board performance 02/25/2016, with several complaints between 02/14 and 02/25.