# You can's search on "seven" ? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [August 19, 2003, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cans-search-on-seven/196230 "2003-08-19T16:36:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ffolkelore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@ffolkelore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ffolkelore)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2003, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cans-search-on-seven/196230/1 "2003-08-19T16:36:42Z")
I searched on “seven” in the title and post categories trying to locate “Things that come in sets of seven” (which I thought was MPSIMS, but turns out is IMHO) Neither “seven” search found anything. I had to add other terms for the search to work. Are numbers excluded from the search, like “this” and “that” as being too common? ---
**Author:** ![Berkut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Berkut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Berkut)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2003, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cans-search-on-seven/196230/2 "2003-08-19T16:50:57Z")
Yes. VBulletin maintains a list of non-searchable words called “badwords.php”. These are usually pretty common words, and “seven” is one of them. Excluding common words keeps the search index small. **Anthracite** posted this link a while back, showing the contents of the badwords.php file. [http://doorbell.net/junk/badwords.txt](http://doorbell.net/junk/badwords.txt) ---
**Author:** ![ffolkelore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@ffolkelore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ffolkelore)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2003, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cans-search-on-seven/196230/3 "2003-08-19T18:45:31Z")
No wonder my searches never work! That list is so long! I’ve been searching for all sorts of things and it’s been throwing out most of the search words without telling me. I know it’s too late to change the software now, but it would have been nice if after searching to told you what it DID search on. I thing Google does this, and [Ask.com](http://Ask.com) ---
**Author:** ![Berkut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Berkut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Berkut)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2003, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cans-search-on-seven/196230/4 "2003-08-19T21:39:34Z")
This comes up pretty often, I wonder if Noodles would consider putting it in the FAQ. ---
**Author:** ![Flamsterette\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/41988e/32.png) [@Flamsterette\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flamsterette_X)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2003, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cans-search-on-seven/196230/5 "2003-08-20T21:50:43Z")
No wonder it wouldn’t let me search on “name change” yesterday! Or maybe it’s just my slow computer, since the connection to the server was reset every time I tried to search. (or it just plain timed out) Eh, I’ll try it again from my brother’s computer… though maybe I should go look at that Badwords list first before I do. 😉 F\_X ---
**Author:** ![Flamsterette\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/41988e/32.png) [@Flamsterette\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flamsterette_X)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2003, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cans-search-on-seven/196230/6 "2003-08-20T21:58:40Z")
Hmm… as I thought. My search for “name changes” will never work. Both of those words are on that list. Oh well. F\_X ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Macphisto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b487fb/32.png) [@Ms\_Macphisto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Macphisto)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2003, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-cans-search-on-seven/196230/7 "2003-08-20T23:13:07Z")
That’s odd, because I’ve managed to search successfully on “name change”. Of course, I had to do that search because I didn’t think to check the FAQ to find out how to change my name. :smack: