What's wrong with the search function ?

Z

Zwaplat

Joined
Nov 11, 2004
Messages
141
It doesn't work. I type in the keywords, press "Go", it starts loading... then, Ready. The page didn't change, no search results, just the page from where I started searching (be it quick Search or Advanced).
Yes, I looked for a thread on this, but doing a search was a bit difficult, you know...
 
Your terms are probably too general and are returning too many hits. For example, words like "knife" and "blade" and "steel" return hundereds, if not thousands of hits, and either the search can't cope with that many, or it doesn't even bother since it's too vague. It's like typing "the" or "what".

If you're searching for something like that, refine it to something more specific. If you are searching for something specific, but are including too general a word, leave it out.
 
I find that it often doesn't seem to work at night - particularly late night. I know it isn't my search terms because the same search will work earlier in the day next day.
 
The same/similar thing is happening to me. I tested using two separate browsers on my Mac PowerBook... same result on both. The title-only search *does* work, the full post search *does not* work.
 
Hey guys, be specific when searching. Read the other threads in this forum.
 
Spark said:
Hey guys, be specific when searching. Read the other threads in this forum.
Click to expand...

I see... a couple of suggestions. First, it might be helpful to add a note on the advanced search page... "having trouble with searches? click here for more info" that would link to a thread or FAQ explaining about this problem.

Second, and this is more complicated, perhaps it would be good to *catch* those problem searches when they are occurring, and send the user a page saying that his search terms were too broad. That would probably save a lot of grief, and more than a little traffice on the service and support forum.
 
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