Searching TFL "Gun Show" with abbreviations...NOT!

**JohnKSa** · October 27, 2006, 12:06 AM

I used to search the For Sale forums with the abbreviation DFW to find guns being sold in my area. For some reason, that quit working awhile back...

Is that a bug or a feature?

TheBluesMan · October 27, 2006, 07:29 PM

There are a few common words that are excluded from the search index. It is likely that 'DFW' is one of them. I don't get a single hit when I search any of the forums for that term. This limitation is in place to keep from bogging down the search engine when members search for words like, like, the, very, for, from, etc.

Try searching for the term 'Dallas', 'Worth' or 'Texas' instead.

Hope this helps.

-Dave

P.S. It's a 'feechur', not a bug.

**Mal H** · October 27, 2006, 10:43 PM

Dave, I thought that might be the answer, but I checked the common word list and DFW isn't on it (and it shouldn't be). So I guess it's a bug of some sort.

**JohnKSa** · October 27, 2006, 11:44 PM

I wonder if the minimum allowable letters in search terms has been bumped up past three...

Quote:

Try searching for the term 'Dallas', 'Worth' or 'Texas' instead.

The problem is that few people put "Dallas" in their posts or spell out the state names.

Dunno what the deal is, but this was working as recently as a week or so ago...

TheBluesMan · October 28, 2006, 08:47 AM

I've heard of a program that makes that list dynamic rather than static. Once a word is found in the database XX,000 times, it is ignored by the search engine. Again, the reason is to speed searching.

Tyme may be able to answer whether or not we are using such an animal.

pax · October 28, 2006, 09:19 AM

About the time the search engine began working again (yay Tyme!), I quit being able to find my username in other people's posts. I can still find my own posts, but can no longer glance around and see if anyone's invoked my name lately. Figured either I've posted too many times here, or my name's too short.

Annoying, but I guess it's not really the end of the world.

pax

**JohnKSa** · October 28, 2006, 10:46 AM

Quote:

I quit being able to find my username in other people's posts.

Hmmm...

Another 3 letter or less search term that's not allowed.

pax · October 28, 2006, 12:23 PM

John ~

Yep. And I can't lengthen it with an asterisk, as I sometimes do on other boards.

pax

**Mal H** · October 28, 2006, 01:07 PM

I double checked and the word length allowed is still 3 characters.

I compared all of the search parameters at THR with those here at TFL - they are the same. Searching on "DFW" at THR returns lots of threads. So that tells me DFW (and "pax", etc.) aren't indexed here for some reason.

There's not much else we can do except wait for tyme to take a look into why this is happening, or rather not happening.

**tyme** · November 1, 2006, 01:49 PM

Very strange. Both "dfw" and "pax" are indexed (818 and 3425 occurrences, respectively), but vbulletin isn't showing those results for some reason. I'll look into it, but maybe not today. I did tweak the searching a bit back when I re-enabled it, but only to reduce problems caused by apostrophes and such. Maybe I broke something.

**JohnKSa** · November 3, 2006, 10:40 PM

Thanks for checking into it!

pax · November 21, 2006, 01:15 AM

Just wondering if you'd made any progress on solving this?

pax

**tyme** · November 27, 2006, 02:23 AM

I have now.

This new search system looks good. I pray to the Gods that I'll never have to deal with searching slowdowns again.

Guests are allowed to search.

Searches can now be 5 seconds apart instead of 10 seconds (and it's set at 5 seconds only to discourage bots which may decide to try flooding the search system).

The search result limit has been raised from 400 to about 15k.

Three letter words are now searchable. I'm not keen on including 2-letter words, though, so HK and 2-digit calibers may remain unsearchable. I'll probably try it out soon, though, and if the search index doesn't explode we can stick with a 2-char limit permanently.

**Mal H** · November 27, 2006, 11:49 AM

Excellent job!!!

Are you using an SQL db other than MySQL to accomplish all that?

I did a quick check using "DFW" as originally reported here. A search over the last month using "Search Entire Posts" returned a usable and believable number of hits. However, changing only to "Search Titles Only" gave hundreds of hits. Looks like that one change caused the "Find Posts From - A month ago" to be ignored. Not a big deal, but it would be wasting cycles that don't need to be wasted.

**tyme** · November 27, 2006, 03:15 PM

It's completely separate from MySQL now.

Yeah, there are some caveats. Some of the sorting modes don't work, and apparently the date ranges don't work when searching thread titles. We'll see. There's no reason why date ranges can't work for title searches, it's just not working yet.

pax · November 27, 2006, 06:45 PM

Thanks for the hard work, tyme!

pax

**JohnKSa** · November 27, 2006, 11:25 PM

I thank you and everyone from the DFW area on TFL thanks you!

Appreciate the hard work.

**tyme** · November 28, 2006, 05:20 AM

two letter search terms now work.

October 27, 2006, 12:06 AM	#1
JohnKSa Staff Join Date: February 12, 2001 Location: DFW Area Posts: 24,993	Searching TFL "Gun Show" with abbreviations...NOT! I used to search the For Sale forums with the abbreviation DFW to find guns being sold in my area. For some reason, that quit working awhile back... Is that a bug or a feature? __________________ Do you know about the TEXAS State Rifle Association?

October 28, 2006, 09:19 AM	#6
pax Senior Member Join Date: May 16, 2000 Location: In a state of flux Posts: 7,520	About the time the search engine began working again (yay Tyme!), I quit being able to find my username in other people's posts. I can still find my own posts, but can no longer glance around and see if anyone's invoked my name lately. Figured either I've posted too many times here, or my name's too short. Annoying, but I guess it's not really the end of the world. pax __________________ Kathy Jackson My personal website: Cornered Cat

October 28, 2006, 12:23 PM	#8
pax Senior Member Join Date: May 16, 2000 Location: In a state of flux Posts: 7,520	John ~ Yep. And I can't lengthen it with an asterisk, as I sometimes do on other boards. pax __________________ Kathy Jackson My personal website: Cornered Cat

November 1, 2006, 01:49 PM	#10
tyme Staff Join Date: October 13, 2001 Posts: 3,355	Very strange. Both "dfw" and "pax" are indexed (818 and 3425 occurrences, respectively), but vbulletin isn't showing those results for some reason. I'll look into it, but maybe not today. I did tweak the searching a bit back when I re-enabled it, but only to reduce problems caused by apostrophes and such. Maybe I broke something. __________________ “The egg hatched...” “...the egg hatched... and a hundred baby spiders came out...” (blade runner) “Who are you?” “A friend. I'm here to prevent you from making a mistake.” “You have no idea what I'm doing here, friend.” “In specific terms, no, but I swore an oath to protect the world...” (continuum) “It's a goal you won't understand until later. Your job is to make sure he doesn't achieve the goal.” (bsg)

November 3, 2006, 10:40 PM	#11
JohnKSa Staff Join Date: February 12, 2001 Location: DFW Area Posts: 24,993	Thanks for checking into it! __________________ Do you know about the TEXAS State Rifle Association?

October 27, 2006, 07:29 PM	#2
TheBluesMan Moderator Emeritus Join Date: June 15, 1999 Location: Ohio Posts: 7,558	There are a few common words that are excluded from the search index. It is likely that 'DFW' is one of them. I don't get a single hit when I search any of the forums for that term. This limitation is in place to keep from bogging down the search engine when members search for words like, like, the, very, for, from, etc. Try searching for the term 'Dallas', 'Worth' or 'Texas' instead. Hope this helps. -Dave P.S. It's a 'feechur', not a bug.

October 27, 2006, 10:43 PM	#3
Mal H Staff Join Date: March 20, 1999 Location: Somewhere in the woods of Northern Virginia Posts: 16,955	Dave, I thought that might be the answer, but I checked the common word list and DFW isn't on it (and it shouldn't be). So I guess it's a bug of some sort.

October 28, 2006, 08:47 AM	#5
TheBluesMan Moderator Emeritus Join Date: June 15, 1999 Location: Ohio Posts: 7,558	I've heard of a program that makes that list dynamic rather than static. Once a word is found in the database XX,000 times, it is ignored by the search engine. Again, the reason is to speed searching. Tyme may be able to answer whether or not we are using such an animal.

October 28, 2006, 01:07 PM	#9
Mal H Staff Join Date: March 20, 1999 Location: Somewhere in the woods of Northern Virginia Posts: 16,955	I double checked and the word length allowed is still 3 characters. I compared all of the search parameters at THR with those here at TFL - they are the same. Searching on "DFW" at THR returns lots of threads. So that tells me DFW (and "pax", etc.) aren't indexed here for some reason. There's not much else we can do except wait for tyme to take a look into why this is happening, or rather not happening.

November 21, 2006, 01:15 AM	#12
pax Senior Member Join Date: May 16, 2000 Location: In a state of flux Posts: 7,520	Just wondering if you'd made any progress on solving this? pax __________________ Kathy Jackson My personal website: Cornered Cat

November 27, 2006, 02:23 AM	#13
tyme Staff Join Date: October 13, 2001 Posts: 3,355	I have now. This new search system looks good. I pray to the Gods that I'll never have to deal with searching slowdowns again. Guests are allowed to search. Searches can now be 5 seconds apart instead of 10 seconds (and it's set at 5 seconds only to discourage bots which may decide to try flooding the search system). The search result limit has been raised from 400 to about 15k. Three letter words are now searchable. I'm not keen on including 2-letter words, though, so HK and 2-digit calibers may remain unsearchable. I'll probably try it out soon, though, and if the search index doesn't explode we can stick with a 2-char limit permanently. __________________ “The egg hatched...” “...the egg hatched... and a hundred baby spiders came out...” (blade runner) “Who are you?” “A friend. I'm here to prevent you from making a mistake.” “You have no idea what I'm doing here, friend.” “In specific terms, no, but I swore an oath to protect the world...” (continuum) “It's a goal you won't understand until later. Your job is to make sure he doesn't achieve the goal.” (bsg)

November 27, 2006, 11:49 AM	#14
Mal H Staff Join Date: March 20, 1999 Location: Somewhere in the woods of Northern Virginia Posts: 16,955	Excellent job!!! Are you using an SQL db other than MySQL to accomplish all that? I did a quick check using "DFW" as originally reported here. A search over the last month using "Search Entire Posts" returned a usable and believable number of hits. However, changing only to "Search Titles Only" gave hundreds of hits. Looks like that one change caused the "Find Posts From - A month ago" to be ignored. Not a big deal, but it would be wasting cycles that don't need to be wasted.

November 27, 2006, 03:15 PM	#15
tyme Staff Join Date: October 13, 2001 Posts: 3,355	It's completely separate from MySQL now. Yeah, there are some caveats. Some of the sorting modes don't work, and apparently the date ranges don't work when searching thread titles. We'll see. There's no reason why date ranges can't work for title searches, it's just not working yet. __________________ “The egg hatched...” “...the egg hatched... and a hundred baby spiders came out...” (blade runner) “Who are you?” “A friend. I'm here to prevent you from making a mistake.” “You have no idea what I'm doing here, friend.” “In specific terms, no, but I swore an oath to protect the world...” (continuum) “It's a goal you won't understand until later. Your job is to make sure he doesn't achieve the goal.” (bsg)

November 27, 2006, 06:45 PM	#16
pax Senior Member Join Date: May 16, 2000 Location: In a state of flux Posts: 7,520	Thanks for the hard work, tyme! pax __________________ Kathy Jackson My personal website: Cornered Cat

November 27, 2006, 11:25 PM	#17
JohnKSa Staff Join Date: February 12, 2001 Location: DFW Area Posts: 24,993	Oh YEAH! I thank you and everyone from the DFW area on TFL thanks you! Appreciate the hard work. __________________ Do you know about the TEXAS State Rifle Association?

November 28, 2006, 05:20 AM	#18
tyme Staff Join Date: October 13, 2001 Posts: 3,355	two letter search terms now work. __________________ “The egg hatched...” “...the egg hatched... and a hundred baby spiders came out...” (blade runner) “Who are you?” “A friend. I'm here to prevent you from making a mistake.” “You have no idea what I'm doing here, friend.” “In specific terms, no, but I swore an oath to protect the world...” (continuum) “It's a goal you won't understand until later. Your job is to make sure he doesn't achieve the goal.” (bsg)