forum suggestion - improvements to the search function...

[Jim2109]

this may have been said before, and i know the reasons as to why it is the way it is. but the search function is incredibly restrictive!

this forum has a wealth of information on it, yet for many people trying to find that information it is very difficult because the forum settings are incredibly restrictive on searches.

firstly, minimum word length of 4 letters. there a LOTS of reptile related things that are either short in length or abbreviated, and they are almost always abbreviated. which means anyone wanting to find info about say an MVB bulb is out of luck. because "MVB bulb" will bring up a billion search results with "bulb" in it somewhere because MVB is too short and ignored, and 99.9% of the searches will be unrelated to what you are looking for.

secondly, one search every 30 seconds. again, i know why its there, to reduce server loads. but these preventative measures are something that most forums implement to stop malicious attacks. not so much to limit the useability of the forum. which is what it basically does.

its a good job that RFUK is heavily crawled by google, because often i have to use a google search on this website to find the information im looking for, simply because either the words are too short, or i get fed up of waiting 30 seconds between every new search when the first one didnt find the results i was hoping for.

is there not some way that members who go past a post threshold (say 100 posts, so you know that they are a genuine person and not just a malicious bot trying to kill the server) are allowed to search every 5 or 10 seconds, and can use words 3 letters or longer?

this forum is an amazing resource, and i can offer nothing but appreciation to the people who own, run and fund this forum. this thread is in no way to the detriment of the fantastic job that everyone is doing. but its just a suggestion on something that i could see greatly improving the forums functionality. how many newbies post a question hundreds of times on the exact same subject just because the search function isnt adequate for them to find the information for themselves (despite there being some very in-depth replies available from the past)?

[Sid.lola]

I agree with the three letter thing. I was looking for advice when building a BIG VIV. That was fun lol.

[AshMashMash]

There is a google search at the bottom of the main page on RFUK for 3 letter searches, and you can always use the wildcard, like "ash*" with the asterix, to search for words containing, or only, being "ash".

As for the timing thing... I do so much stalking and the timing thing does really annoy me But I guess if 30,000 members are searching much more often than every 30 seconds it might get a little OTT for the server?

[t-bo]

You've answered most of your own questions Jim

is there not some way that members who go past a post threshold (say 100 posts, so you know that they are a genuine person and not just a malicious bot trying to kill the server) are allowed to search every 5 or 10 seconds, and can use words 3 letters or longer?

This realy would be the key, but isnt available as yet. TBH I would probably make unrestricted searches available to Premium members first before thinking of rolling it out to 'long term' members as well. As soon as I can impliment something along these lines I will.

secondly, one search every 30 seconds. again, i know why its there, to reduce server loads. but these preventative measures are something that most forums implement to stop malicious attacks. not so much to limit the useability of the forum. which is what it basically does.

Not sure what you mean here. It doesnt have to be a malicious attack to cripple the server because of say 50+ people searching for stuff while there are 700+ people surfing the site. I implimented this restriction on the previous server and have since upgraded, however I feel that the stability this restriction gives to the forum outways the inconvenience for those who are searching.

The server has Dual QUAD Core processors with 12GB of memory, really the only upgrade option for me now is clustered servers... for the sake of searches, which is one of the most server intensive tasks, I could do with keeping things restricted and offering alternatives (such as Google search box, on every page) instead.

One other point. VB are working hard to introduce new serach option for the new 4.0 version which causes less strain on the servers... we can only hope, aye.

[Sid.lola]

Originally Posted by AshMashMash

There is a google search at the bottom of the main page on RFUK for 3 letter searches, and you can always use the wildcard, like "ash*" with the asterix, to search for words containing, or only, being "ash".

You told me that before lol

[AshMashMash]

Originally Posted by t-bo

I would probably make unrestricted searches available to Premium members

This would be most useful

Originally Posted by Sid.lola

You told me that before lol

Tis a sneaky one

[Jim2109]

Originally Posted by AshMashMash

There is a google search at the bottom of the main page on RFUK for 3 letter searches, and you can always use the wildcard, like "ash*" with the asterix, to search for words containing, or only, being "ash".

i did not know that, so thats useful knowledge. searches will now be easier!

Originally Posted by t-bo

You've answered most of your own questions Jim

This realy would be the key, but isnt available as yet. TBH I would probably make unrestricted searches available to Premium members first before thinking of rolling it out to 'long term' members as well. As soon as I can impliment something along these lines I will.

Not sure what you mean here. It doesnt have to be a malicious attack to cripple the server because of say 50+ people searching for stuff while there are 700+ people surfing the site. I implimented this restriction on the previous server and have since upgraded, however I feel that the stability this restriction gives to the forum outways the inconvenience for those who are searching.

The server has Dual QUAD Core processors with 12GB of memory, really the only upgrade option for me now is clustered servers... for the sake of searches, which is one of the most server intensive tasks, I could do with keeping things restricted and offering alternatives (such as Google search box, on every page) instead.

One other point. VB are working hard to introduce new serach option for the new 4.0 version which causes less strain on the servers... we can only hope, aye.

cant really fault that reply, there are sensible reasons behind all of the things i have listed. i have run a couple of VB forums myself in the past, neither of them was anywhere near as busy as this one, the biggest probably had 100-150 users per day. so i guess with the amount of traffic this forum gets, if everyone searched at once several times per minute the server loads could get quite crazy. hopefully theyll implement improvements in the next version of the forum