Search is terrible

[Purity]

Can any configuration changes be made to make the search function better?

I'm finding it increasingly frustrating when searching for keywords and it comes back with:

" Search Error

One or more of the words used in your search criteria is below 3 characters

Click here to amend your search"

I don't really understand this error because my word is more than 3 characters. If I resubmit the same search it sometimes works without this error, but does admittedly take ages

 

[Mr20to5]

Just to say that I regularly get this, when I have not used any words of 3 letters or less.

I normally give up.

 

[muddymusic]

Yes it is useless Even if you manage to successfully get it to search it misses multiple instances of words you look for. I've had a chat with Alpha1 about it, perhaps it's time we looked in to it in more depth.

 

[Alpha1]

Its a bug a forum upgrade will apparently fix.

 

[aeroflott]

Not sure if it's related, but the forum has been very slow for me the last month or so.

 

[cmonkey]

I usually use Google to search this place as it's (usually) better than the in-built forum search utility. Just append 'site:ukvac.com' to the end of your search term on Google's homepage or in your address bar.

Forum's been slow for me too for the past month or two.

 

[Purity]

I usually use Google to search this place as it's (usually) better than the in-built forum search utility. Just append 'site:ukvac.com' to the end of your search term on Google's homepage or in your address bar.

Forum's been slow for me too for the past month or two.

Good call, but there are several areas that are not indexed :-(

Agreed that in general the forum has been incredibly slow for a couple of months

 

[Hurray Banana]

speed seems to have been getting gradually worse over the last week

 

[Nes4life]

Is there a way to have a 'see my posts' link? Sometimes I just want to look at all the conversations I'm involved in and revisit old ones.

 

[muddymusic]

You can use Member Profile > View Members Posts and it will show your last activity.

 

[Alpha1]

Re: forum speed the server is again pending updates. I'll schedule a restart tomorrow.

 

[dorkshoei]

You can use Member Profile > View Members Posts and it will show your last activity.

Have you tried this lately?

Clicking on the "find members posts" link takes you to the standard search page with the members name entered but keywords blank. Running a search yields the error that the search term was less than 3 letters (technically correct, as 0 is less than 3 ;-)

dorkshoei2016-02-09 16:45:38

 

[Purity]

I've given up with the built in search. It's crap

Cmonkey gave the best suggestion. Use google to search, but this is no good for hidden areas as I stated above

 

[dorkshoei]

I'm on lots of forums where using google "site:xxxx terms" is the suggested alternative to deficiencies in the built-in search, but on these sites items finding posts/threads by member name at least works. This is the first site I've found where that doesn't work and it isn't easy to do via google. dorkshoei2016-02-09 17:04:22

 

[Eddhorse]

Ah i was wondering why that was happening.

My word is over 3 letters dammit.

 

[Alpha1]

It's a bug. There's an update to fix it. I'll look into it

 

[dorkshoei]

I figured out the member search issue. it redirects to the standard search page but with "6 months or newer" selected rather than any date.

Apparently the "One or more of the words used in your search criteria is below 3 characters"i error is emitted when the search yielded no results which is confusing to say the least.

 

[Eddhorse]

Thanks for the update, keep up the brilliant work !