Do search terms have to be longer than 3 characters?
I'm trying to search for posts containing VPS, but get nothing. Just to test my 3-letter-theory, I tried to search for SSL, and still no results.
Am I missing something?
I didn't see any FAQ or anything on the search page...

LAst I knew they had it set at at 4+ characters.

There used to be a page saying that "your word "<insert word here> is shorter than the minimum length..."

I guess Webdev removed it or soemthing.

Whenever I try to search for "FDC" I get

Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms.

Whats with that?

Whenever I try to search for "FDC" I get

Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms.

Whats with that?

PCplayground, you double poster! :P

I tried to search for something with three letters a while ago too, can't remember what it was but it may have been FDC or something. It was a real let down when I found I couldn't.

argggggggggggggh...

I just tried searching for "fax" to see if anyone had ever discussed online fax websites, not thinking about the fact that "fax" is three letters...

not that fax-over-internet sites have anything to do with webhosting, per se, but i figured maybe it was discussed in the lounge, or even in the business forum...

It won't be addressed until WebDev gets back from his overdue holiday next week.

We've already determined that you can't search for three letters. And that wildcards don't work.

It's not going to matter if you keep trying.

Originally posted by SoftWareRevue
It won't be addressed until WebDev gets back from his overdue holiday next week.

We've already determined that you can't search for three letters. And that wildcards don't work.

It's not going to matter if you keep trying.


Thanks for the info.
I just wanted to post the fax incident to vent some frustration.
(Sorry if it frustrated you.) ;)

Has there been any recent changes to WHT that will limit a search to 4 characters or more? I have not been able to find any results *knowing* that there are posts on searches such as:

*irc* - irc related server offers or threads
*fdc* - fdcservers.net, a dedicated server provider that when people post about them, simply say, "fdc"

If there has been such a change, i believe it has done more harm than good. I search for 3 letter searches all the time.

That's my two cents :>

Wildcards have never worked.

Software, did you know you can't search for 3 letters and that wildcards don't work? I just tried, and they dont.

My bad. I never meant wild cards. I just meant searching for searches such as:

fdc -fdcservers.net
irc -internet relay chat
rs -rackshack
tp -theplanet

etc..

Why they would configure the search for character's 4 and only is somewhat puzzling. It limits your searches quite dramatically as individuals the internet and forums use acronym's for company names, phrases, services etc all the time.

Who wants to say, FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL in a post when you can say ftp and everyone understand what it means :>

Removing the ability to search for characters 4 or more only makes absolutely no sense, I don't see why it would be implemented.

It's a relatively simple adjustment to get the search to find 3 letter reults. This was posted on MySQL.com

http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/Fulltext_Restrictions.html

"You can set your ft_min_word_len by adding the following line into the [mysqld] section of your my.cnf:

set-variable=ft_min_word_len=X

where X is the integer value you wish to use for your fulltext minimum word length.

Note you will also need to re-index affected tables for this to take effect."

---So, all WebDev has to do is go into that .cnf file and change

set-variable=ft_min_word_len=4

to

set-variable=ft_min_word_len=3

---and then have it re-index.

Originally posted by greggish
---and then have it re-index.


Thats no small task on a DB this size :D

Well, when he first installed the MySQL search hack he had to have it index the posts. He did it once, he can do it again.

Originally posted by greggish
Well, when he first installed the MySQL search hack he had to have it index the posts. He did it once, he can do it again.

He can, but he may not want to. Search puts a very heavly load on the DB server, and I am guessing that the 4-character limit was put in for a reason.

Originally posted by allan
and I am guessing that the 4-character limit was put in for a reason.


Actually the default setting is 4 character.... So Patrick prolly just didn't change it but really 4 char should be enough.... Not sure how much of a load it would put on the server if changed...

well, i was searching for less than 4 character searches less than 3 or weeks ago with no problems, was there a change or upgrade?!

Yes, the search function was completely revamped, thus it was changed.

Ah, I see. :>

I've been waiting to post until WebDev returned from vacation and we could actually get the real story, but my two cents is that three-letter-searching is definitely something valuable for me (and from what I see, other users, too).
Maybe there is a way of having only a finite group of three-letter words that are valid search terms. This would reduce the risk of heavy load due to searches for "the" and the like...
The list of OK three-letter-words could start from whatever the moderators wanted, and then they could add words as people requested them over time.
It could start with things like fdc, ftp, vps, vds, and so on...and then if a new company starts called ASD or something, when the moderators were asked to add it to the list, they could do that.
That's just my *uninformed* suggestion.
Maybe it is totally impractical, who knows.
It would be nice to have a message appear when you search for an invalid string (such as less than 3 characters, currently), rather than just saying that there are no matches...

Originally posted by The Prohacker
Actually the default setting is 4 character.... So Patrick prolly just didn't change it but really 4 char should be enough.... Not sure how much of a load it would put on the server if changed...

The 50% rule that MySQL Fulltext search uses means that many of the super common 3 letters like THE, AND, FOR... are not returned. Words apppearing in more than 50% of the table rows are ignored... so lowering the minimum to 3 letters is not really as big a hit as you may think. I think it's worth the benefits of being able to search for things like PHP, SSL, SQL....

Now that webdev appears to be back from his hols.

Can anything be done aboyt the 3 letter search problem.

As mentioned in this thread when you enter a 3 letter search term it does not say that the term is to short, it just says that nothing is found.

It is annoying that 3 letters do not seem to be allowed as it does not allow for things like VPS and VDS.

Is there anyway that the search system can be changed to allow for 3 letters to be used for a search?

Thanks,

Adam

Originally posted by ag-webdesign
Now that webdev appears to be back from his hols.

Can anything be done aboyt the 3 letter search problem.

As mentioned in this thread when you enter a 3 letter search term it does not say that the term is to short, it just says that nothing is found.

It is annoying that 3 letters do not seem to be allowed as it does not allow for things like VPS and VDS.

Is there anyway that the search system can be changed to allow for 3 letters to be used for a search?

Thanks,

Adam

I'll change it up in the morning, I dont want to change it overnight and have something break, I'll change it when I can watch it all day. Thanks for bumping the thread, wouldn't have seen it otherwise.

Yay.

Hi,

Can you let us know when you make the change.

As I have just tried to search for vps and vds and there were not results.

Thanks.

Adam