Search function

[Douchebag]

Does it work properly? It usually gives an empty result. Try f.ex. to search for Hua Hin.

[Scumbag]

Does it work properly? It usually gives an empty result. Try f.ex. to search for Hua Hin.

All search terms need to be longer than 3 characters. It's to save server processor time.

[Douchebag]

It neither finds Hua Hin nor "Hua Hin". And I of course make sure it searches in root forum, not in this topic.

[Scumbag]

It neither finds Hua Hin nor "Hua Hin". And I of course make sure it searches in root forum, not in this topic.

Both of the search terms are only 3 characters. The software will not search for them as they are too short. Do a search for huahin.

[Douchebag]

Hua Hin is actually 7 characters, or 6 if you leave the space. Yes I find some topics by searching for "huahin", but only topics that contains posts where Hua Hin is written without space. You can't find Hua Hin, unless at least one poster has written HuaHin without space in it. So most topics about Hua Hin are not visible through the search function. Same with Chiang Mai, Koh Chang, etc. They can't be found through the search function. Don't try to excuse it as an user error, as it's clearly a bug in the search function and it is in urge to be upgraded. Not strange we see repeated topics every week when even the search function doesn't work.

[Scumbag]

Hua Hin is actually 7 characters, or 6 if you leave the space. Yes I find some topics by searching for "huahin", but only topics that contains posts where Hua Hin is written without space. You can't find Hua Hin, unless at least one poster has written HuaHin without space in it. So most topics about Hua Hin are not visible through the search function. Same with Chiang Mai, Koh Chang, etc. They can't be found through the search function. Don't try to excuse it as an user error, as it's clearly a bug in the search function and it is in urge to be upgraded. Not strange we see repeated topics every week when even the search function doesn't work.

I don't know why I bother sometimes!...

 

I will think twice next time you ask a question.

[Douchebag]

I don't know why I bother sometimes!...

 

I will think twice next time you ask a question.

No offence to you intended. Just a call to the admins on this site.

[Perthie]

I'm not at all tech-savvy but I'm sure Scumbag is correct in what he's tried to explain.

 

Keyword searches are limited to words of 4 or more letters in length.  Spaces don't count as search terms as they are used as separators between the keywords.  I imagine that the limitation to 4+ letters is both to limit the amount of time taken to make searches and to restrict the number of items found.  There has to be a limit somewhere unless folks really want thousands of results to filter through when they run a search.

 

It's just slightly unfortunate that Thailand has a lot of places and words that happen to be 3 letters long......

 

I don't see the search limitations being changed, and it's something BM's will just have to cope with.  It's not as if we're paying anything for the service, after all.

 

Cheers

 

Perthie

 

 

[Douchebag]

There are tons of forum software that allows you to search for Hua Hin, either with or without quotes. That is something I know for sure. It's really not a problem for any up to date forum software. It's also not like it will burn the server if you could search for it. This is a Thailand forum, and there is no reasons why it shouldn't be able to search for thailand topics. I understand that you don't allow the search engine to search for one or two letter words. If searching for Hua Hin really was a problem, then it at least should give the correct response, "search string must contain a word that is minimum 4 characters long and has no spaces", not "No results found for Hua Hin" which is just completely misleading.

 

 

TL;DR: The search function can be fixed by upgrading the forum software or contacting IP Board support. It's no rocket science, really.

[biggles]

" don't know why I bother sometimes!.."

 

For the same reason as I dont know why I bother with the search function !!

Often when I am looking for something specific I get posts that have absolutely nothing to do with my search criteria. I am not the most tech savvy person but I can well understand how newbies get frustrated, post a question, and then abused and told to use the search function.