search minimum word length

Brundlefly · February 4, 2004, 16:59

Did you know you cant search the archives for a word less than four letters? Seems like a silly rule. Why is there a minimum word length rather than a list of disqualified words?

DaShi · February 4, 2004, 17:02

I know I wanted to find a thread that used 'the' in the title, but I couldn;'t find it. I guess that information is lost to me forever.

Brundlefly · February 4, 2004, 17:11

Quote:

Originally posted by DaShi
I know I wanted to find a thread that used 'the' in the title, but I couldn;'t find it. I guess that information is lost to me forever.

Thats too bad. Well imagine how much worse it is for those of us who have more 3-letter words in our vocabulary than just the word 'the'.

DaShi · February 4, 2004, 17:17

I can't imagine. Please describe it to me.

Alex · February 4, 2004, 17:48

yes, it bothers me too. once i was looking for a thread that i knew had "civ" in the title, but... well, you could always use... masks (is this the word?). like in "civ*"

Gramphos · February 4, 2004, 18:17

Well, the reason is that search index would become a lot larger if shorter words should be included too.

For each searchable post there is a list of words 4 vharacters or longer that is in that post, and it would be a lot larger if 3 letter words were included.

However, I would really like to have the ability to search for a beginning of a threadtitle, as a complete string, and not just as words, but I guess having a 10 character MySQL index for the threadtitles would be too mush for the database.

:) Smiley · February 4, 2004, 21:03

For thread title search though, they ought to allow 3 letters or lower.

Urban Ranger · February 4, 2004, 23:00

I think acronyms of 3 letters or less should be allowed, not normal words though.

DanQ · February 5, 2004, 00:08

Quote:

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
I think acronyms of 3 letters or less should be allowed, not normal words though.

Unfortunately, Urban Ranger, by limitation of the software that runs Apolyton's forums (vBulletin), the distinction you have drawn attention cannot be technically recognized -- at least, not in any straightforward and reliable fashion. Other restrictions/exceptions, e.g. a "disqualified words" list as bfg9000 has suggested, are for certain non-implementable.

This is one of the primary reasons for maintaining the four-character search term minimum.

-----------
Dan; Apolyton CS

Dis · February 6, 2004, 04:49

yes I have had problem with searches before. Especially with acronyms.

Things like NFL gave me trouble.

Skanky Burns · February 6, 2004, 06:17

The problem is that most of the popular acronyms are three letters, and hence can't be searched for.

DaShi · February 6, 2004, 07:25

Acronyms should be longer.

Skanky Burns · February 6, 2004, 08:41

You mean upgrade all our TLA's into FLA's?
That could take quite a lot of gold.

:) Smiley · February 6, 2004, 12:22

Nah, we'll just pop-rush it.

DrSpike · February 6, 2004, 14:57

The issue is very frustrating I agree, but if it can't be simply addressed I guess that's it.

How (if at all) is this addressed on other forums?

:) Smiley · February 6, 2004, 21:18

note to self: spell out three-letter acronyms

Brundlefly · February 12, 2004, 15:51

Did some research on this using Google.

Found a website experiencing the same problem that was able to change to 3 letter word minimum with minimal performance hit. That site had a database with 98,743 seperate words in it and the search index had 1,288,169 references to those words. Dont know how those numbers compare to ACS.

As a workaround, try this using the word "zip" as an example:

Search on "*zip*" (without the double quotation marks). The asterisks are wild card search characters, so this will search on "zip" preceded and followed by any characters, including spaces. The search engine treats the wild card characters as part of the length of the search terms, so they make each term the minimum 4 characters long.

There. My public service work for the day is done...

Brundlefly · February 12, 2004, 16:36

Quote:

Originally posted by DanQ

Unfortunately, Urban Ranger, by limitation of the software that runs Apolyton's forums (vBulletin), the distinction you have drawn attention cannot be technically recognized -- at least, not in any straightforward and reliable fashion. Other restrictions/exceptions, e.g. a "disqualified words" list as bfg9000 has suggested, are for certain non-implementable.

This is one of the primary reasons for maintaining the four-character search term minimum.

-----------
Dan; Apolyton CS

Some versions of vbulletin 2 have a 'badwords.php' where you store can store disqualified words.. Of course, that doesn't mean that it makes sense to use this file to filter common 3-letter words... It would be a lot of work to put all of the common 3-letter words in there, I know... Maybe if you have this file in your version, however, the common 3-letter words are already in there by default.... Or maybe at vbulletin website, someone has created a 'badwords.php' template with all of these common 3-letter words that you could just cut and paste into yours..

Vbulletin 3 has an "include" php, which makes it easier to store 3-letter words specific to your site and still have 4-letter minimum word setting.

What if you reduced the maximum word length (if there is some room) at the same time you take minimum word length down to three? The net search index size increase might be minimal...

Heresson · February 14, 2004, 01:31

double post

Heresson · February 14, 2004, 01:36

I agree it's idiotic. I can search for Genesis or King Crimson, but I can't search for Yes.
Though...
ups, not the best example

DrSpike · February 14, 2004, 06:21

Quote:

Originally posted by bfg9000
Search on "*zip*" (without the double quotation marks). The asterisks are wild card search characters, so this will search on "zip" preceded and followed by any characters, including spaces. The search engine treats the wild card characters as part of the length of the search terms, so they make each term the minimum 4 characters long.

Did you check whether it works here? I swear I tried it once and failed.