Minimum characters for searching

[Darin]

Effective searching is the best way to cut down on redundant posts/threads in online forums. Unfortunately, just about every time I've tried to search these forums, I am unable to because the terms I am searching for are below the minimum character requirements for this search engine. SO many terms that are most commonly used are acronyms (DSL, Win2k, Q3, etc.), and not being able to use them severely cuts down on the usability of the search feature. Is that an adjustable setting?

[CableDude]

Originally posted by Darin
Effective searching is the best way to cut down on redundant posts/threads in online forums. Unfortunately, just about every time I've tried to search these forums, I am unable to because the terms I am searching for are below the minimum character requirements for this search engine. SO many terms that are most commonly used are acronyms (DSL, Win2k, Q3, etc.), and not being able to use them severely cuts down on the usability of the search feature.

I agree. I have been trying to search for posts on NT and can't:mad:

[EvilAjax]

I have been thinking about that for a while now. It's pretty hard to search what you're looking for if it's under 4 characters.

[brembo]

I found a work around, if you are searching for...say ICQ, just put a space before the ICQ, or after it. Most of the time any 3 letter search phrase will have a space before it. Give it a try. Works with two letter things as well. Like spaceIEspace, that works too.

Oops, spaceIEspace won't work, dunno why.

[CableDude]

Any plans to do anything about this?

[Brent]

The reason of the way it is setup now is because Searching is very resource intensive on the server, and when you do a search of a 3 letter word, say the word "the" it will find every post with that word in it and really bog down the server just doing that one search.

WE have no plans to change the setting at this time.