KFN Search feature not terribly useful

[HalationEffect]

I was searching for a particular topic so that I could add a post to it with some info, but even though I searched for words that are present in both the topic title and in some of the posts within the topic, I got zero results.

The thread was http://www.kubuntuforums.net/showthr...-Linux-Oil-Box

The search term I used was "oil box", and when that yielded no results, I tried just "oil" with the same (lack of) result. I also tried capitalising the first letter(s) of my search terms, but that made no difference.

[whatthefunk]

A lot of search boxes on forums dont search for words three letters or shorter. If you search for "anyone built" the thread pops up.

[HalationEffect]

A lot of search boxes on forums dont search for words three letters or shorter. If you search for "anyone built" the thread pops up.

Ahh, that could explain it. Problem was, the words "oil" and "box" were the only words I could remember that were definitely part of the thread.

Still, some kind of notice that three-letter words are not searched for in the search results page would be far more helpful than "Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms".

[Rog131]

Spiders

The Google et.al. are indexing the Kubuntu Forums.




The Google has advanced search: http://www.google.ca/advanced_search. So you could narrow the search to the Kubuntu Forums.

Earlier:

- Thread: Please explain how to access old kubuntu forum posts: http://www.kubuntuforums.net/showthr...tu-forum-posts
- Thread: !Locate pre-vBulletin posts in KFN: http://www.kubuntuforums.net/showthr...n-posts-in-KFN

[HalationEffect]

Yeah, google was how I found the thread in the end, using the search term "site:kubuntuforums.net oil box" (without the quotes). It was the first result.

It's just that having to go to google when KFN has its own search seems to me to be a failure of the KFN search feature.

[SteveRiley]

I'll investigate how to change the minimum length.

[HalationEffect]

If the minimum length is a pain to change, some kind of on-screen indication of what that minimum length is would be most helpful. I was left scratching my head as to why my search yielded no results.

Something like "Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms. Note that search terms of less than 4 characters in length will be ignored." would have let me know why my search failed.