Who wants 3-letter searches?

[knightfoo]

Some users have asked why we do not allow 3-letter searches. The size of the search term affects the size of the search index. Smaller words = more items in the index, which means searches may take longer, especially as this bulletin board grows. Also, one can easily search for 3-letter words by adding a * to the end of the search term, so you can search for 3-letter words without taking a performance hit.

So, please vote and let me know what you think. If the vote passes, the limit will be set to 3-letters. In the event that it causes problems, it will be set back to 4-letters regardless of the vote, unless we can find another way to resolve any issues that pop up. Thanks! :)

-knightfoo

[saxroots]

Index searches are faster and more efficient than wildcard searches. That's why database indexes were invented.

[churcher]

Plus, new users aren't going to pick up on the odd wildcard use automatically (I didn't). Some forums support wildcard search, some don't; I usually assume that they don't unless explicitly told otherwise. Even knowing that it does, matching a space with * is not exactly an obvious way to search for DNS, PHP, etc.

[hoover]

it drives me nuts when I search for things like:

DNS
RCN
MX record
JDK
SSH
PHP
GD Library


just to mention a few... please add three letter searches to the forum.

Having a robust search feature will only eliminate redundant posts to questions that have already been answered... but can't be found in the forum.

[QT]

search function changed to 3 letter searches..

closing.

:)