search minimum word length

[:) Smiley]

note to self: spell out three-letter acronyms

[Brundlefly]

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]

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]

double post

[Heresson]

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]

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.

[Qilue]

I did a search for *civ* on all open forums any date.

One result.

[DrSpike]

Hehe it doesn't look good for this method then.

[Agathon]

I guess we'll have to wait.... I know how to wait...

[Jaguar]

This occasionally annoys me with acronyms. TVA, CCC, WPA, KKK, and all those other organizations that Roosevelt founded.

[Dis]

yeah the Klan really helped pull america out of the great depression.

[DaShi]

Let's just retype three letter words longer. The will be thee. Dog to dawg. Cat to katt. ecct.

[Brundlefly]

Originally posted by DaShi
Let's just retype three letter words longer. The will be thee. Dog to dawg. Cat to katt. ecct.

trl to troll..

lsr to loser..

Now I get it!

[Jaguar]

Originally posted by Dissident
yeah the Klan really helped pull america out of the great depression.

[DaShi]

Originally posted by bfg9000


trl to troll..

lsr to loser..

Now I get it!

Please describe it to me.