[Superdeft]

I want to be able to search for the word "r9" (a model of bike)
Could we add this as a searchable term for the site? It's really annoying trying to find info on this bike otherwise.

 

[binary visions]

I run into the three character limit constantly. You can't search for 24-inch wheels, 29-inch wheels, many model names... It's frustrating. There have been a couple threads about it over the years and I kinda think it might be hard coded into the search system since nothing has ever been done about it.

Hopefully RM will see this and respond

 

[Superdeft]

I agree, and I'm fairly sure it's just a matter of changing one character from 3 to 2 or something to that effect.

 

[Toshi]

solution: google.

use this as a template

http://www.google.com/search?q=r9+site:ridemonkey.com/forums&sourceid=firefox&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

 

[binary visions]

That's not a great solution, though. No ability to sort posts in any way, no way to filter your results, and it will only pick up the posts that Google has indexed, so you get nothing since Google's last indexing spider visited.

As far as just changing 3 to 2, that's only the case if it's a simple setting somewhere. Otherwise, RM has to start poking around in the site code to find out where that search restriction exists.

 

[Ridemonkey]

The reason the restriction exists is because searching the db for 2 characters like that is extremely resource intensive. Searches are indexed for speed on subsequent searches, and if we start indexing every 2 letter word the database will croak.

 

[loco-gringo]

The reason the restriction exists is because searching the db for 2 characters like that is extremely resource intensive. Searches are indexed for speed on subsequent searches, and if we start indexing every 2 letter word the database will croak.

What kind of database does this run on?

If I hadn't quit my job, I was really about to email you since my crackpot programmers that wrote an app for me can't query mySQL without tanking the box. I am not even remotely intelligent about DBA stuff, but I know searches should work without killing the DB. Fortunately I made it not my problem yesterday.

Good choice to not do that.

 

[MMike]

Back in the day, you couldn't even search for "GT DHi"