Search words "too common"

[Chris__M]

There are so many useful terms now falling foul of the forums "common words" list, that the search is becoming less and less useful.

Would it be possible to lower the common word threshold, or disable it completely? It is easily done in the phpBBS admin page (GENERAL/Server configuration/Search settings/Common word threshold). Note that after making any such change, you need to delete the search index and recreate it again.

I run my own phpBBS forum with a zero common word threshold, and am not aware of any major issues with disabling it in this way.

[slemps]

Yes agree that this is frustrating. I'd rather look through loads of results than find none!

Here's how I get around it:

Search google like this, just replace pulled pork for you search term.

pulled pork site:www.bbbqs.com/Forum/

Google is generally much better than any forum search system so you should find what you need more easily.

S.

[Chris__M]

Giving this a little boost, as there was no official response, and I have just fallen foul of this again. I am finding the search less and less useful.

The google trick is one I know of and use. However, it doesn't allow you to restrict your search to topic subject lines only.

The perverse thing is - when searching for words such as 'rolled', 'pork', 'shoulder', it ignores the 'pork' and 'shoulder' as common words, which means it is searching for 'rolled' alone - which means it returns many times the hits that a true search for all three words would. This will mean the user will scroll and page through the results, looking for what they want; which actually puts a bigger hit on the database!

[derekmiller]

Chris.
Just spoke to Toby and he will take a look at it when he gets back.
Derek.

[Chris__M]

Cheers!