I really appreciate this forum for all the S&W knowledge contained here, BUT...I HATE the search function!
I know that this forum site uses the same software as some other hobby sites I go to, partly because I recognize the "look" of the site, and partly because they have the same lousy search function.
Since the site deals with S&W models, which usually have 3 or 4 digits, you would think that it would be very common to search for a posts dealing with a specific model, like "908". However, the search function doesn't allow this; if you try to search on that 3 digit number, you get an error message telling you that there aren't any matches to that term.
Even trying something like "model 908" doesn't work. From what I can see, there is a four-character minimum for search strings, even when you put quotation marks around them to group short words together: so it finds "model". The software also has a six-digit minimum for numerical strings, so the "908" part of the search is simply discarded. So you get 31 pages of matches on "model"; not at all what I want.
This built-in limitation on the search function seems like an absolutely idiotic way to do things. I was trying to think of a hobby/interest website that this would NOT be a problem for, but I can't:
sewing - "hem", "pin", "cut"...nope
cooking - "egg", "fry", ...nope
you get the idea.
The only reason I can see to have this limitation on the search function is that the software is old; back in the early days of the Internet, it was common to have such limitations on many software features.
But now, there's really no logical reason why software should not be able to search on 3 characters, regardless of whether they are letters or numbers, and give you reasonable result.
I know that this forum site uses the same software as some other hobby sites I go to, partly because I recognize the "look" of the site, and partly because they have the same lousy search function.
Since the site deals with S&W models, which usually have 3 or 4 digits, you would think that it would be very common to search for a posts dealing with a specific model, like "908". However, the search function doesn't allow this; if you try to search on that 3 digit number, you get an error message telling you that there aren't any matches to that term.
Even trying something like "model 908" doesn't work. From what I can see, there is a four-character minimum for search strings, even when you put quotation marks around them to group short words together: so it finds "model". The software also has a six-digit minimum for numerical strings, so the "908" part of the search is simply discarded. So you get 31 pages of matches on "model"; not at all what I want.
This built-in limitation on the search function seems like an absolutely idiotic way to do things. I was trying to think of a hobby/interest website that this would NOT be a problem for, but I can't:
sewing - "hem", "pin", "cut"...nope
cooking - "egg", "fry", ...nope
you get the idea.
The only reason I can see to have this limitation on the search function is that the software is old; back in the early days of the Internet, it was common to have such limitations on many software features.
But now, there's really no logical reason why software should not be able to search on 3 characters, regardless of whether they are letters or numbers, and give you reasonable result.
