[NOT A BUG] What's up with the search function?

[SoMuchTV]

Often when I use the search function, I want to either sort the results differently, or select one of the suggested options to refine the search (like, exact phrase, contains all these words, etc.)  When I do, more often than not I get an error:

Sometimes it's 1 second, sometimes it's as much as 12 seconds...  then I wait at least the required amount, and often get the same warning, maybe with a different number of seconds.  Is that really how it should be working?

As background, I'm using Search more lately because my phone is being affected by the bug that prevents some users from opening multi-thread forums.  So when I can't open something from my custom home page, the workaround is to do a search and open it from one of the links in the results.

Example:  I know last night there was a live chat thread for Survivor.  I didn't know the exact thread title, so I searched for "survivor live chat" (no quotes around the search text).  Well, that apparently turned up everything with any of those words somewhere within the post.  So I tried changing the sort to "by date" to hopefully get the most recent first.  Got the error.  Tried changing the option to "include all these words".  Again - I have to wait.

Even if I try to go through the options and check the things that would make it as specific as possible, it's usually not quite what I want, and I have to wait in line again when I try to refine it.  Arrrgghh!

[Meredith Quill]

Apologies, I must have missed the notification on this somehow.

Are you still experiencing this issue?

If yes, would you provide the following info please:

Device:

OS:

Browser:

Theme used:

[SoMuchTV]

Yes - still having the issue.  I'm experiencing it on iPhone/latest ios(15.4.1)/Safari, and PC/Win10/Firefox.  I normally use the IPS Default theme, but I tried switching to Light-Default and got the same issue.  I also just checked in Chrome (also PC/Win10) and got the same issue - "Error code: 1C205/3"

Maybe it's a legitimate limitation on searching to help control traffic or system load or something, but I don't think I'm doing anything that unusual - just doing a search and then using one of the options presented to me to help filter it.  I can't imagine that waiting one (or twelve, or whatever) seconds is going to make that much difference.

Anyway, thanks for checking.  It's not a show-stopper - I can still complete the search eventually - it just seems like there may be some setting that needs to be tweaked in the forum software.

[Meredith Quill]

We are awaiting another software update, no ETA yet, but hopefully that'll happen sooner rather than later. If you're okay with waiting for that I can check in with you once it's done to find out whether it was resolved.

[SoMuchTV]

49 minutes ago, SilverStormm said:

We are awaiting another software update, no ETA yet, but hopefully that'll happen sooner rather than later. If you're okay with waiting for that I can check in with you once it's done to find out whether it was resolved.

That sounds good to me.  If you let me know when the update's done, I can make a point to retest the search function.

[Meredith Quill]

@SoMuchTV Has this issue resolved now?

[SoMuchTV]

14 minutes ago, SilverStormm said:

@SoMuchTV Has this issue resolved now?

No, it’s still behaving the same way. Does it do that for you?  The test I’ve been using is to enter “survivor live chat” (no quotes) in the search box. Get results, wait a few seconds, then select one of the options (like “all these words “). It usually tells me I have to wait “1 second “. I wait several seconds, try again, and it tells me I have to wait a different number of seconds. If I use the browser back button, it often gives me the same message with yet a different number of seconds. 
 

Not a show stopper - it eventually works if I’m patient. But it doesn’t look like the recent updates affected this. 
 

Appreciate the follow up. 

[Meredith Quill]

I pretty much only use the main show search function, then scroll to whatever thread I want in that forum. But I realise I'm probably old-skool like that, heh.

I see @AllAstronauts is on the case so I shall leave you in his capable care.

[SoMuchTV]

6 minutes ago, SilverStormm said:

I pretty much only use the main show search function, then scroll to whatever thread I want in that forum. But I realise I'm probably old-skool like that, heh.

I see @AllAstronauts is on the case so I shall leave you in his capable care.

I’ve been mostly using search to get around a different bug (knock on wood resolved now), but hopefully someone else can try to duplicate my steps and see if it’s just me. 

[AllAstronauts]

That's just search flood control. Members are currently limited to a single search every 15 seconds. That's all. "Some" flood control is necessary to prevent a spam bot or crawler or bad actor from hammering the server.

Note: Did not set this, it's just what is set on the admin side. If the powers-that-be wish to lessen that (5 seconds is reasonable), that is their call to make 😄

[SoMuchTV]

2 minutes ago, AllAstronauts said:

That's just search flood control. Members are currently limited to a single search every 15 seconds. That's all. "Some" flood control is necessary to prevent a spam bot or crawler or bad actor from hammering the server.

Note: Did not set this, it's just what is set on the admin side. If the powers-that-be wish to lessen that (5 seconds is reasonable), that is their call to make 😄

Aha, thanks, that’s the explanation I was looking for. The issue I was having is that the number of seconds seemed to be resetting randomly in the error messages. If it just came out and said “wait 15 seconds” (or better yet, just waited that long internally before doing the search), that might be a little more user-friendly. Thanks for the explanation.