Why do forums limit searches?
 

I've noticed that many forums (including this one) limit searches and just wondered why.

Does searching use up a lot of resources or something?

Sometimes the limit is only for 5 seconds or so between searches, so I wouldn't have thought that this would make much difference :confused:

Cheers.

Re: Why do forums limit searches?
 

Bots & DDOS attacks perhaps. Tie the forum up by bombarding it with unlimited searches how would you be able to get on?

The forum does not have unlimited bandwidth nor processing power.

Re: Why do forums limit searches?
 

I dislike the fact that some words are excluded from searches as they are "too short or common".

Re: Why do forums limit searches?
 

Yes, it can do.

The minimum word length here is 3.
The system uses MySQL fulltext searching, which has a built in "ignore" list.
We actually use a slightly custom list (attached), based on the default list, I dont remember the difference.

Re: Why do forums limit searches?
 

Thanks, I just wondered.