... As pointed out by EnolaGaia, and previously further upthread IIRC, very short words will not return results as the list would be way too long.
The search facility doesn't scan the entire contents of the forum, because any such search would grind the forum to a halt. Instead, the search facility scans an index into the forum's content.
There is a lower threshold for the word length that is indexed for searching. That threshold is set to the default value of 3 (and no - it's not going to be set lower). A word has to be more than 3 letters long to be indexed. If it's not 4 letters or longer, it isn't indexed. If it's not indexed you're not going to get any hits on it using the ordinary search.
In the course of updating and renovating the forum's content the staff has been applying manually-imposed tactics to facilitate searching, with attention given to handling words too short to be indexed. There are two primary such tactics:
(1) Titling threads with searchable words, word forms, or strings containing shorter words.
(2) Manually creating tags (search tags) and tagging threads.
Example: Searching for The Tea Thread
Using the forum's ordinary Search or Google
An ordinary search will not return a hit on 'tea', so you can't find The Tea Thread by simply searching on 'tea'. Period, full stop ...
The full title of the target thread is: The Tea Thread (Teas; Tips; Preferences: Etc.)
An ordinary search on 'teas' (word length = 4 letters) will return a hit on the thread title (and anywhere else 'teas' appears).
An ordinary search on the quoted string "tea thread" will return hits within the thread, because some posts in The Tea Thread contain the phrase "tea thread."
An ordinary search (Titles Only) on the quoted string "tea thread" will return a hit on that particular thread.
An ordinary search on a searchable word appearing within the thread (e.g., 'Pekoe') will return a hit within the thread.
A Google search on the quoted string / phrase "tea thread" and the site "forums.forteana.org" will return a hit on The Tea Thread. Now that we're 3 years past the 2018 forum exodus Google's indexing of the forum content is largely up to date.
Using manually-added forum content tags
We now have almost 3,600 manually created tags that have been manually added to threads. 'Tea' (like some other short terms such as 'DNA') has been established as a tag.
Because tagging is a purely manual procedure, the forum's array of tags and tagged threads is dynamic and not comprehensive.
To search the separate index of these manually-imposed tags:
- Click on 'Search' at the top of the current webpage;
- Click on 'Advanced Search';
- Click on 'Search Tags';
- Enter the desired term or string into the text entry window;
- If a relevant / appropriate tag (e.g., 'tea') appears in the resultant drop-down listing of available tags - select it;
- Click the 'Search' button.
... And this will return a list of threads that have been tagged with the tag you've selected.
