[RootbeaR]

Originally Posted by dotty999

are you all ganging up on me???

Nope, I'm with you.


Comes and goes for me. I shall take a screenshot next time it happens.

[dotty999]

thanks! we mere mortals have to stick together on this one

[RootbeaR]

Originally Posted by dotty999

thanks! We mere mortals have to stick together on this one

Do smilies only work when there is text?


Didn't work in post preview until I added text.

[dotty999]

Originally Posted by RootbeaR

Do smilies only work when there is text?


Didn't work in post preview until I added text.

you have to post at least 3 characters whether in text or smilies before it works

[RootbeaR]

Originally Posted by dotty999

you have to post at least 3 characters whether in text or smilies before it works

ty

[dotty999]

[TheOutcaste]

Searching for a users posts works OK. I can search for Dotty's post without specifying any keywords. When it fails is if you try searching on keywords. Searching for "ganging up on me" (without the quotes) in posts by dotty999 gives this error:
An internal server error occurred. Please try again later.

Searching on ganging up on me without specifying a User Name just hangs. Status bar shows Waiting for forums.techguy.org..., sits like that for 5 minutes. Clicked stop, then clicked Search again and same thing. On Server 1 at the moment.
Stopped it, refreshed the page, now on Server 3 and get a blank page with no message, the URL is http://forums.techguy.org/search.php?do=process.
Tried again on Server 3:
An internal server error occurred. Please try again later.

I then tried searching Titles Only in this forum only for Search Dead:
An internal server error occurred. Please try again later.

Search just doesn't work except for searching for a particular users posts.
Tried with one keyword, or several, one forum, one group, or all, with or without user names, all I get is the internal server error message or a constantly loading page that never loads.

I had forgotten about the Search using Google option, so thanks for the reminder.

[JohnWill]

Originally Posted by dotty999

thanks! we mere mortals have to stick together on this one

We make sure it works properly for the staff.

[JohnWill]

Note the red banner at the top, software updates are currently in progress, which may affect search and a host of other things.

[TechGuy]

To be fair, John -- that reply was made before I posted the banner and started working.

Thanks for all of the info, Outcaste. I'm not getting consistent results while testing, but I'm definitely able to reproduce some problems. Search is a tough thing for this sized site -- vBulletin's search engine was never designed to be able to handle it, but hopefully I can get it running a little more consistently!

[JohnWill]

I guess the times I've used search it's generally worked fine for me. I guess it's too late to change from vB to another board software?

[DKTaber]

I started getting this error on relatively simple searches several months ago, and continue to get it at random times, mostly on weekends. And most times, the "try again later" is no more successful. It suggests that the # of users at that moment has overwhelmed the server. As I say, it only happens occasionally and is random; doesn't matter how many or how few tabs are open in my browser or what other apps are running -- usually only Outlook Express.

[TechGuy]

When possible, try using our new Search box at the top-right of any page (rather than an Advanced Search).

[DKTaber]

Originally Posted by TechGuy

When possible, try using our new Search box at the top-right of any page (rather than an Advanced Search).

Most of the searches that don't work are done that way, but still end with "internal server error".

You didn't say what causes it. Is it, as I suspect, that as TSG gets increasingly popular, the server's size/capabilities have not been increased accordingly? Completely understandable; before you spend resources expanding capacity, you need to ensure that the demand is sustainable. But it would be helpful to know if that's the reason for the error messages.

[JohnWill]

Search is still working fine for me, I use it multiple times a day.