search results

tater · Post by **tater** » July 27th, 2004, 8:48 am

I've been getting very odd behavior from the Search page. The first results page will come up, and at the bottom, it will say something like "Page 1 of 565 Goto page 1, 2, 3 ... 563, 564, 565 Next". But clicking on any of those links brings up a page saying, "No topics or posts met your search criteria".

John Liebson · Post by **John Liebson** » July 27th, 2004, 10:09 am

I had a search of that odd nature a day or two ago, so at least you have good company....

Kilted Wanderer · September 22nd, 2004, 10:35 am

Whatever I do I can't get a second page of search results either - regardless of the number of "results" to the query - always the same second page saying "No topics or posts met your search criteria"

Duplicate thread http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=121385

GUEST :) · Post by **GUEST :)** » September 22nd, 2004, 11:58 am

Hm. I got that a few times, but only after page 3 or 4, and only very recently. I thought perhaps in switching to the new servers not all the archives were brought over (yet?) but I guess it's something else then...

Kilted Wanderer · September 22nd, 2004, 1:21 pm

OK it seems to possibly be something related to the amount of results found by the query - if I do a default search for "tabrowser" I get 31 maches over 2 pages - no problem viewing the second page. If however I do a search on "tab" I get 12377 matches over 413 pages - and attempting to open the 2nd page or any subsequent pages gives the "No topics or posts met your search criteria" error message.

Not sure where the "breaking point" is but perhaps it might be worth finding out and fixing before anyone gets too evangelical on the "Do a search before posting" refrain....

John Liebson · Post by **John Liebson** » September 22nd, 2004, 2:58 pm

Kilted Wanderer wrote:OK it seems to possibly be something related to the amount of results found by the query - if I do a default search for "tabrowser" I get 31 maches over 2 pages - no problem viewing the second page. If however I do a search on "tab" I get 12377 matches over 413 pages - and attempting to open the 2nd page or any subsequent pages gives the "No topics or posts met your search criteria" error message.

Not sure where the "breaking point" is but perhaps it might be worth finding out and fixing before anyone gets too evangelical on the "Do a search before posting" refrain....

I just went from page one through page five of a search that has 2,940 matches. However, I have seen a second page "no more matches" message, too.

Leiflvr · Post by **Leiflvr** » September 27th, 2004, 5:36 am

I think it's time to clean up the site a little bit. When searching for an answer, it's a little daunting to get +10k matches on 400+ pages.

I think that stuff over 6 mths could/should be moved to a Historical section so it'd be off the main sections but still accessible for obscure searches etc.

I know it'd be daunting for the mods/admins but it'd help the regulars/noobs a great deal.

Post by **RAF** » September 27th, 2004, 5:39 am

What would the difference be. Page 2 of the results 'has never contained any data' for me as it is..

Leiflvr · Post by **Leiflvr** » September 27th, 2004, 5:47 am

If they sort that out I mean.

Kilted Wanderer · September 28th, 2004, 8:54 am

Ok - here are a few search results that have narrowed the problem down to how many results cause the 2nd page "No topics or posts met your search criteria" problem.

Search for "theme" gives 8424 matches over 281 pages ALL PAGES VIEWABLE - note that pages 275-281 contain no threads.
Search for "icon" gives 9006 matches over 301 pages ALL PAGES VIEWABLE - note that pages 297-301 contain no threads.
Search for "toolbar" gives 9503 matches over 317 pages ONLY FIRST PAGE VIEWABLE - 2ND = "No topics or posts met your search criteria"

So the search problem seems to lie in a match generating somewhere between 9005+ and 9503+ results.

The way the search operates at the moment, increasing the number of search variables without using the "AND" operator, increases the number of results generated. For those whose search experience is based on engines such as google etc this only adds to the problem and is counter intuitive when trying to "narrow down a search".

I have no idea whether it is possible to change the way the search operates - but any way that helps newcomers should surely be the best way forward.

powerfool · Post by **powerfool** » May 16th, 2005, 3:46 pm

Well, actually I searched for "distorted images" (not a common search really), the search found 221 matches and when I tried to view the second page (of total 8 pages) of the results I got our known error: "No topics or posts met your search criteria".
So, perhaps you 're not exactly right but definately this bug is really annoying. I hope it gets solved soon because there is no way to find something by just reading all the posts...

powerfool · Post by **powerfool** » May 16th, 2005, 3:57 pm

Moreover, I tried searching "theme" myself and despite it found nearly 3200 matches I couldn't view the second page. So, I believe it must be something else and not the number of results that causes the problem...