Bitcoin Forum

Why is it that Btalk search bar is slow as molasses? I make one search and the whole system is down for 10 minutes lol

Are you sure? It’s been a long time since I last used the forum search feature I normally use Ninjastic.space to search for things I’m interested in.

And for this thread sake, I just did a search for three different random words using the forum search engine and I didn’t experience any time delay  

Edit:

I finally replicated the issue, it seems like it only happens when you press the “search button” more than once. I was asked to wait for 4 minutes 4 seconds but when I typed in my word and clicked “search” everything worked.

Just use google based search engine, lol. It's already added to bitcointalk. Also nobody use forum's search that much. We tend to use ninjastic. :)

https://www.talkimg.com/images/2023/10/18/R7pPH.jpeg

The search bar is pretty fast for me but the problem with the native search engine of Bitcointalk is that it won't work the way we want it to work. But, I have been using the search bar myself for a long time do search for things that I know the search function of the forum will find without any doubt. I recommend you to use Google search engine to search for threads in the website because it'll be a pain in head to do that with the internal search engine of the forum.

You mean this error:

https://talkimg.com/images/2023/10/18/R9U4P.jpeg

I do not think you will have to wait 10 minutes. For me it has me to wait just 4 seconds.

You can use the google search engine if you do not want something like that. But if you want a better search engine, use ninjastic.space

Bitcointalk search could be annoying when you are looking for information, but not for slowness when you search for anything. There are two possibilities for your experience. It might be the fault of your internet/browsers or you unfortunately made the search when the site is having its downtime moments.

You should have searched again after a few hours to be sure before making the post.

 Op, @Cantsay has provided the likely reason for the delay or it could also be your network being slow because I also tried searching and it worked pretty fast for me..
Just asking, but was your title trying to supply the answer to your question? If yes, then there was no need to create a thread then..

There's no way you need to wait for 10 minutes when the maximum time to wait is only 360 seconds or 6 minutes and it's only for low activity user. The forum isn't down too, the last down was 5 days ago.

I guess that's because of your poor connection.

It is general limit to restrict bots, data scrapers and prevent Ddos attacks.

This error was common several years ago, but I have not heard of anyone complaining about it for several months. Some accounts, especially newbies, have restrictions, but I believe that your rank will enable you to search with out that error. I have now tried to click on the search button several times and have not encountered a problem.

use -----> https://ninjastic.space/search

Most times the system can sense it's a bot trying to operate so quickly and It's natural because I do experience it as well while searching for information that is very useful to me. So what I noticed is that next time while searching you don't have to be too fast although is very annoying to see such messages displayed.  

This is strange, perhaps you only have this problem due to slow internet or slow computer.

Mostly I search and it does not take me a lot of time. Perhaps in rare cases when the internet is slow, the search may take a few extra minutes, but usually things are fine.

I ran a random search as a test and it took less than 2 minutes to complete the search even though I got 5 pages of search results. looks good.

Yeah, when I was earlier using that search icon, I was still new here; that's the only time I mostly experienced such, and I believe the reason for such was because I was just a newbie, and newbies are not allowed to search things so quickly. You will have to wait for a few minutes.

Although, now, anytime I try to use the search icon, it still delays, and what I have noticed is that when you don't correctly put in the keyword or topic you want to search for, then you are going to experience such delays, but if you accurately put in the right search word, then you wouldn't have to wait for so long before you get your search result.

For example, if you search for "Bitcoin wallet," You might get a quick result, but if you search for something like, "I sold my land and some jewelry to buy Bitcoin," then you might not get your search result coming up soon. Yeah, it delays, but not up to 10 minutes like you said. It would rather tell you, "No result found."

For me, ninjastic.space is more preferable, or you can also make use of the second search option, which is the one linked to Google.

Maybe something is definitely wrong with your internet connectivity or the device you're using, have you also considered the availability of space on your device memory, search engine is not what should last than seconds to have your results with you, or maybe you probably make it more difficult to search through by what you typed in to be searched for, there's nothing wrong with the forum search here than from your end.

Google search is million times better than SMF search.  And for obvious reason more fast. 


Cool site.  It has crawled the entire forum and is responding really fast to my requests.  I will be using that from now on.

This is absolutely true when it comes to searching some information. I do experienced same problem when searching but I use to assume that perhaps it's due to too much similarity of words used in the forum. Try searching for a user Forum name and you'll see numerous of suggestions including the non relevant ones. Annoying enough, sometimes you still won't find the information you are looking for. Other aspects are actively working fast as long as the internet connection is not interrupted but the searching function needs some little improvement in order to be providing relevant information.


Does this has anything to do with one's phone storage available space? I doubt that. The search is not downloading any file but just to provide us with readable informations. So I think it has less to do with storage so far your internet connection is strong. The searching function is actually working fine but my own concern is the information it use to bring out.

Mmm...I don't know about that; the search function has always been pretty damn slow for me, and I did figure out early on that hitting the button more than once gives you the big ol' stop sign tread93 described.

But that's not even the worst part of the forum's search functionality--the results you get are disorganized and it's been my experience that they rarely help me find what I'm looking for.  And yes I do know about the alternative way of using google to search, but Theymos really ought to fix stuff like this.  I don't mind the old-school look, but a broken search function is just bad.

Waiting for actually 10 minutes is a bit awkward, you could have just used another search engine. I tried it just now and works pretty fast for me, perhaps the words you searched have been used more often so it takes longer than usual, but not 10 minutes lol. I encountered the same issue but didn't took me any longer than 2 minutes, so yeah internet could be your problem or the device you are using.

if the word he was searching for has been searched for more often then that is the more reason the search process was supposed to be faster being a familiar words than any other words not being searched for a long time and not waste costly 10mins on doing that. Otherwise out of common sense  I'll agree with you that it might be due the quality of his device or network issue.

Nobody is using that search for a long time and I think theymos should just remove it, or think of some update imrovement.
I would suggest to use Ninjastic.space website if you want to search something quickly, or search from menu tab in the top left side.

It doesn't seem like 4 minutes - but only 4 seconds.

---

So far ninjastic has helped me search faster than the forum search feature. I almost forgot that the feature existed - that's because I never use it as often as I do ninjastic. The best suggestion is to use ninjastic for fast searches - I and many other users have switched to it.

In fact i never used it for a proper use since then, just testing when some users encountered errors like this. I always use google using the google search of course not with google search in forum page.

Yes 1 search in 4 second is the limit and that limit is for everyone irrespective of the rank.


Yes you can use the Google Search Option available in forum but I don't like it as the result shown from this view are different form normal google search and doesn't seems like regular google search

From above Google Search results will look like this.

But if you use google's keyword "site:bitcointalk.org" your search results will be more like regular google search and also more accurate results with no ads

	Google Search option in bitcointalk	Normal google search with 'site' keyword
	https://i.ibb.co/7CjpGCZ/image.png	https://i.ibb.co/SK093sk/image.png

So I will suggest use this option to search anything on bitcointalk

You’d really need to be more specific, stating enough information for the admin/people to be able to reproduce the exact case (i.e. search string, browser, exact message returned (*), type of device, is it a recurrent error tested on different occasions, etc.).

I use the search function frequently without any issue whatsoever, although I always use the advanced search (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=search) function in order to parametrize the query (i.e. delimit time interval, sort order, etc.).
 
(*):
The error message goes somewhere along the lines of:

It should state a waiting period that depends on your Activity, ranging from 360 seconds to 4 seconds:


Since your Activity is currently 749, your waittime between searches should be of 4 seconds. That is, unless there are network issues on either end or you just happened to catch a minor point in time server hiccup.

Yes, I saw the error while going through replies on the thread, but somehow I still forgot to strike the previous “4 minutes” and add the correct “4 seconds”.

Btw, thanks for the reminder.

Nope, I don't think it has anything to do with rank because I also experience it from time to time. However, reading what user Cantsay said; I guess that's the likely cause.

I think I will start making use of that now. I used to think it was mainly for archiving posts.