The Lemon Fool

This has happened a few times now
you can be browsing on the site and then you get

"Sorry but you cannot use search at this time. Please try again in 8 seconds"!
the number of seconds varies
Why does this happen ?
Thank you
Paul

Does this happen when yoi have used the search facility?

If so, it's because you're limited in how frequently you can run a search.

If not, when does it happen?

It happens to me when I accidently click Quick links -> Your posts when I meant to click Quick links -> New posts. Is that the issue?

chas49 wrote:Does this happen when yoi have used the search facility?

Yes do a search and then click on Quick LInks (but not very time, so it's weird)

pje16 wrote:

chas49 wrote:Does this happen when yoi have used the search facility?

Yes do a search and then click on Quick LInks (but not very time, so it's weird)

The quick links seem to use the search, so perhaps that's it. I don't see that issue if I use Unread Posts and click it again straight away, so there must be some additional complication involved.

Ok, first thing to understand is that searches are expensive, they take a lot (comparatively) of system resources, and so phpBB (the software used by TLF) throttles them by imposing that wait time. I have no idea what the actual algorithm is for when it imposes the wait and when it doesn't but I rather suspect that it's to do with total usage of the site, not just yours.

The second thing to understand is that all of the "Quick links" items above "Search" in its list are, in fact, searches, so you can get the wait on any of those (as well as any search of course).

Yeah, the wait is a p.i.t.a. and we could ask Stooz to reduce it, although that would make the site more prone to a denial of service attack, by a bot doing lots and lots of searches (which, remember, are expensive) and so overloading the site.

ok fair enough, and thanks for explanations which make sense
another schoolday for me

Going to page 2 of search results is also another search, and sometimes subject to the delay. This seems a bit inefficient since it must have already performed the search, to know that a page 2 exists.

I guess there must be a good reason for it though.

Scott.

I often use
https://www.google.co.uk/advanced_search
and put
www.lemonfool.co.uk/
in the domain box

works a treat

pje16 wrote:I often use
https://www.google.co.uk/advanced_search
and put
http://www.lemonfool.co.uk/
in the domain box

You can also put site:lemonfool.co.uk in a normal Google search.

Scott.