Logical inconsistency in searching

It's not possible to search fav:__ (or user:__) along with an exclusion tag; doing so returns the message "You cannot search for only excluded tags". This seems to imply that fav:__ and user:__ don't count as search terms. Well and fine. However, an ordinary member is not permitted to search fav:__ along with two "normal" terms; doing so returns the message "You can only search up to two tags at once with a basic account". /This/ implies that fav/user:__ does in fact count as a search term.

Not a world-shattering problem. But. Which is it?

Can you give an example of a search that returns that message?

Fred1515 said:
Can you give an example of a search that returns that message?

Sure. You won't see the second one, though, since you've got a Privileged account. Although maybe it'll work if you put six "normal" searchterms with a fav:/user:. Hm

Let's use you.

"fav:fred1515 -smile" will give you the first error.
"fav:fred1515 blush -smile" will give ME the second error. Presumably "fav:fred1515 blush black_hair brown_eyes" and so forth to seven terms total would give YOU the second error.

Hm. It seems that rating:__ works the same way. I guess it's true for all __:__ searchterms.

Privileged members are also able to search with only excluded tags as well, so he wouldn't see the first error either.

Or at least I *think* they can. I remember seeing Albert saying something to that effect a while back.

Algasir said:
Privileged members are also able to search with only excluded tags as well, so he wouldn't see the first error either.

Or at least I *think* they can. I remember seeing Albert saying something to that effect a while back.

Hm. So it only affects the lowliest? In which case I guess the only incentive to figure this out is pride and meddling. Fff.

Yeah, I only get the "You can only search up to six tags at once" error when using more than 6 tags.

So you can't do searches like fav:fred1515 -rating:e?

That does sound like a bug, since they're handled as tags and you should be able to search for up to 2 tags.

Submit a Trac ticket. The site isn't counting metatags when it checks whether the query contains only exclusion tags.

Algasir said:
Privileged members are also able to search with only excluded tags as well, so he wouldn't see the first error either.

For a while, I used to browse simply as -touhou, which didn't give me problems, even as a regular member.

Fred1515 said:
So you can't do searches like fav:fred1515 -rating:e?

I haven't tried with anyone else's favorites, but I've certainly tried within my own (searching fav:Lalaca -rating:e) with no issue.

Lalaca said:
For a while, I used to browse simply as -touhou, which didn't give me problems, even as a regular member.
I haven't tried with anyone else's favorites, but I've certainly tried within my own (searching fav:Lalaca -rating:e) with no issue.

Perhaps member privileges were differently assigned when you were a regular member? And if privileged members can search exclusion tags only, I assume contributors can as well, so you wouldn't have that problem anyway.

Searching only excluded tags was really bad database-wise (though it may not be as bad now), which is why it was restricted to privileged users.

I'll have to do some benchmarking to see if this is still a performance issue. If not, I may just remove it to simplify the logic.

How is searching only excluded tags different from having a blacklist? Just curious.

I'm pretty sure excluded tags are done by the database engine server-side, and blacklists are handled via the javascript client-side.

Dr_Fine_Rolo said:
How is searching only excluded tags different from having a blacklist? Just curious.

The problem isn't searching only excluded tags; the problem is that it treats metatag+exclusion as only-exclusion.