Bug in search engine with two-character usernames

March 6, 2009 4:49 PM

Mefi search doesn't seem to handle very short (specifically, two character) usernames correctly.

Apologies if this is known issue, I couldn't find it when I searched.

REPRO
In the metafilter search box, type "ry". You'll get know matches.

EXPECTED
You should get a result on the users tab for ry.

ACTUAL
You get "Sorry, no matches for ry across MetaFilter."

posted by jeb to Bugs at 4:49 PM (37 comments total)

What's weird is the search has no problem finding 'pb'...
posted by gman at 4:54 PM on March 6, 2009

Well, that and the way you spell 'no'.
posted by gman at 4:56 PM on March 6, 2009

I just searched for myself as I have a two character username and it worked...
posted by ob at 4:59 PM on March 6, 2009

Ok, I amend my bug report: It is only a problem for ry. But ry is one of my only friends on metafilter, so this bugs status must be upgraded to CRITICAL:MUSTFIX. pb is also an earlier user than ry, so...its not just some old db schema issue. Maybe 'ry' is in the stopwords file. I can't believe I didn't catch that "no"/"know" thing, even on proofreading. I have something wrong w/ my brane.
posted by jeb at 5:08 PM on March 6, 2009

huh, it's probably a reserved phrase in SQL that is being ignored, since other two character users return matches. I'm sure pb can chime in when he sees this thread.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:11 PM on March 6, 2009

was this a way to draw me out of mefi retirement?

i actually believe this worked at some point in the last 9 years.
posted by ry at 5:17 PM on March 6, 2009 [3 favorites]

It likely worked before because we were basically doing it wrong, doing bruteforce queries on all the data.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:21 PM on March 6, 2009

The solution is for ry to get a new account with a longer name.
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 5:25 PM on March 6, 2009 [5 favorites]

ry 2: electric boogaloo
posted by dersins at 5:30 PM on March 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

Metafilter: it likely worked before because we were basically doing it wrong
posted by BitterOldPunk at 5:49 PM on March 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

Get a new name, or learn how to code your own database, Ry. It's rampent.

Chart not found for symbol: RY-V!!
http://www.valueforum.com/research.cgi?symbol=RY.CA
The page or document you have requested!
http://www.wcheshirepct.nhs.uk/default.asp?page=ry/default.asp
/config.status: line 11: ry: command not found
http://www.mail-archive.com/[e-mail]/msg538630.html
No questions asked by ry found with the requested statuses.
https://answers.launchpad.net/~ry-tinyclouds/+createdquestions
posted by sleslie at 6:49 PM on March 6, 2009

Or rampant. whatever, so thing, no?
posted by sleslie at 6:50 PM on March 6, 2009

*same thing... I QUIT METAFILTER, LOSERS. CYA.
posted by sleslie at 6:51 PM on March 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

huh, yeah, "ry" is not a reserved word in SQL but for some reason it was being tagged as such. Should be working now.
posted by pb (staff) at 7:27 PM on March 6, 2009

Interesting first result.
posted by gman at 7:29 PM on March 6, 2009

Yay fixed!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:35 PM on March 6, 2009

pb is amazing and extra props for jeb for a terrifically clear bug report.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:35 PM on March 6, 2009

pb: "huh, yeah, "ry" is not a reserved word in SQL but for some reason it was being tagged as such. Should be working now."

*PISH*

BAM!
posted by Rhaomi at 9:01 PM on March 6, 2009

Now, can we talk about little Bobby tables? I can't find him anywhere!
posted by blue_beetle at 9:06 PM on March 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

He ran off to join the union.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:05 PM on March 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

Little Bobby Tables
Had a distinct set of values
Joined the Union
To help grant the right to
Select and create
Freedom

Little Bobby Tables
In a column filled with
Raucous characters
Got dropped on the front
Line, like row after row
Of men in the Union
posted by Mister Cheese at 10:37 PM on March 6, 2009

In honor of mefi interactive fiction month:
Want some ry? Course you do!
posted by BrotherCaine at 2:12 AM on March 7, 2009 [1 favorite]

dersins: ry 2: electric boogaloo

Pssht. You're missing it, and it's staring you in the face.

ry's new name should be Ry's Cooder.
posted by koeselitz at 2:26 AM on March 7, 2009 [2 favorites]

sleslie: Or rampant. whatever, so thing, no?

From Pimbley's Dictionary of HeraldRY:

Rampant - (ramp'-ant) Said of a beast of prey, as a lion, rising with fore paws in the air., as if attacking. The right fore leg and the right hind leg should be raised higher than the left. Unless otherwise specified, the animal faces dexter.
posted by koeselitz at 2:36 AM on March 7, 2009

What's so interesting about Dexter that the lion has to face him?
posted by languagehat at 5:39 AM on March 7, 2009 [2 favorites]

The solution is for ry to get a new account with a longer name.

just becauses, ry
posted by netbros at 7:24 AM on March 7, 2009

I think it just makes the lion seem less sinister that way.
posted by koeselitz at 8:26 AM on March 7, 2009 [1 favorite]

lionize your hide . . . Eagles parody I'm too tired actually to construct . . . something.
posted by cgc373 at 11:04 AM on March 7, 2009

Another profile access point: /username/ry.
posted by Pronoiac at 11:40 AM on March 7, 2009

I'm glad to see the mefi admins respond so quickly to this important issue!
posted by finn at 1:53 PM on March 7, 2009 [1 favorite]

Users with one character names - ~ ? . ' $ # % 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b c D e f g h i j k L m n o p Q R s t u v w x y z

Members with two-character names: __ :: ?! '' @ -1 #1 1 27 29 2M $5 8j 8k A! a. A1 aa ac AJ ak Am as AV AW az b. ba BB bc bd Be bg bh bj bk BM BT BW by bz cb cc CF CG ch cj CK cl cm cp cr cs ct cx D. D+ DA db DC de dg Di DJ DK dl Dn DR DU dw dy ec ed EF el em et EV f4 f5 F9 fe gc gd gg gj gm gp gr gt h2 hc HF hi hr id ig io it ix IZ jb jc jd JE JF jh jj jk jl jm jo JP JR js JT ju jz kc kd KF kg kh kj kk KM KS kv Ky LB LC LG LM LN lo lp ls lw lx m@ ma mb md me mg mi mk mm mu mw mx My n9 nf o2 ob OG oi oj ok om or OZ P' p2 pb pe pg PH pj PM po pq ps pt PY pz qa qq qw qz ra rb Rc rd rf ri rl rq rr Rs rw ry .s *s SB SC sd se si sj sl so SS Su sw sy -t tb TC TD tf tj tk tr ts V. vm wg WL ws ww xm xo xq xz y8 yo yt yy yz

There are 1019 names with three characters, as of the 2009-01-01 infodump.
posted by Pronoiac at 3:32 PM on March 7, 2009 [1 favorite]

Thank you admins and jokesters alike.
posted by jeb at 3:36 PM on March 7, 2009

Also, Rampant on a Field, a podcast episode about heraldry.
posted by Pronoiac at 3:47 PM on March 7, 2009

Users with Unicode in their names, often using characters not permitted in comments:
0113;0117;0111;0110;0115;0097;0114; (quonsar impostor)
60;div class="comments"62; (renders as < & >)
  (it's a space.)
  /Y\ (leading spaces.)
x30CF;x30C3;x30AB;x30FC; (HaTUKa-6)
xAE40;xCE58; (?)
Zip(ity) Bop(™)
posted by Pronoiac at 4:17 PM on March 7, 2009

Inspired by plutor's posting an analysis script, & far less elegant, what I used for the searches above:
gzip -dc < usernames.txt.zip | grep -P $* | \
  sort -fk 4 | \
  perl -ane \
  '$len=scalar @F-1; print "\<a href=\"http://www.metafilter.com/user/@F[0]\"\>@F[3..$len]\<\/a> "'

Feed these as parameters to search for:
# '\t...$' - 2 character names
# '\t....$' - 3 character names
# '&' - unicode

Searching for non-alphabetic names is weird. '![[:alpha:]]' pulls up exclamation points, rather than ND.
posted by Pronoiac at 2:56 PM on March 9, 2009

my parents thank you.
posted by ry at 8:55 PM on March 9, 2009

Following a link in one of the profiles that Pronoiac linked got me here. Jesus, that's trippier than TPS' profile.
posted by Phire at 6:39 AM on March 10, 2009