Why the search engine is terrible
 

1) "Gems" and "gold" are not considered common terms and are searchable, but "AI" is too short and isn't.
2) You can only search a maximum of 20 pages, which isn't even enough to cover all the posts by some users even over just ONE YEAR.
3) You cannot search by poster name and any term simultaneously. Finding specific quotes from people without the ability to do this is ridiculously hard.
4) You should be able to search for posts/threads that receive high thanks values!
5) When you include multiple search terms in the search box, it should just include everything that isn't a preposition. If you're going through all that work it's obvious that you want all those search terms.

I'm sure there's more and I don't care to think of them at this moment. Feel free to add your own favorite complaints about the search engine and why it doesn't work.

Re: Why the search engine is terrible
 

Most forums search engines are terrible.

The workaround is to use Google. Google (and many other large search engines) will let you limit the search to a site. You mentioned AI and by poster. Putting into Google
AI "Gandalf Parker" -SE4 site:forum.shrapnelgames.com
searches this site for AI with my name and excludes some posts in the Space Empire files

Also Google has lots more switches that can be used. In fact the only forums Ive ever seen with a decent search had their search button set to google with the site: locked in. Altho I do use the search (the advanced search) on the forum to find all posts by someone, or to limit it to tags such as guide, or to search in specific date ranges.

Re: Why the search engine is terrible
 

I suppose you do have a point. It is just annoying how difficult this search engine is to use effectively. You really need to just favorite every thread you might ever want to go back and look at again in the future. Or, use an external search engine like google. Sigh.

Re: Why the search engine is terrible
 

Add on top of all that that you can't search two times during one minute and use Google as Gandalf suggests. I always do so. This forum is well indexed and nearly everything can be found.