Advanced search - can’t find name

[OverweightPidgeon]

What does it mean when you AS a user name but it says ‘nothing found’ ?

It might mean you misspelled the name!

Or all their posts have been deleted by MN.

I copied and pasted and typed it out.

It’s on a current thread .

It means the search function doesn't work properly, I searched someone the other day by copying and pasting their name from the thread they were posting on to the search box and their posts on that thread didn't come up although a post on a different thread did.

Check you haven't put a space at the start or the end.

Yes I’ve checked that I haven’t put a space in, it’s also only 4 letters so I’m sure I’ve spelt it correctly!

Did you put the correct dates in?

I did , it’s so annoying!

I find the search function on Mumsnet very poor. I just tried to find a recent post about Woman’s hour and the search just couldn’t find it. I found the topic eventually by searching for another word (the discussion topic).

Out of interest I then repeated my original search using Woman’s Hour, exactly as it appeared in the post I now knew I was searching for - same capitalisation etc - and the search still didn’t find it.

It would be so helpful to have a search that works.

My definition of working would be:

• capitalisation, spaces, apostrophes etc shouldn’t matter
• exact spelling shouldn’t matter (especially important for names, eg Emma Barnett)
• you should be able to order search results by date
• and as an added bonus, make it easier to set the search dates to the last week / last month, not just today/yesterday/ all results going back into eternity.

I find this often happens - sometimes it is because the poster has been banned, but mostly I think it's a glitch.