Search Function Not Working As Intended?

Over the last few days (at least that's when I noticed it), I've found that the search function no longer processes +, - and "<word here>" commands. Phrase searches don't function, instead both words are searched for independently. This one I am sure of 100%, and since the page specifically says you can do that kind of search, it would seem to be malfunctioning. I'm less sure about the former presence of the +/- commands, but they also aren't working if they ever were part of the search engine. Once you process the search, not only do the results not properly narrow, but your search operators are removed from the search phrase on the results window.

Is this me just being obtuse or has there been a change?

Huh. I think this was an unintended change. We'll look into it.

I've confirmed that + and - work as intended, and "quoted phrases" work... but we strip the quotes from your search terms when we prefill the search box on the results page. This will be fixed.

Gary,

I don't doubt you since you can see the code, but I swear I double checked on the search phrase problem a couple of times. Indeed, now I no longer seem to see the problem, but I know it was there as I was having major problems searching for threads and pulling up 50+ pages of responses without the phrase. Could it be something transient?

It's probably better to think of the phrase thing as a hint rather than an absolute. We emphasize phrases when we find them but they're not a hard requirement right now. Revisiting how we handle search terms is probably a good idea but it's not super high on the priority list.