Is there some reason we can't use wildcards in searches anymore? The cheatsheet has instructions for them stricken out now :(

Wildcards have been disabled for the near future because they have been abused in the recent DDOS attacks. We're unsure if or when they'll return.

NotMeNotYou said:
Wildcards have been disabled for the near future because they have been abused in the recent DDOS attacks. We're unsure if or when they'll return.

Damn, that really bites. Probably my most-used search feature :/

Ouch!

Wildcards are now restricted to priv+ members.

NotMeNotYou said:
Wildcards have been disabled for the near future because they have been abused in the recent DDOS attacks. We're unsure if or when they'll return.

You must bring them back. Without them, we need search for the exact tag amid the hundreds a post could be using. We've lost a drastic amount of its functionality.

This is why we cannot have nice things, due to rotten people abusing handy features for nefarious purposes.

MadeTorder said:
You must bring them back. Without them, we need search for the exact tag amid the hundreds a post could be using. We've lost a drastic amount of its functionality.

What could possibly meet the description of "hundreds a post could be using", asides from abusive examples like "a*"...?

I would fill in a captcha if it meant I could use wildcards.

KiraNoot said:
Wildcards are now restricted to priv+ members.

Thanks!

I'm actually bit confused as I almost never use wildcards with search.

You guys are aware that you can still search for tags with wildcards on Tags from top panel. I use this all the time because I don't remember the exact way to write specific tags or my english gets lacking.

Mairo said:
I'm actually bit confused as I almost never use wildcards with search.

You guys are aware that you can still search for tags with wildcards on Tags from top panel. I use this all the time because I don't remember the exact way to write specific tags or my english gets lacking.

Yes, because you are priv+ user. We plebians only see exact searches now, meaning we only see the tag/wiki page for the exact thing we search for.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/513146658318450737/596130377177759754/2019-07-03_1.png

Mairo said:
I'm actually bit confused as I almost never use wildcards with search.

You guys are aware that you can still search for tags with wildcards on Tags from top panel. I use this all the time because I don't remember the exact way to write specific tags or my english gets lacking.

People use it for broadening up their search results without having to use up the already limited tag searches (*_(humanoid), canine_*, ambient_* etc), and searching tags from tag lists isn't useful for these purposes at all. For example most recently I have been using it for searching *_(disambiguation) to clean disambiguations off posts. Searching it from tag list isn't very useful for purposes like this.

Versperus said:
Yes, because you are priv+ user. We plebians only see exact searches now, meaning we only see the tag/wiki page for the exact thing we search for.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/513146658318450737/596130377177759754/2019-07-03_1.png

Well, you are wrong.
https://puu.sh/DOsOA/d00ae740c8.png

hiekkapillu said:
People use it for broadening up their search results without having to use up the already limited tag searches (*_(humanoid), canine_*, ambient_* etc), and searching tags from tag lists isn't useful for these purposes at all. For example most recently I have been using it for searching *_(disambiguation) to clean disambiguations off posts. Searching it from tag list isn't very useful for purposes like this.

OK, something like humanoid already is umbrella tag to help with that kind of stuff, but I can definitely understand it for *_(disambiguation).

Mairo said:
Well, you are wrong.
https://puu.sh/DOsOA/d00ae740c8.png

I'm actually very glad to be wrong on this, thank you

Idea: What if you had to have a certain number of characters to use the wildcard? so, a* would do nothing, but *transformation would.

Are there any plans for an intermediate "trusted" account level above Member, that can still use wildcard searches and tag category prefixes? There's quite a large gulf between Member and Privileged status and we're not all going to break stuff.

This is a fair reason, however, if the limit of 6 search terms is not raised while wildcards are disabled, it's going to be hell for users to find anything without multiple searches.

Multiple searches means a user's patience wearing down and a user's patience wearing down seens like it'd cause a dip in viewer retention over time while wildcards are down.

Sure after a while the less patient get weeded out eventually, that's still a loss of traffic.

After discovering the change I was pretty close to just using FA or Inkbunny, because without the exceptionally accurate wildcards here on e621 actually helping keep a search tidily in the scope of a theme you want, you must now search for each subset separately and might as well just cast a wide net elsewhere instead of funneling searches down to be too narrow.

Unless we temporarily have a more reasonable search term limit, this is purely a detriment to the use of the site.

Mairo said:
Well, you are wrong.
https://puu.sh/DOsOA/d00ae740c8.png

OK, something like humanoid already is umbrella tag to help with that kind of stuff, but I can definitely understand it for *_(disambiguation).

the issue being active searches for posts instead of just tags.

the convinience came from having a specific wildcard pair with other terms in the search including them all in the posts.

Having a list of individual tags based on a wildcard doesn't do much other than make someone
aware of a variation that they didn't know about before.

That doesn't help when normal users have to spend limited search terms on extra tags, for example like Foot_Fetish and Foot_Focus being two different tags despite having the same theme with no overarching tag to encompass both, yet the number and variations AND similarities of posts with these two different tags differ vastly.

One image may have been tagged as Foot_Fetish rather than Foot_Focus or vice-a-versa and may not have both tags at once meaning three exclusive searches must be made to see all the results As you will only see posts with one tag, the other or both, nothing in between, narrowing the search by an extreme amount.

Unless you use ~[tag], but that's eating into already very limited search terms allowed.

spankweasel said:
I would fill in a captcha if it meant I could use wildcards.

This is honestly a really good idea

spankweasel said:
I would fill in a captcha if it meant I could use wildcards.

The Google captcha is a nightmare on my vpn, taking at least ten correct times to actually register it, but the old-school wiggly text one is fine. I guess it depends how often you'd need to solve a captcha.

As a second idea, would it be possible to only allow access to the api for users with an api key, or logged in users for the web version, then set up an auto ban or timeout for repeated use of certain searches? Or the same thing but with asterisks only for logged in users, and an auto ban on the same search repeated quickly?

I just feel a blanket ban for member accounts is a bit much. Also it's kind of a win for the DDoSers if they can spam a particular feature and get it blocked for the majority of people.

This issue is not dead, it's still being worked on. I want to offer features to users, but it's coming up with a good balance of abuse prevention, and usability. For right now, it's priv+, but that is likely to change.

KiraNoot said:
This issue is not dead, it's still being worked on. I want to offer features to users, but it's coming up with a good balance of abuse prevention, and usability. For right now, it's priv+, but that is likely to change.

Ah, thank you for clarifying, and thanks for working on it, I'm glad to know it's not a dead issue.

The way things were worded I was thinking it was going to stay like that, NotMeNotYou's "We're unsure if or when they'll return" made it sound like it was unlikely it'd be back.

KiraNoot said:
This issue is not dead, it's still being worked on. I want to offer features to users, but it's coming up with a good balance of abuse prevention, and usability. For right now, it's priv+, but that is likely to change.

Thank you for keeping us in the loop, it's definitely an inconvenience but hI get that some compromises have to be made for attack prevention.

Thanks for all you guys do!

Could a site news notice be put up informing everyone that wildcard searches are (hopefully just) temporarily disabled due to them being abused for DDOS attacks?

And also put the notice in the search results if you do use a wildcard instead of "no posts matched your search."

Also putting the explanation for wildcards being disabled on the search cheatsheet next to the marked out wildcard search info would help.

All of these would catch the users who wouldn't go searching on the forum for the reason wildcard searches aren't working. Otherwise folk will think your search broke somehow rather than it being intentional.

KiraNoot said:
Wildcards are now restricted to priv+ members.

how do i become priv+. id that a subscription?

kamimatsu said:
how do i become priv+. id that a subscription?

Mods give Privileged status to people they feel are particularly helpful to the site. According to this https://e621.net/help/show/accounts

How to become one:
To become a privileged user, start helping out by uploading lots of good posts (with permission!), helping with tagging projects, reporting malicious users, updating the wiki, or adding note translations. Anything to be helpful. It doesn't hurt to get to know us on the Discord, either.

"Priv+" means Privileged, Contributor, Janitor, or Mod/Admin. All of those are explained in the link above

hsauq said:
I haven't tested this myself, but you could probably just make a script that performs a wildcard search from Tags, rips the the tags from the results, generate a link for every tag combination you want to use, and then automatically open each of those URLs in separate tabs, possibly with a short delay before every new tab.

Not anywhere near as efficient as using a wildcard, but far less cumbersome than manually typing out every single variation of a tag.

Yeah, let me, just as a casual user, create a convoluted script, that may not work well with inconsistent browser load times, in order to do a bunch of batches of searches over multiple tabs, probably seeing a lot of the same posts over and over in each scrolling through.

Not trying to be an ass but like, dude, that's an extraordinary step to take for the sake of a fap or two in the window of an hour of a day. That would be more useful for someone who peruses the site on a more regular basis for whatever reason.

The point is, i'll eventually find what I'm looking for, but the slower speed of the realization of that goal, as well as the prospect of more steps to reach the same goal is irritating. Again, I'm tempted to use other sites in the meantime to cast a wide net rather than spend time on scripting just to find a larger variety of stuff. So I'm suggesting that the limit on search terms be increased temporarily to accommodate normal users for the time being as it would at least make things a bit smoother.

Also, I doubt many others would go through the trouble of creating a script either.

NotMeNotYou said:
Wildcards have been disabled for the near future because they have been abused in the recent DDOS attacks. We're unsure if or when they'll return.

ikdind said:
What could possibly meet the description of "hundreds a post could be using", asides from abusive examples like "a*"...?

Without wildcards, I end up with my near-daily favourite casual* becoming ~casual_exposure ~casual_nudity ~casual_sex and eating up half of the tag limit.

I've been coming here for years, it's frustrating to get caught up in a blanket restriction to stop other people from doing something I have nothing to do with. Couldn't it be made so wildcards can only be used by accounts older than a year or a few years, and just ban any accounts associated with DDoS searchspam?

KiraNoot said:
Wildcards are now restricted to priv+ members.

Any chance of handing those out to people who have been here a while so they can actually still be used? :O

Or add a "trusted" or something, as someone suggested

CamKitty said:
Any chance of handing those out to people who have been here a while so they can actually still be used? :O

Or add a "trusted" or something, as someone suggested

Privileged rank comes with tools like mass tagging, rating locking, unlimited tag edits and so on, so it isn't really something that can be handed out for people simply for being around for long while. New rank would be better idea.

Maybe, if possible, wildcard searches could be restricted until an account is 1-2 weeks old or so? I mean, new members already have a lot of restrictions on what they can do anyway.

It would discourage abuses like a DDOS and/or give the staff enough time to recognize a ban evader who's done it before.

I think everyone missed the part where I said I'm still working on this and priv+ isn't the final solution to this. They are instead already coming up with alternative solutions and asking for priv. I'm busy, but I'm going to visit it again on Monday after work.

KiraNoot said:
I think everyone missed the part where I said I'm still working on this and priv+ isn't the final solution to this. They are instead already coming up with alternative solutions and asking for priv. I'm busy, but I'm going to visit it again on Monday after work.

We read that and believe you, just throwing around other ideas, mostly for fun :P

We appreciate your efforts

Members at least one week old can now use wildcards. Wildcards are now rate limited.

KiraNoot said:
Members at least one week old can now use wildcards. Wildcards are now rate limited.

Awesome! Thank you for making it all work and so quickly too.

KiraNoot said:
Members at least one week old can now use wildcards. Wildcards are now rate limited.

Nice work. Thank you.