"searching through 20 million+ messages is going to put a hit on the system, so that's clearly a premium option."
That would be true if searching were done via a linear method.
But that's not the way any decent search works.
They work by indexing the search terms (words) and doing a binary (or other similar tree-based) search on terms.
The time spent is proportional to the number of search terms, not the number of documents. And the time needed to search for terms is much better than linear to the number of search terms.
Using a binary search, searching 256 terms requires only 8 probes at most, 65535 terms requires 16 probes, etc. Most implementations would use methods that are even more efficient, though.
Of course, it's not quite so simple as this - you can have multiple search terms in the search, and if the terms are being "anded" you have to do a search on each. It's still not the big deal it is (and historically has been) made out to be here on SI.
As a grandfathered lifer, I am not complaining. Frankly, I don't spend enough time here any more to care one way or the other. If I were using the site regularly, perhaps this would bother me and/or I would think it useful enough to pay the monthly fee.
It seems to me, though, all rather silly. We are talking about a relatively small number of subscribers (aren't we?) who are either grandfathered or life members (and still active), and a relatively low cost to provide the extra services. I liken it to processor chips that have on-chip features intentionally disabled by the manufacturer as a marketing gimmick to allow them to sell the chip at a lower price without canabilizing their own sales.
Why unnecessary pi**-off a small number of veteran subscribers, who, because of their longevity, could be one of SI's best free marketing tools? |
