Why is there an asterisk in my FR Search Field (Vanity)

[Java4Jay]

Help please. There is an asterisk in my FR search field making the task more difficult. What is its purpose, for I have to delete it before pasting or typing a search. Thank you!

[SpinnerWebb]

are you logged in?

[dfwgator]

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

[SpaceBar]

I have actually wondered the same thing.

[Maceman]

Good question. That asterisk has always bugged me too, for the same reason.

[steve86]

This is because you are on the NSA hot list.

[Boogieman]

It’s a wildcard character.

Why it is there by default, I have no idea though.

[RJS1950]

Pre-configured wildcard search?

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

The asterisk is essentially a wildcard. That is, it will search for your selected string plus all terms that mostly match your string...as long as it is at least 4 letters in length. Without the asterisk, your search is an exact match search. Thus, searching for “disk” will return only results that match that word. Searching for “disk*” will return the same but also “disk drive”, etc.

[NonValueAdded]

because it beats seeing a colon?

[llevrok]

The asterisk is essentially a wildcard.

Goes back yo the days of DOS, if I recall too.

[Dick Bachert]

Yep. These guys must have been born after MSDOS was all we had.

[Java4Jay]

I don’t find it user friendly at all

[sickoflibs]

Not seeing that with Firefox

[RckyRaCoCo]

because it beats seeing a colon?

"...now stop that!"

[LonePalm]

Goes back to the days of DOS, if I recall too.

Before that. DOS got it from Unix who, IIRC, got it from MULTIX.

"Ceterum censeo 0bama esse delendam."

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[oh8eleven]

It might be there as a "focal point" that makes the search field a little more visible to the user.
The FR software might also require a default value for the search field and the webmaster/programmer might have chosen the "*" over - "Hey, over here dummy."

[mmichaels1970]

FR's search function has always been a bit lacking. I recommend using google with the "site:" thing when searching FR. Here is an example.

Google:

site:freerepublic.com "Why is there an asterisk in my FR Search Field (Vanity)"

[Red Badger]

We don't need no steenking asterisks! I gots no asterisk! [Firefox]

[Mr. K]

BECAUSE THAT’S THE WAY WE’VE ALWAYS DONE IT AND WE’RE NOT GOING TO CHANGE NOW FOR YOU BUSTER!