# "Your search term is too short" message when no search term is entered at all

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/your-search-term-is-too-short-message-when-no-search-term-is-entered-at-all/49070
**Category:** UX
**Created:** [August 23, 2016, 3:06pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/your-search-term-is-too-short-message-when-no-search-term-is-entered-at-all/49070 "2016-08-23T15:06:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![meglio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/meglio/32/71444_2.png) [@meglio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/meglio)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2016, 3:06pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/your-search-term-is-too-short-message-when-no-search-term-is-entered-at-all/49070/1 "2016-08-23T15:06:54Z")

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This might be considered a bit confusing:

 ![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/b/8/b82bda2bc64003ee7218fe9755472a72bb66b370.png)

I have not entered any text yet, but it already says that my search term is too short (while there is no search term at all).

Maybe for zero-length input we should say something different, e.g.:

> Enter at least {n} chars to start the search

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### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2016, 3:32pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/your-search-term-is-too-short-message-when-no-search-term-is-entered-at-all/49070/2 "2016-08-23T15:32:07Z")

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You can only get here by entering text and then deleting it, so I don’t consider that worth spending time on at the moment.

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### Author: ![sam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/sam/32/102149_2.png) [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2016, 4:57am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/your-search-term-is-too-short-message-when-no-search-term-is-entered-at-all/49070/3 "2016-08-24T04:57:42Z")

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Fine for someone to submit a PR for enter at least {n} chars to search. Or something along those lines.

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### Author: ![meglio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/meglio/32/71444_2.png) [@meglio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/meglio)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2016, 8:13am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/your-search-term-is-too-short-message-when-no-search-term-is-entered-at-all/49070/4 "2016-08-24T08:13:11Z")

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> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> You can only get here by entering text and then deleting it

I see that state as soon as I press the / key.

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### Author: ![vinothkannans](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/vinothkannans/32/86465_2.png) [@vinothkannans](https://meta.discourse.org/u/vinothkannans)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2016, 10:48am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/your-search-term-is-too-short-message-when-no-search-term-is-entered-at-all/49070/5 "2016-08-24T10:48:48Z")

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PR submitted

[https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/4415](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/4415)

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### Author: ![vinothkannans](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/vinothkannans/32/86465_2.png) [@vinothkannans](https://meta.discourse.org/u/vinothkannans)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2016, 5:08pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/your-search-term-is-too-short-message-when-no-search-term-is-entered-at-all/49070/6 "2016-08-25T17:08:45Z")

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Anyone retry my PR in travis. It will pass now. Before it failed because of master branch’s build failure.

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### Author: ![erlend\_sh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/erlend_sh/32/119475_2.png) [@erlend\_sh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/erlend_sh)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2017, 10:02pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/your-search-term-is-too-short-message-when-no-search-term-is-entered-at-all/49070/7 "2017-02-28T22:02:30Z")

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