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When you search for cauterizes on Movies.SE, it returns 0 results.

But there is a post on Movies.SE that contains the string cauterizes. It is in spoiler markup though, so that's why the search didn't find it.

Please allow the search to find text within spoiler blocks.

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    We wouldn't want someone coming across a spoiler in results by accident.
    – Double AA
    Commented Dec 17, 2014 at 22:25

3 Answers 3

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Thanks for bringing this up. This behaviour is currently by design. I'm not sure that we want to make this change, just because people might find spoilers in search by accident (which defeats the purpose really). If the community agrees en masse, then we'll consider the change.

Another option is to make the text in the spoiler searchable, but not display spoilers in the search results. This is definitely possible (if the community wants it).

For what it's worth, I can confirm that we do not index spoilers currently. This is the entire body of the search document that represents the post you cited:

"body":"Spoilers for Saw 3D ahead:\n\n\n"

You can see that the spoiler was not included.

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    I think your idea of making the spoiler text searchable but not displaying it in the search results is a good compromise. Another idea is to add a search option such as "spoiler:yes" that would search within spoilers.
    – pacoverflow
    Commented Dec 30, 2014 at 16:33
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    Also a good thought. I'd maybe repost this question as a request for spoiler:yes. We could probably make that happen if people wanted it.
    – Haney Staff
    Commented Dec 30, 2014 at 16:59
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I just noticed this behavior, and would request that this be changed. When searching, the expectation is that this will search the site's posts, not just the stuff that's outside spoiler blocks. For example, if I've seen all of the Star Wars films and am doing searches on a certain event in Empire Strikes Back, I'm going to want to find the posts about Luke's parentage, not just ones that happen to have that information outside of spoiler blocks. If I'm doing this search before asking a question, it makes it more likely that I'll post a duplicate.

Please make the search find text in spoiler blocks, but do not display the spoiler text on the search results page. This makes spoilers searchable, while maintaining their purpose as providing a safety before spoiling.

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That is by design so people won't accidentally find spoilers (they're supposed to be hidden).

The system can still be improved.

I think there should be a new spoilers:yes search option for advanced users to show spoilers in search results.

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