I actually quite like the Threadloom search results when searching for post contents. But like you say, it's not that great when it comes to searching for threads by their titles.Has the search engine for the forums changed recently? I've had a hard time searching for threads or posts using keywords lately. I have noticed that when I type the names of threads they are not appearing as top results as they used to. This happens even if I use the exact characters that make up thread titles.
Below is an example, I searched "One-Answer WCA Competition and Regulations" which is an exact character for character match of the "One-Answer WCA Competition and Regulations Thread" without the "Thread" but it appears as the 8th result which is annoying, makes navigating the site harder and overall less enjoyable.
I think that we should abolish the character limit in profile posts, or at least extend the limit, as long as the post is on the poster's profile.
Dealing with a 420 character limit is somewhat frustrating when you're trying to say something important and can't fit it all into one post, and while I realize that this is probably to protect from spam, I think that we should have a bigger character limit or limit based on word count, or even abolish the limit outright.
If it's really important, you can make a thread about it, or a post in a relevant thread. If it's not important enough to warrant a thread of its own…I don't know how many characters are in the average word, but it's probably about 6 or something, so if we multiply that by 500, we get a few thousand. Then, rounding that up to a power of two gives a 4,096 byte limit.
420 characters is a bit limiting, especially if you like flowery prose, but I also don't see much of a reason for extending that nearly tenfold.