I was told that search terms with less than 4 words would not be accepted. I then searched for "posting automatic time out" and again got the message that a search term had to contain at least four words.
Did it really say four words? Or did it say four letters?
Ah, that's a bit mean of me, even though you won't be reading this. Sorry you had such a frustrating experience. It's happened to us all. Very long or complicated posts that I want to spend some time over, I often draft in Word. Unfortunately that's a lesson you only learn once you've lost a post. It'll be a shame if you never use the site again, though. It's quite good.