Catalog searches with * and "" inconsistent

I was trying to do a relatively complex search (review:* tags:-_read tags:-@*). The tags part was working just fine, but I was getting listings with and without reviews. I tried it out, and review:"" does get me only ones without reviews. OK, went and tried some others - comments:* and :"" is the same as reviews (* gets everything, "" gets blanks). On the other hand, tags:* gets me only the books with tags, but tags:"" gets everything! (I deleted the tags from one book for the testing - I've put them back now, normally I don't have any untagged books.) I haven't tested further.

 * ""
Tags only with everything
Comments everything only without
Reviews everything only without

on another topic - when I tried to post this, I got a white screen with 'Checking error. Contact tim@librarything.com'. I went back and extracted the text from my post, then hit F5 - there was no 'post a new topic' link available, then I realized I was logged out. Trying again now.

ETA Darn, my clever table didn't work. Trying again. Ah, does it.

I suspect this is related to the bug I reported here; when you're doing a multi-parameter search like this, including "tags" as one of the fields you're searching, the other loses the field specification, and searches all fields -- so instead of just finding books where the "review" field is populated, it's finding books where ANY field is populated (that also meet the tag-search criterion).

Which reminds me I should bump the other thread, too.

Yes, I'd seen yours (I should have mentioned it). But while I first noticed the problem in a multi-parameter search, the testing was done with single parameters - that is, reviews:* as the only search item will still get me listings with and without reviews. So this may be related but it's got its own problems...