You are correct meek13 and I would suggest a method of which you have already given a hint. The vowels may be used like this in the subject field of the thread; @ for a, & for e, % for i, 0(Zero) for o and finally ^ for u. Then the members searching a particular subject may also apply these characters. The admins may also program the codes that the subject header may automatically change the vowels in the subject header in a predefined manner. If this is uniformally applied then I don't think there could be any problem.