Make 'n' always search forwards, regardless of whether / or ? was used for searching

Question

I almost always search in Vim with /, and then continue searching forwards with n and backwards with N. Sometimes, however, I use ?<

Answer 1

That is just the way it is, notwithstanding some debate on the developers' mailing list ...

Here's what you can do about it:

:noremap n /
:noremap N ?

Relevant mailing list thread with a lot more interesting info: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/vim_dev/8jSoA931P2Y/JklYtxFOiAYJ