Googleability of forum?

[trm]

Hi all,

I was just wondering what the googleability of the forum is like? I've just checked and can't find a robots.txt so was wondering what the policy is going to be?

Going back to an earlier discussion on some other board somewhere it'd be useful to know so we can figure out where (or indeed if) to post "crap day at work" rants without them becoming publicly viewable.

I know I could just logout and see what's visible, but that won't tell me if there is any plans to formulate a site policy on this (so

to anybody who was going to tell me to logout and see

).

cheers

tim

ps Also just wanted to show my appreciation for the site upgrade and the speed with which it was applied! Top work chaps.

 

[cools]

/me suggests private only.

 

[andyman]

Private is good

Andy.

 

[g00n3r]

Agree.

 

[DanP]

I err on the side of private too. Perhaps some of the forums could be visible (For Sale for example) but it's good to have somewhere safe to rant

Dan

 

[cools]

I'd say expose any techie stuff but nothing else.

 

[guddler]

I agree the same as I always have that it doesn't make much difference to me as long as I know. But my preference is for private.

 

[Guests]

the following is accessible

Arcade

- General
Meetings

& Events
Wanted
Trade

Only
non arcade FS
Free

Stuff
FAQs

all of off topic

Site

Maintenance
Suggestions

/ Bugs / Problems / Help!

 

[trm]

I didn't want to post my opinion in the OP as I didn't want to lead the discussion in any way. But with a good few responses I'd like to suggest that at least the OT sections are non-public, and I have a genetic tendency towards preferring privacy.

But, going fully private isn't going to help attract new members to the hobby which is the only drawback I can see. How much of an issue is that for people? Is word of mouth enough and/or discussion links coming in from a tech site?

Looking at the list AnDyC has just posted, how about if Arcade - General and Meetings & Events were made public and the rest restricted? That way we should get some decent google hits eventually from A-G and possibly M & E.

If the list of accessible forums are intentionally so, then what about making OT private so we have somewhere safe for those "pissed off at life/work/women/mysterious bug that's crawled up my urethra" rants?

In fact, probably this post I wouldn't want googleable really. Me and my damn urethra obsessions...

 

[Guests]

its quite easy to turn off public access to each section, even i can do it let me know what should be public from that list and we can turn the rest off

 

[Ravage]

Well I'd thought the FS and perhaps WTB sections arent that bad to be publically available as a) it'd get people more chance of getting/sellign what they want and indeed attract people to the forums...

Wlao why would this be senstive for people?

General discussion, OT's I can see entirely why it'd be good to keep them private

But Im open to suggestions/whatever people want really.

 

[trm]

I got a google alert for my name last night, amusingly enough for this very thread

I'd suggest that as a temporary measure OT is marked as unreadable to unregistered users, just to stop our weirder conversations being archived. I think the nature of the other forums probably stops anything "wouldn't want found on a google vanity search" being discussed.

Although it might be an idea to block spidering from Site Maint too, just so we can discuss what we would/wouldn't prefer to be public from being public!

I think the main thing is that as long as people know what is spider-able and what isn't, we have a good start position.

cheers

tim

 

[cools]

The sales sections on AO are pruned regularly, so they're kept private to prevent broken cached links.

 

[DanP]

The forum has now been largely locked down from non member access. Only For Sale and Wanted forums are visible to non members.

Cheers,

Dan

 

[andyman]

Nice one guys

Andy.