Make /forum searchable by search engines

[JohnF]

I propose deleting http://www.gatheringdarkness.co.nz/robots.txt

[NigelT]

You're just too clever for your own good...

...but seriously. Yes, we could do that.

For anyone else readying this that doesn't know what JohnF is talking about - the robots.txt file on the site is a hidden file read by Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines. It tells them which parts of the website we want to appear in their search engines and which parts we don't. In our case, we have told them they can search the home page only - the forum and all it's content are off limits.

John - this decision was made to protect the community to a certain extent. This forum does contain some really useful information but it also contains some sensitive discussions and probably some things that aren't intended for an international audience. If the contents of the forum were to be searchable, it could also change the way people post to the website and may stop people posting entirely in some cases. If you can show that there is a genuine wide-spread desire for the forum contents to be fully searchable then we'll review this situation and make a formal ruling on it.

I hope that's answered your question.

Cheers,
Nigel

[JohnF]

Hi Nigel,

I read the rationale behind it when I signed up to this site.

I put it to you that forums are inherently public. That anyone can read the
messages on here. I suggest that those people who consider privacy
important use methods such as email, private messaging, phone, txt, talk in
person. An important concern is the harvesting of personal information. The
best way to prevent this is not to post email addresses, phone numbers etc.
The robots.txt file doesn't stop harvesters. A motivated person can easily
get personal information. It's like locking our houses, the lock will only stop
the honest.

If a blanket opening of the site isn't on the cards, how about specific
sections?

Clubs - http://www.gatheringdarkness.co.nz/forum/groups.php
This page is a directory of clubs. I believe it exists so that people can
contact a club, and find out about training times and venues.

The Combat, Crafts, and Lifestyle forums. The primary foci of these is
to share ideas, to teach, to have questions answered. these are things of
international interest.

Regards,
John

[Robbo]

I agree about the clubs page. Definitely a good a idea there.

Disagree with the rest though. I like being able to speak my peace to the folk of NZ where and when I so choose, without being open to an international level. This is, after all, an NZ site for NZ participants. For those who wish to view more, it's hardly a complicated matter to join our community. Some already have *points at Jon in Qld*.

I'm also aware of how easy it is to view things as an anonymous guest. Such people, imo, tend to be short lived visitors and seldom return for long. If it's their thing to be peeping tom's, more power to them.

I already use email for specifically private missives. If I wanted to do that with every discussion, I wouldn't bother being a member here.

[NigelT]

There are some good points there from both of you. Thank you.

It's not possible to specifically allow one page using the robots.txt file without putting it in a directory all by itself, that is not part of a disallowed folder and then providing access to it from an allowed page. This basically means I'd have to move the clubs and groups page and re-link everything that points to it. Not terribly hard, but still a bit of work.

The other big reason for not allowing that page to be searched is that a lot of people have personal information listed on that page, including phone numbers. They may not appreciate this information being searchable on the internet.

In short, we would need to get the agreement of every member before making any significant changes to the robots.txt file, or give enough notice to all members and we would need to inform them of all locations where they have personal information listed and they would in turn have to go through all of their previous postings or those of other people mentioning them and apply to have that information censored before the change was made. If we didn't go through this process it would be very very poor form. By doing this it could create a massive administrative headache for very little gain.

And finally, yes, this forum contains useful information that would be of interest to others, but as has been stated, these 'others' are mostly NZ reenactors who know about and have access to GD anyway. It's not a blog site or Wikipedia type repository - we tried that and nobody used it. So I feel that the focus is somewhat different and perhaps not as useful for long-term international searchability.

These are all just my personal opinions. As I said, if you'd like to raise this point in the NAAMA & General Discussion forum and solicit opinions, you're welcome to do so.

Cheers,
Nigel