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Always thought this was odd...

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2023 4:06 pm
by Kigiin
Image

I would think non users would be filtered out.

Re: Always thought this was odd...

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2023 4:24 pm
by fpena944
Kigiin wrote: Wed Feb 15, 2023 4:06 pm Image

I would think non users would be filtered out.
I've given bots the permission to view the forums and the topics within them but to not be able to read the content of the private ones.

This helps with SEO and ensures the traffic here is properly measured. But of course I didn't want private content to index in search engines which is why they can only see the titles. If you do a Google search you'll see none of the topics in the private forums appearing in the results.

Hope that helps!

Re: Always thought this was odd...

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2023 4:32 pm
by Kigiin
fpena944 wrote: Wed Feb 15, 2023 4:24 pm
Kigiin wrote: Wed Feb 15, 2023 4:06 pm Image

I would think non users would be filtered out.
I've given bots the permission to view the forums and the topics within them but to not be able to read the content of the private ones.

This helps with SEO and ensures the traffic here is properly measured. But of course I didn't want private content to index in search engines which is why they can only see the titles. If you do a Google search you'll see none of the topics in the private forums appearing in the results.

Hope that helps!
Interesting - thanks

Re: Always thought this was odd...

Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2023 5:56 pm
by Kigiin
Just a footnote, I understand allowing bots to crawl the website but thought they would be filtered out of the "Who is Online"?

Re: Always thought this was odd...

Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2023 9:49 pm
by fpena944
Kigiin wrote: Wed Apr 19, 2023 5:56 pm Just a footnote, I understand allowing bots to crawl the website but thought they would be filtered out of the "Who is Online"?
It's a "feature" that is present in the base-level software. Even on their support site you see all of the bots that are currently logged in.

Honestly I don't know why they include it as most users really don't care if there is a bot on unless it's adding to the conversation. In my research I found there's not an easy way to hide them as you'd have to set each bot manually as being hidden. Given how often that database changes it would be a bit much to support.

At least we know who is spying on us! :biggrin: