Question regrading search engines

Scooter · Post by **Scooter** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 2:47 pm

Are there any areas on TDF that are "off-limits" to the search bots and spiders that crawl the web? Not necessarily via robots.txt, but prohibited from viewing even from a "guest" stand point.

Before I post some things, I'd prefer them not to show up on a Google search here which can be associated with other sites that I'm active on.

jonn · Post by **jonn** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 3:09 pm

Based on a little experimentation just now with google, if you post such things in members-only areas they should be safe from search engines. Try it yourself. Find a distinctive thread that has been around a while in Dolls In General - Members Only and you shouldn't be able to find that thread with google or another search engine. But if you google search for a thread in an open subforum, such as Inventors Corner then you will find it easily.

Scooter · Post by **Scooter** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 3:18 pm

Screen name is a given. However, there are certain topics which I'll have to bow out of then as even though the screen names are different, talking about my dog would be a dead give away due to her being unique (not to mention, the breed isn't a widely owned breed).

Post by **AlexKnight** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 7:59 pm

Members Only forums will be crawled by search engines. Google for some reason won't show the threads, but Bing for example does.

There are some areas that are off-limits, but those are all special forums, like the hidden forum for the meets, and of course the staff-related forums, but all the forums that are open to you as you join, are open to the search bots.

If you want to be "anonymous" here, the best thing to do is to make sure you use an alias that you haven't used anywhere else and never to post your email address or other private information. If you need to post an email address for whatever reason, simply make an email address that's exclusively used for the forum, like I have done.

Scooter · Post by **Scooter** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 8:37 pm

Got it. Thanks!

Post by **Nescio50** » Sat Aug 08, 2015 6:14 am

AlexKnight wrote:Members Only forums will be crawled by search engines. Google for some reason won't show the threads, but Bing for example does.

Still learning ... I thought I knew search engines to crawl members only forums too, and then I searched for stuff in Dolls Alive using Google, and couldn't find anything. Should have tried Bing

Well, all clear now