Hi everyone,

I suggest that this forum is opened with read access to everyone. This way this could be a place to share information even without registering.

These things which are written here are important and would be interesting to let the great public see these things.

What do you think?

Best Regards,
Hannu Kröger

» Hi everyone,
»
» I suggest that this forum is opened with read access to everyone. This way
» this could be a place to share information even without registering.
»
» These things which are written here are important and would be interesting
» to let the great public see these things.
»
» What do you think?
»
» Best Regards,
» Hannu Kröger

I agree,
Torsten

» Hi everyone,
»
» I suggest that this forum is opened with read access to everyone. This way
» this could be a place to share information even without registering.
»
» These things which are written here are important and would be interesting
» to let the great public see these things.
»
» What do you think?
»
» Best Regards,
» Hannu Kröger

I agree. The forum was public for some time, some time back. But there have been some complaints from people writing here and the accessibility/findability through and over search engines. Instead of excluding those through the robot.txt, I decided to make the forum accessibly through registration only. It might be worth to reconsider this once more. May I get some more thoughts/voices on this?

Best,
Alex

» » Hi everyone,
» »
» » I suggest that this forum is opened with read access to everyone. This
» way
» » this could be a place to share information even without registering.
» »
» » These things which are written here are important and would be
» interesting
» » to let the great public see these things.
» »
» » What do you think?
» »
» » Best Regards,
» » Hannu Kröger
»
» I agree. The forum was public for some time, some time back. But there
» have been some complaints from people writing here and the
» accessibility/findability through and over search engines. Instead of
» excluding those through the robot.txt, I decided to make the forum
» accessibly through registration only. It might be worth to reconsider this
» once more. May I get some more thoughts/voices on this?
»
» Best,
» Alex

Hi,

So what were the complaints and what is the problem with the search engines?
I'm rather for an open forum, I think it attracts more people and keeps the ball rolling.
On the other hand: I don't know if this is an issue, but doesn't the necessity to register keep automated spam out ?

best wishes,
Torsten

Hi Thorsten,

» So what were the complaints and what is the problem with the search
» engines?

That people didn't like that they can be found over Google. They want to speak up, but they don't want to be in Google their whole life..

» I'm rather for an open forum, I think it attracts more people and keeps
» the ball rolling.

Yes.

» On the other hand: I don't know if this is an issue, but doesn't the
» necessity to register keep automated spam out ?

I would have to update the forum to a newer version (http://mylittleforum.net/) with Captcha (the numbers you have to type in...). But it should also work without that, reading public but writing still for registered users only?

Does anyone know the lines for the robot.txt to keep the search bots out? More drawbacks?

Best,
Alex

hiho,

i agree with the idea to access the forum without loggin in.

» Does anyone know the lines for the robot.txt to keep the search bots out?
» More drawbacks?

but i understand also the problem with the search engines ... maybe you'll find here some interesting information:
http://danzcontrib2.free.fr/en/pieges.php
http://www.at-web.de/grundlagen/robots-txt.htm (sorry - only german)


greets,
andi

Hi Alex and others,

hope you are doing well. Didnt hear of you for a while. All good?

» I agree. The forum was public for some time, some time back. But there
» have been some complaints from people writing here and the
» accessibility/findability through and over search engines. Instead of
» excluding those through the robot.txt, I decided to make the forum
» accessibly through registration only. It might be worth to reconsider this
» once more. May I get some more thoughts/voices on this?

Yes, I dont like that my opinions, shared thoughts and so on are public to everybody -
now, and especially in googles and others cache in some years.
Opinions change, cache stays.
If you want to make it public, please erase everything I wrote here and I will then not post again.

Hope to see you around this year, maybe at the beachcamp in Berlin?

Ceers, -r

» Hi everyone,
»
» I suggest that this forum is opened with read access to everyone.


i would be concerned with spamming and with security



actually, if someone has a concern, registering to read about it is not such a big intrusion in their lives, and there should be at least some thresh hold I believe in any community

---
we do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors: we borrow it from our children. (Native American) the only immorality is not doing what you have to do when you have yo do it. (Anouih)

» » Hi everyone,
» »
» » I suggest that this forum is opened with read access to everyone.
»
»
» i would be concerned with spamming and with security
»
»
»
» actually, if someone has a concern, registering to read about it is not
» such a big intrusion in their lives, and there should be at least some
» thresh hold I believe in any community

That's why I wrote READ access. Spamming won't be a problem if you have to register to write there.

Still, I think that information like this could and should be public. This is maybe the only independent forum about hospitality networks and in some other places you cannot so independently and openly tell about negative issues. I would like the greater public to be able to see also the other opinions.

I would like the greater public to be able to see also the other
» opinions.


I don't have strong feelings about it, just the provisos I mentioned. I certainly am not opposed to it.

---
we do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors: we borrow it from our children. (Native American) the only immorality is not doing what you have to do when you have yo do it. (Anouih)

Ups.. I forgot to post an update on this one.

I added a non-follow to the robots and tried to add the bad-spider trap. I didn't succeed for some reasons to put this up. Therefore I decided not to open the forum yet (to see everything without having to log in). I will try again as soon as possible.

Help is always welcome.


Best,
Alex

My opinion (which as Rarom correctly writes can change hehe) :

I am in favour of read access to everybody (= public, so also those who don't sign up).

In the BeVolunteer forum ( http://www.bevolunteer.org/forum/index.php?board=19.0 ) we first had a need to register for the Public Forum, but we changed that to READ access for everybody, and so far it has not been problematic at all. We even had Veit post on there, something that I think has not yet happened here.

It lowers the treshhold, and I don't see what damage spammers and google can do (but please inform me if there are any privacy or security risks that I am missing).

» Does anyone know the lines for the robot.txt to keep the search bots out?

Maybe something like this:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

» » Does anyone know the lines for the robot.txt to keep the search bots
» out?
»
» Maybe something like this:
»
» User-agent: *
» Disallow: /

I did so some weeks ago. (/robots.txt) But as not all spiders hear on what they are told in the robots.txt, I would like to put the honeypot up... I have to have a look into this once more.

» My opinion (which as Rarom correctly writes can change hehe) :
»
» I am in favour of read access to everybody (= public, so also those who
» don't sign up).
»
» In the BeVolunteer forum (
» http://www.bevolunteer.org/forum/index.php?board=19.0 ) we first had a need
» to register for the Public Forum, but we changed that to READ access for
» everybody, and so far it has not been problematic at all. We even had Veit
» post on there, something that I think has not yet happened here.
»
» It lowers the treshhold, and I don't see what damage spammers and google
» can do (but please inform me if there are any privacy or security risks
» that I am missing).

I would like it when this doesn't get indexed in internet caches / can be found via search engines. Once in the net, it stays there forever. When somebody likes to know something about me, he is invited to ask me directly. But as most people don't like this, they search, so I see no reason to feed them with information this way...

There advantage of a public forum is that you can read what is going on without having to log in. People might check back more frequently or new people will post after they have read something interesting (but actually, I can't see a correlation with the amount of postings). Additionally you add more possible keywords to your page. People who use a search engine might stumble over your page (e.g. all the travel related discussions) and sign up.

A possible way to combine both would be to hide usernames (and signatures, where you could add your name..) for people who are not logged in (including search engines). This way the forum can be used to feed the page with more keywords while privacy of its members is protected at the same time.

Best,
alex