why are posts googleable?

[dave_a]

At HH the forum messages can't be found via google or any other search engine. That makes it a very safe place (relatively speaking) to engage in genuinely free speech. Here and most places everything said can be found via google, which stifles what people are willing to say. Even VM seems to realize this as noted here (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/showpost.php?p=7429&postcount=51).

With that in mind, why have the forum messages sucked into search engines? Why not just limit the spiders to articles and general stuff where people aren't speaking freely and without reservation? I do understand the desire to have people find the site via search engines, but does every single posting by every person have to be stored by google to accomplish that?

[livius drusus]

At HH the forum messages can't be found via google or any other search engine. That makes it a very safe place (relatively speaking) to engage in genuinely free speech.

You mean to talk freely about your private life. HH is not a free speech board as comments can be (and are) deleted when Godot finds them unacceptable. I don't think feeling safe from prying eyes = freedom of speech by any means.

Here and most places everything said can be found via google, which stifles what people are willing to say. Even VM seems to realize this as noted here (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/showpost.php?p=7429&postcount=51).

Public speech may well be more contained than what we might say in private, but that's the nature of free speech on the commons: it comes with risks, particularly risks of exposure.

With that in mind, why have the forum messages sucked into search engines? Why not just limit the spiders to articles and general stuff where people aren't speaking freely and without reservation? I do understand the desire to have people find the site via search engines, but does every single posting by every person have to be stored by google to accomplish that?

The search engines have guest access which is the default for any public board. I don't know if there's a way to block spiders without blocking all guests (Edit: Corona mentions a way to block the better known ones here (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?p=7158&postcount=25)), but even if we could, I don't think we would. What you say in public is heard by the public, and I think that's as it should be.

We've provided the journals for people to talk about their private lives without fear that guests (including search engines) will stumble on the revelations, but people's opinions about art or politics or favorite foods don't seem to me to require the same kind of protection.

We could add another forum for squicky personal stuff and close it to guests, but I doubt vm would be talking about his sexual proclivities in there either because after all, any stranger could still register and read it even if Google couldn't.

[JoeP]

We've provided the journals for people to talk about their private lives without fear that guests (including search engines) will stumble on the revelations, but people's opinions about art or politics or favorite foods don't seem to me to require the same kind of protection.

We could add another forum for squicky personal stuff and close it to guests, but I doubt vm would be talking about his sexual proclivities in there either because after all, any stranger could still register and read it even if Google couldn't.
I never realised the journals were more private. Maybe I'll start one when I need to reply to someone with sensitive stuff.

I'm sure most of us are less concerned about strangers reading stuff (except you disgusting perverts into illegal stuff), but people who know us but don't know all about us.

[livius drusus]

I never realised the journals were more private. Maybe I'll start one when I need to reply to someone with sensitive stuff.

Journals can only be read by registered members. Any guests or spiders attempting to access the journal page get a no permission error.

Using the journals to discuss sensitive issues that might come up on the forum is a good idea, and I believe several entries have been made with that intent.

I'm sure most of us are less concerned about strangers reading stuff (except you disgusting perverts into illegal stuff), but people who know us but don't know all about us.

Hmmm... I'm a bit unclear on what you mean here. Could you elaborate, please?

[JoeP]

I mean I don't have anything to hide from the world at large, like confessions of undiscovered crimes, but I am aware that a colleague or a member of my family could google me and discover what I say here even if I'm not open about it with them. Of course nothing stops them from registering and reading everything (except an aversion to free thinking? :D)

[livius drusus]

Ohh... Gotcha. Well, at least you didn't use your last name in your handle here, so I imagine they might have a hard time finding the Joe they're looking for. ;)

Edit: They're coming to get you, man!

http://www.freethought-forum.com/images/joe.jpg

[JoeP]

Wtf happened there? The board was unfindable when I submitted my lengthy reply, now lost :(, and for 5 to 10 minutes after. Other sites were fine.

I was saying that 'joep' is a common dutch name, and you find plenty of people before me. A search including my surname turns up lots of others. A search on my middle name, which is quite a common surname, turns up lots of genealogical sites, but my business site is#2.

A search on my middle name and surname gets my business site, my cousin's literary agency and some genealogy on my grandfather on page 1. When I first did this search before using my middle name as a business name, my father appeared on page 1, at cricinfo.com, listing his first-class cricket career from before I was born. That prompted a phone call home I can tell you!

[livius drusus]

Wtf happened there? The board was unfindable when I submitted my lengthy reply, now lost :(, and for 5 to 10 minutes after. Other sites were fine.

I've had forum index up in a window the whole time, refreshing it every few minutes or so, and encountered no problems at all. That sucks, Joe. I hate losing posts. :(

I was saying that 'joep' is a common dutch name, and you find plenty of people before me. A search including my surname turns up lots of others. A search on my middle name, which is quite a common surname, turns up lots of genealogical sites, but my business site is#2.

That's pretty cool. I've never searched for all the possible permutations of my name, just the basic first and last combo. Maybe I'll give it a whirl when I'm through with the smilie descriptions.

When I first did this search before using my middle name as a business name, my father appeared on page 1, at cricinfo.com, listing his first-class cricket career from before I was born. That prompted a phone call home I can tell you!

He had never told you about this? Was he mad/sad/happy/indifferent about it when you spoke to him? Man, the interent never ceases to amaze me.

[JoeP]

Oh no, I knew about it; there's a picture of him bowling (at Lord's I think) on the stairs at home. The surprise was finding him on the internet.

[viscousmemories]

I'm in the habit of doing a quick ctrl-a, ctrl-c in the post window just before I click submit on all forums. That way I never lose a post no matter what happens.

[JoeP]

I have that habit for a few days after I lose a post like this ... but I don't remember for long :(

[viscousmemories]

At HH the forum messages can't be found via google or any other search engine. That makes it a very safe place (relatively speaking) to engage in genuinely free speech.
Livius said most of what I would've said regarding this. It depends on what you mean by "free speech". You seem to be using it to mean freedom from accountability, whereas in our forum guidelines we mean it as freedom from censorship.

Here and most places everything said can be found via google, which stifles what people are willing to say. Even VM seems to realize this as noted here (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/showpost.php?p=7429&postcount=51).
When I made that comment I was referring to anonymity, not privacy. Who I am in real life is no more hidden from the other members of HH than it is from anyone who can read here. So what I posted there is somewhat more private, but it is no more anonymous. As such I wouldn't be (and haven't been) any more open there than I am here.

With that in mind, why have the forum messages sucked into search engines? Why not just limit the spiders to articles and general stuff where people aren't speaking freely and without reservation? I do understand the desire to have people find the site via search engines, but does every single posting by every person have to be stored by google to accomplish that?
If we limited the spiders to the articles the search engines would have an extremely narrow view of what kind of discussions take place here. And I don't see how we could segregate posts that contain "general stuff" from those where people are speaking freely and without reservation. The forums here are by design and intention public, just like CF, IIDB, JREF, and most of the other forums I've been a part of. The forum for semi-private speech is in the journal system, which is every bit as private as the fora at HH.

[Corona688]

If we limited the spiders to the articles the search engines would have an extremely narrow view of what kind of discussions take place here. And I wouldn't be able to google this place up with "yahoo! slurp spiders" :D

[viscousmemories]

If we limited the spiders to the articles the search engines would have an extremely narrow view of what kind of discussions take place here. And I wouldn't be able to google this place up with "yahoo! slurp spiders" :D
You don't think? I kinda suspect the evil geniuses at Google have algorithms that automatically harvest all the other spider's collections as soon as they come in. :)

[JoeP]

And all the spiders wonder
What we've got us in

[Gawen]

...along came a spider
and sat down besider her
and said, "What's in the bowl, bitch?"