Should We Allow Search Engine Indexing? Community Input Needed

[Ryan]

Hey everyone,

I hope you’re all doing well! I wanted to bring up an important topic that affects our entire community and get your thoughts on it.

We’re currently considering whether to allow search engines (Google, Bing, etc.) to index our forum content. Right now, our discussions are only visible to registered members, but enabling search indexing would make our posts discoverable through web searches.

Here are the main pros and cons I’ve identified:

Potential Benefits:

• Increased visibility could bring in new members who find us through searches
• Greater community growth and engagement
• More diverse perspectives from new members

Potential Concerns:

• Loss of privacy - posts would be publicly searchable
• Possible increase in spam or low-quality posts from drive-by visitors
• Some members may feel less comfortable sharing personal experiences
• Increased risk of copyright flagging if members share copyrighted content
• More scrutiny from automated content detection systems

What I’m looking for from you:

• How do you feel about your posts being searchable on Google?
• Would this change how you participate in discussions?
• Do you think the benefits outweigh the privacy concerns?
• Any other considerations I might have missed?

This is a decision that affects everyone here, so your input is crucial. We’ve built something special together, and I want to make sure any changes align with what our community values most.

Please share your thoughts below - there are no wrong answers, and all perspectives are welcome. I’ll keep this discussion open for some time before making any decisions.

Thanks for making this community what it is!

Best regards,
Ryan

[sharky]

I think it’s best to allow indexing for general discussion boards, but restrict access to sensitive boards by requiring users to log in, so they can’t be indexed.

[xorg]

I think @sharky is right and is worth the trade off, Google would be one of the major sources for new members.

[observer]

I agree with the above.

[Ryan]

Thank you guys for sharing your views, i do agree with you all, i will start getting this site on search engines in few days.

Sensitive topics will remain behind a login for now as suggested.

[Ryan]

Ok so our site should now start getting visible on search engines.

I have removed all the blocks for search engines and submitted an index request.

Sensitive topics like “Media” will remain behind a login and search engines shouldn’t be able to index them.

[sharky]

@Ryan thanks