Another New Security Feature Implemented

[Volker Pittlik]

Some of you might have noticed that you can't read the messages if you aren't logged in. I've implemented another Mod which prohibits unregistered users to do that. Also the memberlist, profile data and the search are available only for registered users now.

The reason is I've observed from the Admin panel that all messages are scanned. I've allowed this only for Google but it seems a software company from Redmond is ignoring my robots.txt.


If you don't want your name to be displayed when you're online simply check "hide my online status" in your profile.

Regards

Volker

[Joachim Rang]

Hi Volker,

yo you really think your noble motivation not to allow MSN to spider your pages is worth the loss that one can't any longer find interesting Topics via Google?

regards Joachim

[Volker Pittlik]

Hi Volker,

yo you really think your noble motivation not to allow MSN to spider your pages is worth the loss that one can't any longer find interesting Topics via Google?

regards Joachim

The internal search engine of this forum is doing a much better job than Google IMHO. It is only interesting (for me) that Google finds this forum . Unfortunately I didn't spend much time so far how to get a higher ranking there. This is might be caused by the fact I'm not very interested in that.

Regards

Volker

[Pallav Nawani]

What about you get this website registered at dmoz?

http://www.dmoz.org

Pallav

[Volker Pittlik]

What about you get this website registered at dmoz?

http://www.dmoz.org

Pallav

Thank you! I'll have a look at it.

Regards

Volker

[Anonymous]

I was a bit put out by this new development, but I guess it is good as it got me off my butt to participate rather than just lurk. I love reading the forum, and do so every day. Now I can post too!

Thanks Volker

Ted Clark
(newly registered)

[Dan Honeycutt]

Ted Clark
(newly registered)

Welcome aboard Ted. It's a nice forum with lots of friendly folks. Except maybe Volker who rules with an iron hand as you can see

Dan H.

[Mike Scheidl]

Some of you might have noticed that you can't read the messages if you aren't logged in. (...) I've allowed this only for Google but it seems a software company from Redmond is ignoring my robots.txt.

Shouldn't it have priority, that guests can read anything easily, without requiring registration? Also, could it do any harm when other search machines, in addition to Google, can scan and include messages?

(I'm aware it would be different if more sensible topics would be discussed here, but then, Google shouldn't list us neither... But WinBoard etc. is not that sensible IMO.)

P.S. Dmoz.org is one of the most important sites to be listed. WinBoard is a whole category there! Their catalogue is used by many search sites, incl. Google. The old forum was included, so maybe there's only an URL update required:
http://dmoz.org/Games/Video_Games/Recreation/Board_Games/Chess/Windows/Winboard_and_Xboard/

[Volker Pittlik]

...
Shouldn't it have priority, that guests can read anything easily, without requiring registration? Also, could it do any harm when other search machines, in addition to Google, can scan and include messages?

Hm, I just followed the security recommendations at www.phpBB.com. I don't want to spend to much time on this. The next I want to do is to integrate the old link section in the start page. That is not very complicated but time consuming.

...
P.S. Dmoz.org is one of the most important sites to be listed. WinBoard is a whole category there! Their catalogue is used by many search sites, incl. Google. The old forum was included, so maybe there's only an URL update required:
http://dmoz.org/Games/Video_Games/Recreation/Board_Games/Chess/Windows/Winboard_and_Xboard/

Yes I've also seen that. I'm going to update the info there. In the meantime I'm going to discuss the security features with Jos? and Roger.

Regards

Volker

[Volker Pittlik]

...
Yes I've also seen that. I'm going to update the info there. In the meantime I'm going to discuss the security features with Jos? and Roger.
...

I changed my opinion. I removed the read protection for the messages. But the search, memberlist and profile data will be readable for registered members only.

Volker

[Anonymous]

... for the warm welcome. I've seen enough of the posts to expect the very best from this forum. I appreciate the decorum and depth of understanding here, with very few exceptions.

Ted Clark

P.S. - Re: Volker -