Robots.txt

[PVB]

Probably just my rubbish memory then.

[RiK]

I was never involved with CompuServe. I was one of the people, along with Wulf, who used to hang around the stall, help to pack up then join Jeff in his hotel room after the shows (a tradition continued at the later YakYak jollies). RiK apparently has faint memories of me.

Oh yeah definitely, recognised you straight away when we met up at that first London jolly at the Welly.. Interesting evening that

[disciple]

I'm happy to do the work
......
Who would be a good point of contact?

Muttley, Rik and Jed

I sent a PM to all admins (above + Gribbles) last Tuesday, but haven't received a reply from *anyone*. Could someone confirm this pm was actually received. It was a singlular PM asking opinions sent to all rather than multiple separate pms, either everyone's had it or no-one did.

[RiK]

I sent a PM to all admins (above + Gribbles) last Tuesday, but haven't received a reply from *anyone*. Could someone confirm this pm was actually received. It was a singlular PM asking opinions sent to all rather than multiple separate pms, either everyone's had it or no-one did.

I received it, but didn't get around to replying.

Personally, I'm quite happy with the hosting arrangements we have and don't see the point in changing it just to allow google to spider the forum. I'm not at all convinced that would make any significant difference.

[disciple]

New join ups are at an all time low, if lack of new blood doesn't result in forum stagnation then I don't know what does. The forum has to change to keep things interesting. I see lots of people complaining about how quiet and dull it is now but very little offered in the way of solutions.

Here is a solution. It may not work and in the end you may turn out to be right but there is nothing at all to lose if the migration happens, indexing is re-enabied, and the join up rate increases.

Also the question has to be asked, why not spider? It's worked well for the last 5+ years up until it was switched off. And the only valid reason I can see for having it off is because it's on the same server as Gravy's business. Which robots aside is a security risk for Ruffian anyway, regardless of whether Google is allowed in or not.

You could also say there's a good business case for having indexing on, what with the positive impact this forum has on Llamasoft's and to much a lesser degree Ruffian's Google search results.

The only other reason I see not to is manpower, but that's a non-issue as in this case someone else has offered to do the leg work.

[Wudzi]

Potentially there is another issue of trust. Whoever looks after the hosting can override any changes by admins as they would be in full control of the database. They also could delete the whole thing in a heartbeat and would be able to view information like PM's or any other data which is not encrypted in the database.

I'm not saying you (disciple) or anyone else would do this as I don't even know you. On most forums though, it's the case of the owner also controlling the hosting, or delegating that to someone he knows personally and trusts.

Personally if I was an admin of this place, I wouldn't be comfortable handing full control over to someone I didn't know, especially just for the sake of getting spiders back on of which the benefits are mostly speculative.

[RiK]

Personally if I was an admin of this place, I wouldn't be comfortable handing full control over to someone I didn't know, especially just for the sake of getting spiders back on of which the benefits are mostly speculative.

Especially given that person has also previously pointed out they've never actually done anything with a phpbb forum anyway...

[Harlequin]

… They … would be able to view information like PM's or any other data which is not encrypted in the database.

I think that the mods have previously assured us that they are unable to read PMs.

[RiK]

… They … would be able to view information like PM's or any other data which is not encrypted in the database.

I think that the mods have previously assured us that they are unable to read PMs.

That's correct as far as the mod control panel in phpbb itself is concerned though of course anyone with access to the database server could trawl through any content they wish should they feel so inclined.

[Jamesac]

I see lots of people complaining about how quiet and dull it is now but very little offered in the way of solutions.

My solution- collapse a few sub-forums back into Bleatings. But nobody asked, and it's a suggestion that's been dismissed before. Still, if it were up to me (which it's never going to be) I'd chop Ooh Shiny and Dancing About Architecture, despite them being two of the best-named sub-forums ever.

James

[gilesgoat]

… They … would be able to view information like PM's or any other data which is not encrypted in the database.

I think that the mods have previously assured us that they are unable to read PMs.

It's explained better here :

http://www.phpbbdoctor.com/blog/2009/08 ... l-message/

In short "whoever can have access to the DB tables can do all the heck on it", I suppose a simple thing like
"SELECT message FROM PMs" or such would suffice.

The final message is "do not even assume not even for a minute that data in the PHPbb is secure".

[disciple]

Personally if I was an admin of this place, I wouldn't be comfortable handing full control over to someone I didn't know, especially just for the sake of getting spiders back on of which the benefits are mostly speculative.

Especially given that person has also previously pointed out they've never actually done anything with a phpbb forum anyway...

I don't see installing and setting up a PHPBB forum as being particularly difficult, I'm a web dev by trade. Besides installation would be done before the move, there's no reason why people shouldn't thoroughly test it before anything was migrated.

Would just like to point out that the suggestion that I sort it out actually came from an administrator.

Regarding having "control", I'm not sure that's the case. Whoever owns the domain name has "control". Any system with backups is easily restore-able should an admin go "beserk" and start deleting the forum, overriding changes etc..

As far as trust is concerned, I've been around here a long time, it's the same control any admin on here has. I'm only wanting to do this because it's incredibly frustrating seeing this place I've been visiting for so long failing in the way it currently is. Even more so given no-one seems to actually want to do anything to try to sort it.

If someone else wants to do it then fine, it's a non-issue, the impression I had is that no-one else wants to do the leg work.

[disciple]

My solution- collapse a few sub-forums back into Bleatings. But nobody asked, and it's a suggestion that's been dismissed before. Still, if it were up to me (which it's never going to be) I'd chop Ooh Shiny and Dancing About Architecture, despite them being two of the best-named sub-forums ever.

How do you think this would help sort the issue?

[gravy]

Personally if I was an admin of this place, I wouldn't be comfortable handing full control over to someone I didn't know, especially just for the sake of getting spiders back on of which the benefits are mostly speculative.

Especially given that person has also previously pointed out they've never actually done anything with a phpbb forum anyway...

I don't see installing and setting up a PHPBB forum as being particularly difficult, I'm a web dev by trade. Besides installation would be done before the move, there's no reason why people shouldn't thoroughly test it before anything was migrated.

Would just like to point out that the suggestion that I sort it out actually came from an administrator.

Regarding having "control", I'm not sure that's the case. Whoever owns the domain name has "control". Any system with backups is easily restore-able should an admin go "beserk" and start deleting the forum, overriding changes etc..

As far as trust is concerned, I've been around here a long time, it's the same control any admin on here has. I'm only wanting to do this because it's incredibly frustrating seeing this place I've been visiting for so long failing in the way it currently is. Even more so given no-one seems to actually want to do anything to try to sort it.

If someone else wants to do it then fine, it's a non-issue, the impression I had is that no-one else wants to do the leg work.

Where do you want to host it, how much does it cost and when do you want to move it?

[disciple]

Well the rough plan was to gauge opinions of the other admins. Then find out how much disk space is required and what the bandwidth usage is currently like, and go from there. I suppose it would be good to know what kind of costs you were incurring from Blackcat as a guideline of quality hosting. Personally I really like Linode and would tend to lean toward them.

I can start sending over some pms to discuss if people want. I just don't want to get into the being run around thing if it's already been decided that this is a no-go if you know what I mean.