Hi, I would like to understand from an iGuide representative if or how ‘Forum’ discussions are getting to the web?
This is at least password protected as a gathering spot for each of us. I am wondering if this forum is ‘firewall and security protected’ for content.
I am seeing iGuide Forum discussion listings from 'Feb ‘22’ and other dates of written conversations from the Forum show up in general searches via Google and other search engines.
Could someone reach out to me to on this? Forgetting that its holiday time, hoping someone reaches out via email and then we can set time to discuss. Thanks in advance. Matt
The forum software they use, they haven’t set up the permissions on the forum categories that require users to log in before viewing a forum category or topic. They also haven’t set up their robots.txt file on their server to block search engines from indexing specific parts of the forum, either. That is why you’re able to read all conversations publicly as well as seeing them in search results.
This is a public iGUIDE user forum and most of its categories are indexed by search engines and can be viewed/read by visitors without a user account. However, posting on the forum does require a user account.
The forum has one special protected category called “iGUIDE Operators” which is shown with the lock icon. That category can be viewed/read only by logged in users and as such, it cannot be indexed by search engines. Any topics which you want to hide from search engines and not logged in users should be created in that category.
In addition, the forum has “iGUIDE Operators” group which can be joined only by logged in users (accessible from the hamburger menu in the upper right). Joining the group will add the “iGUIDE Operator” title and the blue camera flair icon to your user profile. Other than these cosmetic elements, the group membership does not give any extra access privileges to the “iGUIDE Operators” category.
I do appreciate your clarity, transparency, and wording. Never realized or knew of a public forum format to be used and indexed within this context; I am not complaining. Just expressing.
Like most people I prefer being within a grouping or forum that is not publicly indexed. I will check your recommendation out and leverage other resources too.
Again, thanks for your clarity, transparency, and wording.
Like most people I prefer being within a grouping or forum that is not publicly indexed
It’s a stretch to claim “like most people”. Part of the benefit of a public forum like this one is that information, ideas, and replies are publicly searchable, so that knowledge benefits other iGuide users (i.e. not just the ones on this forum). The majority of vendor forums that I use (and there are a lot of them) are public and indexed by search engines.
Unless a vendor explicitly states that their forum is private, it’s a good idea to assume that it’s not.
There is a private iGuide operators group on Facebook for private discussions.