First I had the problems with users wanting to be removed from my archives
because of their easy availability. Now I have been chastised because I
make too much available.
Basically, I received a complaint that because I make the sum total of my
list archives available on the web, it is impossible to search for useful
information because my archive pages keep popping up. For instance, a
search for "fvwm" (a UNIX window manager whose mailing lists I host) will
(at some search engines) reveal a pile of hits to individual messages while
the main page is buried. Essentially, I was accused of "polluting the
indexes," especially with old messages which I make available.
My reply was "too bad." I make my archives publicly available; anyone
can search them. I also have a homebrew front end search engine based on
Glimpse which allows things like limiting by date. Why should I care if
some over-zealous spider went through my entire archives and added them to
its index? It is they who aren't serving their customers well by doing
this; my search engine works fine.
Yes, I know about robot exclusion, but why should I have to?
Any comments?
I will say that the stupid indexers have led to somewhat of an increase of
completely clueless email to me. People have assumed that I work for some
talk show host called Jerry Springer (who was the topic of a short
discussion on one of my mailing lists), that I'm a photographer/marketing
agent for Playgirl (because it was mentioned in a couple of messages on my
list), that I am a member of the band that one of my lists is about, etc.
This I take in stride, as the comic relief is welcome.
--
Jason L. Tibbitts III - tibbs@uh.edu - 713/743-8684 - 221SR1
System Manager: University of Houston High Performance Computing Center
1994 PC800 "Kuroneko" DoD# 1723
Follow-Ups:
|
|
