On 14 Oct 1996, Jason L Tibbitts III wrote:
> 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.
In AltaVista's advanced search, the query
fvwm and not "fvwm mailing list"
did a fine job of removing the mailing list hits.
Some sort of header on each of the pages in archive would help a lot. All
it would take is one link to an "about the fvwm mailing list page", which
could have the one line description of how to get search engines to avoid
the pages, a link to the fvwm faq (if such a thing exists) and a link to
your glimpse search engine. [I'm running fvwm as I type, and it occurs to
me that I've never bothered to read any fvwm documentation.]
> I make my archives publicly available; anyone
> can search them.
This sounds like a usefull feature to me.
It will take a little time for people to learn how to use the indexes
effectively. This is getting easier, because the web index interfaces are
improving. Likewise, the mailing list archive software will improve too.
--
Paul Haas paulh@hamjudo.com http://www.hamjudo.com
I've made the big time, Dave Barry made fun of my web site in Newsweek.
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