Video Fitness Forum  

Go Back   Video Fitness Forum > Video Fitness Reader Forum > Polls

View Poll Results: How do you feel about alllowing webcrawlers to archive this forum?
Yes, I would like to see the forum in the Internet Archive. 25 24.75%
No, I would prefer to keep this forum unarchivable, as it is now. 76 75.25%
Voters: 101. You may not vote on this poll

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Old 03-30-06, 03:12 PM  
Lianne
VF Supporter
 
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Vancouver Island, BC, Canada
Would you like access to the VF Forum in the Internet Archives?

The Internet Archive is a website that captures web pages from throughout the history of the internet. It is often possible to find pages there that do not exist live on the internet anymore. I use it a lot in my job as a teacher-librarian and I have often used it personally, as well, sometimes to dig up things I posted on VF that are no longer available on the VF site itself (Wendy can only archive so much).

The last time I tried to do this, though, I discovered that the forum was no longer available in the Internet Archive because Wendy had diasbled the crawlers necessary for the Internet Archive to perform this function. I questioned her about it and she gave her reasons in this thread.

I could not find any discussion of this on the forum, and I personally would like to have this site crawled so we can have access to the archives. Since this forum is public anyway, I don't understand the desire to keep it from the webcrawlers.

How do you feel?
__________________
Lianne
Lianne is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-30-06, 03:51 PM  
Elisa B.
VF Supporter
 
Elisa B.'s Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Long Island
I think the issue was that people didn't like having their posts come up in google searches. Which I agree with. Yes, it's a public forum, in that anyone can come to the forum and read the posts, but they have to make the effort to do that.
Elisa B. is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-30-06, 04:05 PM  
Lianne
VF Supporter
 
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Vancouver Island, BC, Canada
Can I ask you why you don't want posts coming up in Google searches?

I always found google a more efficient way to search the forum anyway. I wonder if this is my fault in the first place since I told some VFers that that is how I search the forum. Damn.
__________________
Lianne
Lianne is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-30-06, 04:43 PM  
Elisa B.
VF Supporter
 
Elisa B.'s Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Long Island
I just don't love the idea of my VF posts coming up in some random google search by any old random person, or worse yet, someone I actually know. I mean, not that there is any shame in posting on VF and not that I behave badly here, or post anything particularly private or scandalous, and I know it's a public forum, and anyone can come here and read all my posts. But still.

I know there is no true privacy left in this world, but must every word we type on the internet be archived forever, and searchable by anyone and everyone? (I guess the librarians here would say yes, of course!).

Elisa
Elisa B. is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-30-06, 04:55 PM  
Lianne
VF Supporter
 
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Vancouver Island, BC, Canada
The thing is, it wouldn't come up in some random search. Unless someone knew your exact user name and a phrase from your post, the chances of something you wrote popping up on Google are so remote as to almost be statistically nil. I know this from my own experience using Google to search VF. The VF forum does not have a high google ranking - so it isn't returning posts from here unless someone knows exactly what they're looking for. I think it's a shame to let fear and paranoia eliminate a good thing.

However, I see that I am far outnumbered on this, so I am wondering if Wendy would at least consider a 1 day moratorium so those of us interested in retrieving some stuff from the archive could get it. I would have done this before if there had been any advance warning that this was going to happen.
__________________
Lianne
Lianne is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-30-06, 05:15 PM  
Lianne
VF Supporter
 
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Vancouver Island, BC, Canada
Just for interest sake I just did the following search using Google:

"Elisa B." yoga videofitness

and I got results from your forum postings - so it appears that it isn't stopping Google, yet it is stopping the Internet Archive.

There are plenty of ways to keep forums private, and if privacy is needed than by all means do that. But if a forum is public, then to me it should be searchable.
__________________
Lianne
Lianne is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-30-06, 05:23 PM  
KarenP
VF Supporter
 
KarenP's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Milky Way Galaxy
I'm with Elisa on this.
__________________
Cheers,

Karen

QUIT SLOUCHING!!!
KarenP is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-30-06, 07:22 PM  
lfcjasp
Exchange Moderator
 
lfcjasp's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Hampton Roads, VA
Quote:
Originally Posted by KarenP
I'm with Elisa on this.
I understand where you're coming from, Lianne, but I'm also leery about this. Some of us really treasure what privacy we have left...
__________________
Lydia
lfcjasp is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-30-06, 07:53 PM  
Joanna
VF Supporter
 
Joanna's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Toronto!
I guess what bothers me about the Internet archive, as opposed to Google, is the 'forever' part. I think the Internet Archive is a huge invasion of provacy because they are archiving stuff that pre-dates their establishment. For example I would never post my full name on the net now because I know about the archive. But I have found stuff in there from usenet posts I made when I was 13, the internet was still new, and I did not realize that having my full name on my email meant it was going out on the net itself. I never posted anything bad per se, but I was 13! I do not want some future employer judging me based on my entire internet history, which includes a number of years where peopel did not foresee that what they were writing would be saved forever.

I also question whether anything on this forum really is so timeless and eternal that it needs to be saved that long. i am thinking here of the thread for a few days ago where people posted about going back and reading their old reviews and wondering what they were thinking! If, ten years from now, someone really wants information about Walk Away the Pounds or Richard Simmons or whatever, and the web page of reviews is not sufficient for them, they can always come to the forum and re-ask it.

I would have to put in a vote for an EMPHATIC no to having this forum searchable via the Internet Archive. No, no, a thousand times, no

Joanna
Joanna is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-30-06, 09:11 PM  
Carol_is_fit
 
Carol_is_fit's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
It bothers me that I can currently Google my name and posts from various places come up in the search. It seems so intrusive. Yes ... I know it's a public forum, but we have so little privacy left in this world ... I'm with others on this. Keep this forum the way it is. No archives. Sometimes things are better left in the past.

Carol
__________________
We can secure other people's approval, if we do right and try hard; but our own is worth a hundred of it.
--Mark Twain
Carol_is_fit is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
old thread alert, search

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 06:34 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.3
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
© 2009 Video Fitness