Re: [vps-mail] REQUEST

[Abigail Marshall <abigailrm@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 6/27/05, Scott Wiersdorf <scottw@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I've considered that in the past, but I also know that our archives
> are immensely useful for other open-source software users (close to
> 20k hits in June for the vps-mail archive).
> 
> It wouldn't be hard, of course, and we still have the list's
> (open-source) htdig search engine to find messages. Does everyone else
> feel the same way about closing off the list archives to spiders? I'd
> like to get some kind of feel for what other folks feel before I shut
> 'er down to robots.
> 
Scott, I agree with Rae & Patrick - I think it is better if the list
archives are NOT spidered by Google or the other major search engines.
Whether you want to attempt to close it to all robots -- is another
matter (they don't all obey robots.txt as it is -- but Google does and
that is the one that is so darned efficient at coming up with results
for casual users).

I think that it is fine if the perlcode home page or the list home
page is open to spiders -- that way, people who want to subscribe can
find it.  So really you only need to put the robots.txt file in the
http://www.perlcode.org/lists/vps-mail/ subdirectory.

Keep in mind that hits to the email list do not necessarily mean the
information found was useful.  A good deal of the advice and comments
on this list - especially mail relevant to the VPS1 platform - are
simply useless or plain wrong outside the VPS environment. Since it is
a discussion list - some of the comments are just plain wrong INSIDE
our environment -- we often have discussion based on speculation (what
if we try.....) -- or instructions posted that turn out to have a
typographical error (oops!). That's the nature of an email list, and
those who are subscribed will likely see the follow up email
correcting the mistake in the initial one -- a search engine won't
necessarily turn up the right post.

Also - since the list has been around for awhile, some of the posts
are simply outdated and no longer accurate in respect to newer
versions of the software.

Anyway  - that's my 2 cents. 

-Abigail

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