XF 1.5 Access Denied errors at member profile pages when set to private

[Stuart Wright]

I'm looking at errors on AVForums and one which crops up a lot (thousands) is Access Denied when visiting member profile pages when the members have set their profile page to private or if they have been banned.
Example:
https://www.avforums.com/members/mjcairney.29195/
The link to that prfile page is in the postbit here https://www.avforums.com/threads/lg-oled-2017-discussion-b7-c7-e7-g7-w7.2063677/#post-24370856
and looks like this

<a href="members/mjcairney.29195/" class="avatar Av29195m" data-avatarhtml="true"><img src="https://static.avforums.com/data/avatars/m/29/29195.jpg?1512061706" width="96" height="96" alt="mjcairney"></a>

Should links to members' profile pages be set to rel=nofollow in these circumstances?
Perhaps the link should be disabled for viewers without permission to view?

 

[Mike]

Assuming you're talking about in GWT, these aren't inherently "errors" -- they're really just notices so you can be aware of it. If they're expected (and in this situation, it would be), there isn't really anything to worry about and you can disregard/remove the notices.

 

[Stuart Wright]

(deleted my first reply)
Yes, Google Webmaster Tools. Reassuring to know we can ignore them. Trying to get to the bottom of why our traffic was down by 20% over Christmas.
Thanks