XF 1.4 banned user profiles generating error 403 and google problems

[dethfire]

As the title suggests google is unhappy that banned user profiles generate 403 errors and say
"This user's profile is not available."

I had /members/ blocked via robots but pages were still getting indexed. I unblocked and added noindex tags instead and started getting these errors from google.

 

[Jake Bunce]

That page (viewing a banned user's profile) is a HTTP 200 response. I have confirmed this on my test forum.

Note that a "no permission" page returns HTTP 403. A "no permission" page will result if the viewing user doesn't have the View or View user profiles permissions. In the case of a search engine you are dealing with the Unregistered / Unconfirmed group's permissions. This is a restriction on the viewing user, not the profile being viewed.

 

[Mike]

It should actually be returning a 403 and it does in my test.

Google is simply telling you that it's generating a 403 in case you're not aware and it's a mistake. A page that it doesn't have permission to view is the correct use of a 403. In the case of banned users, this is correct and expected.

 

[dethfire]

ok I guess I'll just live with the 403 errors from google until they can register the noindexes and then I can block via robots again, thanks!