[COLOR=hsl(var(--xf-editorFocusColor))]What's your problem with search engines indexing content? It's how people FIND YOUR SITE.[/COLOR]
Is it, is it?
Coz the only "people" who've found my site. . .
are bots.
All 50+ current members found my site because I literally told them about it.
And mate, the reality for anyone on social media, daring to question the vacuous mainstream narratives, generally end up being harassed in a multitude of ways.
This egregious behaviour may not be familiar to those who've simply gone along with the unquestionably compliant herd, however organized online harassment & monitoring by government actors has been/& still is—a very real—very serious issue.
Thank you friend,
I've noticed that big tech is mentally ill. This is why I don't want them. I have nothing to hide. I would simply have them mind their own business unless I ask for them to scour my content. I would have the people I want to find my site come because I backlinked them there. Not because a mentally ill big tech platform decided to list me or censor me or not. Period.
I can relate and certainly appreciate this position too.
Then follow the advice in post #2.
You will still see bots visiting, but they will have no content to index.
Unfortunately human visitors will have to register to read however.
You can block bots completely by user agent if you want to go that far.
..."Unfortunately human visitors will have to register to read however."...
How's that unfortunate? Why shouldn't they be required to register? Or is everyone simply entitled to everything for nothing?
thanks friend, I really didn't want to get that spun up into it.
I will just act like it's not a big deal because it is not a big deal.
However, we have a ministry of truth now here in america so I will probably get serious about it eventually.
Similar thing has been occuring here in NZ too, eg:
If you have good content you want people to find it. The search engines are a tool for that. But if you want the human public to still be able to read without creating an account but block indexing, you need to block bots by user agent.
You're still going to see bots visiting, regardless. It's just a fact of big tech internet. Seeing them visit doesn't mean they're getting your content.
Yeah except like I've mentioned above, in some cases you probably wouldn't want any unknown random "people" freely finding your content.
In NZ, during the peak insanity of the covaids mass psychosis-amid the corp govts "Traffic Light" lockdowns, many who posted content questioning the govt, soon found mobs of police at their front doors "politely encouraging" the content be removed and the questions immediately cease, or else there may potentially be a risk of encountering unspecified problems.
I'm not kidding. They actually showed up at my front door.... well, more accurately, I snapped them out snooping around my property—after which they awkwardly acted "innocent" and then proceeded with their veiled threats.
You can use my KnownBots addon to identify bots active on your site (and to help identify new bots we haven't seen before, if you choose):
https://xenforo.com/community/resources/known-bots.6489/
... and I concur with other suggestions here to use Cloudflare to block any problematic bots.
@nogridhome.com
I've been using Sim's KnownBots and several of OzzMods anti-spam plugs as well as restricting Unregistered/Guests viewing permissions.
As far as I can tell, these work really well, so I'd definitely recommend these brilliant developers products.
Sim's KnownBots plug is fantastic and the only disagreement I have is regarding that perfidious Cloudflare. Imo, avoid at all costs.
