Forum is invisible to Google Bot

[DaveMcW]

The first bug is, there is no place for bug reports about the forum.

Now the real problem. I use Google to search forums, it is so much better than the built in search. Unfortunately this forum has blocked Google Bot from seeing anything.

Here is a screenshot from Google Cache:

google.png (29.3 KiB) Viewed 4598 times

Please allow the search engine forum group to read forums.

[ssilk]

Good point, but I move this to general discussion, cause a bug is something, which isn't wanted. But blocking bots is sometimes needed.

[muzzy]

Being searchable with google also brings in spammers

[Reiker]

Being searchable with google also brings in spammers

Most forums have no auto spammers yet are searchable by Google, so this can't be much of a problem.

[robhol]

Besides, not having to deal with phpBB's horrible turd search is a good deal for having to install a captcha module - which I have no doubt exists. :p

[SilverWarior]

If you think that Captcha system could stop SpamBot invasion then think again.
I'm a moderator on another forum where we used to have Captcha for base anti spam protection and custom rule so that any moderated users could only post in one subsection of the forum. We had betwen 200 to 800 new spam bot accounts created every day.
Now we added some aditional protection which so far is keepig any spam bots at bay. Unfortunately I don't know of any similar anti spam protection available for phpBB forums avilable. Our forum relies on vBuletin software.

[robhol]

That depends on your captcha solution. A lot of modules are very old and basically not worth crap anymore. What kind did you use?

It sounds really weird that eg. reCaptcha would be cracked hundreds of times a day.