I've just noticed...

[Oola]

..since the forum is temporarily set on private, poor Google Spider has got stuck in the calendar! Stuck in time, quite literally it seems. Poor thing...lol! :p

[Katelb]

Oola,I see no spider? what is the Google spider?!!!

[Oola]

Oh!!!! No you can't actually see it, only on Who's Online :) It's a little bit of programming by Google that retrieves data from websites to post on Google. Spider is just a name given to it because it 'crawls' the web retrieving information. It was just 'crawling' over that part of the website when it went private.

All it means is that it won't go any further until the site goes public again, so I think no new info will appear on Google during that time.

[Crocus]

Is there a way to prevent to site to go public at all? (thick and stupid question again!)

[Oola]

Yes but it would stop any new members finding out about it through the search engines, or being able to 'try' by viewing postings before deciding to join.

[Katelb]

Most people seem to be coming by word of mouth anyway, is it a possibility that we could exist using 'word of mouth' in the future,or is that not the way it works? I got my dumbo hat on again,soooorry!!! Perhaps the opposition will forget about us if they can't access any content through Google,thanks for explaining the 'spider' to me Oola,told you I had the dunces hat on!!

[Oola]

Hi Kate...no dunces hat, remember at some point I've had to have things explained to me too! :)

Basically if I restricted the forum I would be restricting the potential growth of the site. For now it's not such an issue but it would be nice if at some point in the future people would be able to join. What can happen is that, for instance, someone will type in the search terms 'problem menopause', and (although it's not very well ranked at all because it's so small and so new), they'll come across some contributions. They might then decide that they'd like to join because they like the look and feel of the forum and feel they'd be in good company.

I think hopefully the furore on CL will fade away and they'll lose interest in the subject.
If any members have any worries, confusion or questions, or just need to clarify, you can always ask me, as administrator it's part of my job to explain! :)

[Katelb]

Thanks for the explanation Oola,you really have taken on something haven't you,I hope as you say the opposition find some other axe to grind,but they're all pretty detemined for the time being;I think they must be very unhappy people with empty lives which gives them time to be so malicious.it is all so unnecessary.

[sheddie]

Oola who has taught you all about the computor, or are you self taught?

[Oola]

sheddie, I've basically grown up with computers and have picked up bits and bobs here and there, so mostly self-taught. My other half Rich studied computer science at uni, and is a freelance web developer and programmer, so I've also learned a lot being around him and picking up bits of info from him.

[sheddie]

Hi Oola any tips for getting mandys fairies to appear on the search engines apart from links and do the hidden words make any real difference now?