[Con Validas] URL block request from googlebot

[Con Validas] URL block request from googlebot

[Ian Lance Taylor]

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I haven't seen this kind of request before.  Any opinions?

Ian


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From: Con Validas <cvalidas@optusnet.com.au>
To: sourcemaster@sourceware.org, ian@airs.com
Subject: URL block request from googlebot
Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 10:30:41 +1100
Message-ID: <549606A1.7060206@optusnet.com.au>

Dear Webmaster,

I would like to request a Google Search URL block for one of your html
pages on the sourceware.org docbook-apps mailing list. The page in
question is
http://www.sourceware.org/ml/docbook-apps/2002-q4/msg00219.html.

This page returns as a result of a Google search on my name and I
would rather it be disallowed from indexing by Google robots. The post
is perfectly fine within the mailing list and I am not requesting a
removal of the post. A 12+ year old post associated with my name
however is something I would rather be viewed by the docbook community
as opposed to a google audience. It is a personal preference but one I
hope you can understand.

I believe this can be resolved by a simple entry in robots.txt or a
meta tag in the html file.

I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to read my request and I
hope you can accommodate it. I look forward to hearing back from you.

Kind Regards,

Con Validas

Re: [Con Validas] URL block request from googlebot

[Gerald Pfeifer]

On Saturday 2014-12-20 20:46, Ian Lance Taylor wrote:
> I haven't seen this kind of request before.  Any opinions?

I've looked at this thrice over the course of a two weeks, and
still am struggling.

Since this is not about removing contents, just taking it off
the search engine map with robots.txt, it's less problematic
(and we would not "censor").  On the other hand, this posting
really seems harmless enough and I don't understand.  On the
third hand, such an approach sipmly does not scale.

So, I'd not to it personally, though I would not complain bitterly 
if someone else did.

Gerald

Re: [Con Validas] URL block request from googlebot

[Christopher Faylor]

On Sun, Jan 11, 2015 at 09:05:06AM +0100, Gerald Pfeifer wrote:
>On Saturday 2014-12-20 20:46, Ian Lance Taylor wrote:
>> I haven't seen this kind of request before.  Any opinions?
>
>I've looked at this thrice over the course of a two weeks, and
>still am struggling.
>
>Since this is not about removing contents, just taking it off
>the search engine map with robots.txt, it's less problematic
>(and we would not "censor").  On the other hand, this posting
>really seems harmless enough and I don't understand.  On the
>third hand, such an approach sipmly does not scale.
>
>So, I'd not to it personally, though I would not complain bitterly 
>if someone else did.

FYI, Frank has already turned down the request but the person is now
asking for an explanation.

I am against doing it because:

1) I think the request is stupid and I have a hard time making myself do
things that I think are stupid when I'm not being paid to do so.

2) The slippery slope - if we do this for him then we have no reason not
to do it for everyone.  And, if we do this one thing then, IMO, it opens
up the door for more arguing about modifying mailing list posts.  They
aren't the same thing but I wouldn't want to have to spend any time at
all arguing that point.

cgf