Wow, now that is public

**Lily** · September-06-13, 09:30 PM

I'm not a newbie to the world of computers [[first one Tandy 1000), then DOS, and Novell or forums [[remember Prodigy and CompuServe?)........but sure got a surprise related to a question i posted here the other day. I posted a new thread, subject was something like "how to find online creditors list from Detroit Bankrupcty.

The next day while still trying to get that answer, i goggled it, and got two hits. Both of them took me directly to my question posted here. No answers, but it seems google picked up my question as posted here and now anyone else asking the question gets the link back here to my unanswered question. How embarrassing.

I wasn't sure if i should have laughed or cried at that one, but it did serve as a reminder about just how public a public forum is or can be.

Lily

**rb336** · September-07-13, 09:47 AM

I've noticed that when I've tried to find out more about a subject posted here. Dyes is often in the first couple of hits

**noise** · September-07-13, 09:58 AM

This is what search engines do and have always done.

**Jimaz** · September-07-13, 12:04 PM

In previous iterations of DetroitYES! you could frequently find a user named something like "GoogleSpider." I haven't noticed it in this version but I haven't monitored much either. I think it appeared under something like Quick Links > Who Is Online at the top of the page.

I thought it was pretty cool to be able to actually see the spider when it was doing its job.

**JBMcB** · September-07-13, 04:08 PM

Originally Posted by Jimaz

I thought it was pretty cool to be able to actually see the spider when it was doing its job.

In VERY old versions of Google, you could aim the search engine at your site, and watch it as it indexed the pages, from the Google end. I think you need to sign up for their premium analytics package for that now, I can't find where to do it for free.

**Meddle** · September-07-13, 04:51 PM

Originally Posted by noise

This is what search engines do and have always done.

Yeah, I really don't see anything surprising here. This board software comes with tools to hit the indexes faster and there are add-ons to assist the process.

**Meddle** · September-07-13, 04:52 PM

It's also why you should NEVER post anything personal or use your real name on these boards.

**gazhekwe** · September-08-13, 06:56 AM

There is a place here where you can look to see who is looking at your thread. I did that a few times last year for "Paging Gazhekwe" just to see who all those viewers were [[since hardly anyone says anything

I think Google Spider or webcrawler accounted for at least 10% of the hits. She is here a LOT! She never says anything either.

**Gannon** · September-08-13, 11:48 AM

Originally Posted by gazhekwe

There is a place here where you can look to see who is looking at your thread. I did that a few times last year for "Paging Gazhekwe" just to see who all those viewers were [[since hardly anyone says anything

I think Google Spider or webcrawler accounted for at least 10% of the hits. She is here a LOT! She never says anything either.

We might be lucky about that...although she tells her friends who always seem ready to give up the goods.

As for the search engine anomalies...it freaked me out a few times back in 2006-7, during those odd New Moon lucid dream experiences...but finding only your posts [[and NO associated similar pages) might be a sign that there exists some mechanism which highly favors local results over national and world-wide. Either that, or you are on some watch list.

Cheers!

**Meddle** · September-08-13, 01:43 PM

This is also why you should never use the same User ID on more than one or two boards, especially unrelated ones and why it's a good idea to vary your writing style somewhat - like not use the same phrases or slang.