Google bot - PLEASE!!!

[skyjacker]

When I did a search for who was on the forums I noticed some of them are being monitored by a Google bot. Why would the admins allow this. It is an invasion of privacy... This is also the reason I won't use the Goodle search or Chromium any more.

[viking777]

These bots are essential to the running of Mint. If they weren't there nobody would be able to search out any information about Mint from any of the usual search engines. Given how bad the forum search function is I often use google search to find information on here myself, it isn't sinister, its essential.

[chipbuster]

It's not like the google bots are harvesting social security numbers and internal organs on this forum....most forums have a bot visit every now and then just to collect the results for a google search. I presume that they only have guest or regular-user level access (If I'm mistaken, I wiill be sorely disappointed with the admins here, because I like my kidneys).

[Habitual]

...Why would the admins allow this. It is an invasion of privacy...

It helps generate revenue.
Surf in Privacy Mode in Firefox.

IF it still bothers you, then don't visit the forum. Simple as that.

[dagon]

Moved here by moderator
This is not of support nature so I moved it where It seemed to fit in best.

To control the Bots you need to add a /robots.txt file at the root of the homepage. Not all Bots care about your wishes though. Here is an example from the Trisquel homepage: http://trisquel.info/robots.txt
As you can see not even the distro that his coding grace, Richard Stallman, recommends are prohibiting Google Bot. It just asks the bots to leave some parts of the forum alone and to read the pages at a slower rate to limit the impact on the servers, that's all.
In our case I don't think Linuxmint would last long without Google and other bots, so it's not an option here. I do understand why many get upset about them big companies though...

[The-Wizard]

on another forum i am a member one of our clever code breakers put a new group in the script, into which all bots are put, this group is limited to index and discussion pages for the main subject of the board, they do not have access to the admin/mods boards or the off topic [members only] sections