Hi Otis

I noticed today that you mark your forum as <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW">.

Would it not be better for you and LLBLGen if google was allowed to find these links?

No, I don't want robots to traverse this forum via google. (although someone posted a link to the forum on a site and therefore google has indexed it already) The main reason is that this forum is for LLBLGen Pro (potential) customers, not for general .NET news. If people look for LLBLGen related material, I want them to go first to the main site, then eventually to the forum. .

(edit) I understand that the more exposure the better, the thing is though that I don't want everyone to register here to ask random questions, just LLBLGen Pro related questions.

So the question I just posted shouldn't be asked really.. (about the custom controls).

I know from another language they use at my work the've got 1 newsgroup with a active community where "off-topic" questions are posted also, just because the guys "know" eachother.

Just let me know if I shouldn't do it again

gabrielk wrote:

So the question I just posted shouldn't be asked really.. (about the custom controls).

I know from another language they use at my work the've got 1 newsgroup with a active community where "off-topic" questions are posted also, just because the guys "know" eachother.

Just let me know if I shouldn't do it again

Naah your question was fine. I just want to make sure that (potential) customers can post here relatively safe when it comes to email addresses, exposing their thoughts etc.

(so post ahead, I don't mind, what I try to avoid is that content here is ending up in google which is then harvested by other people not even visiting this forum. )

I remember when I was trying to do my research on LLBL Gen Pro, I'm pretty sure the forums weren't referenced from the main site. I was googling all over the place to find some other references or people talking about it. I eventually ran some link some where that pointed to the forums. It didn't take me long to be a convert once I got here.

The demo had a link to the forums since we moved to a time limited demo installation, but we got questions almost daily "is there a forum?" "can I visit the forums?", apparently people didn't click on the help menu option that often . So we added the link to the forums to the main site last week. It will still be no-follow for robots.

Otis wrote:

although someone posted a link to the forum on a site and therefore google has indexed it already

Hi Otis

I see there is another thread that has been indexed by google - picked up while checking number of websites linking to my website. type "link: www.Netready.co.za" in google remember it is case sensitive.

What do you mean? I don't follow (no that's not a pun )

Let me explain..

You said:

Otis wrote:

No, I don't want robots to traverse this forum via google. (although someone posted a link to the forum on a site and therefore google has indexed it already)

Google only use to have a referece to Collections in the business layer

Now there are 2 references that i know of to this forum - not only just one.

The new reference is to:

Help me sort sorting

I picked this up by checking what sites link to my website www.Netready.co.za...because my footer on LLBLGen has www.NetReady.co.za in it so...if google indexes LLBLGen it automatically indexes my site.

If you type the following into google "Link: www.sitename" then it will show you what sites link to your website.

I am providing this information just for intrest sake - not expecting you to do anything ...Hope you follow now

aha! Yeah I knew that link.

It appears that more of the forum has been indexed. Google now has 487 items indexed from the forum: http://www.google.com/search?q=site:www.llblgen.com/tinyforum

If you really want to stop it, you would probably want the NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW tag on the Threads.aspx and Messages.aspx pages.

Personally, I kind of wished that Google was the search engine for the forum. I know you (Frans) went through a lot of effort to improve the previous search engine, but it sometimes seems lacking. Actually, that's probably not quite fair. What I've needed in the past is a way to get back to threads I've posted to. On most sites, I can just use Google and target that site with my username and it will find my threads. Not so here. Of course, I bet you could whip some code out real quick that would solve that problem and add it to the Bookmarks or Profile page (hint, hint ).

Yeah google has indexed some pages.

I looked at google to handle searches as an alternative, though it doesnt work with the security, as in: it just indexes the forums the anonymous coward sees.

The idea of your latest posts is a good one. It's indeed just a small piece of code. I'll see what I can do

Just my 2 cents about the forums...In the searching for a new application framework, the single most important aspect, at least to me, is the community around it, represented by the forums. No other .NET framework/generator can even come close to LLBLGEN Pro in terms of an active community and responsive support (thats Frans ). Most frameworks have the same general feature set, so this difference is huge.

I think this forum is the best marketing tool at LLBLGEN's disposal.

On a side note, I'm sure this has been asked before, but Frans, why is your forum name Otis? Is this your middle name?

mikeg22 wrote:

Just my 2 cents about the forums...In the searching for a new application framework, the single most important aspect, at least to me, is the community around it, represented by the forums. No other .NET framework/generator can even come close to LLBLGEN Pro in terms of an active community and responsive support (thats Frans ). Most frameworks have the same general feature set, so this difference is huge.

The forum is accessable from the support page on the general website. We've removed the nofollow last week after we saw that more and more people searching for LLBLGen Pro related information on google.

I think this forum is the best marketing tool at LLBLGEN's disposal.

One of the best indeed I think we have some more unique features but support is one of our cornerstones indeed

On a side note, I'm sure this has been asked before, but Frans, why is your forum name Otis? Is this your middle name?

I used 'Otis' as a handle in the Amiga and PC demoscene for a decade or so and always used that name on forums as well. Kind of a habbit from the old days