Message Board

Important forum announcements.
User avatar
Keith Robinson
Site Administrator
Posts: 723
Joined: 05 Apr 2005, 22:06
Location: Georgia, USA
Contact:

Re: New Message Board

Post by Keith Robinson »

Well, you can only go by what you read and what you experience. Two weeks is probably very conservative. I just know from my own experience that when I build new sites and link to them from my business home page, it can be up to two weeks before that change gets picked up. But, that site doesn't change very often, so perhaps Google long ago decided that a two-week check is enough, whereas other sites (particularly those that include forums) need checking more regularly.

Google is vague on the specifics, saying only that they use complicated algorithms to determine how often sites are crawled. But there is something on their site that's worth reading:

http://www.google.com/support/webmaster ... tx=sibling" target="_blank

The idea of being visited "every few seconds" is kind of scary. That's the sort of thing that causes bandwidth to shoot up, and would certainly explain why the stats are reporting that Google is visiting daily. But even assuming Googlebot is visiting daily, is Google updating its records daily? I doubt it. Webmasters all over the world would rejoice if they could make a change to content and the change would be reflected within seconds on search engines, or even hours.Think how easy it would be to optimize sites -- you could just keep tweaking all day long and watching as your position in the engine rises and falls. Spammers would be in heaven.

I'm not entirely sure what purpose is served by Googlebot visiting more than once every day if Google's records aren't updated at the same speed. We should test it -- let's see, make up a word like, say, blytonwidget, and let's check over the next few days to see if and when that word gets included in listings. :D

Here's a handy link to check Google for the keyword: http://www.google.com/search?q=blytonwi ... en___US230" target="_blank
User avatar
Keith Robinson
Site Administrator
Posts: 723
Joined: 05 Apr 2005, 22:06
Location: Georgia, USA
Contact:

Re: New Message Board

Post by Keith Robinson »

By the way, there's a simple "Viewer" that sort of allows you to see what search engines see. Just type in the URL and you'll get a very simple, boring page of text, which is the website with all the fancy bits stripped away:

http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html" target="_blank

Engines are interested in text only, and this is sort of the point I was making about keeping the message board and forum links on the home page rather than just using buttons to other pages. Home page content is important, so let's keep it updating regularly and displaying it.

(The order of the text can be important too. Engines read code from left to right, top to bottom, so anything in the header comes first, then the left menu, the content, etc.)
Tony Summerfield
Posts: 6386
Joined: 26 Dec 2004, 12:20

Re: New Message Board

Post by Tony Summerfield »

I have been keeping an eye on your link above, Keith, and blytonwidget has now appeared on Google! It took a day or two to appear, so although they trawl the site every day, you are clearly right in saying that they don't update their own site quite as frequently.
User avatar
Keith Robinson
Site Administrator
Posts: 723
Joined: 05 Apr 2005, 22:06
Location: Georgia, USA
Contact:

Re: New Message Board

Post by Keith Robinson »

Interesting experiment -- must do that more often! We should try it again though, just to prove it in case we happened to add that word right before they came along and crawled. So, let's try, um... blytonpome.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe ... tnG=Search" target="_blank

(I sense a new game coming on.)
User avatar
Moonraker
Posts: 22387
Joined: 31 Jan 2005, 19:15
Location: Wiltshire, England
Contact:

Re: New Message Board

Post by Moonraker »

Blytonpome is there, Keith! Smazin! By the way, the LynxView appearance of the Society homepage is so Michael Edwards!!!!!!!!! :D
Society Member
User avatar
Moonraker
Posts: 22387
Joined: 31 Jan 2005, 19:15
Location: Wiltshire, England
Contact:

Re: New Message Board

Post by Moonraker »

Smazin how many smazins are listed by Google! Maybe not a very unique Goonerism!
Society Member
Tony Summerfield
Posts: 6386
Joined: 26 Dec 2004, 12:20

Re: New Message Board

Post by Tony Summerfield »

I think we might have to rethink your every two weeks, Keith - blytonpome has appeared within a day! :lol: Remember also that we are not even talking about the Home Page!

I think that we may have to reconsider the positioning of the Message Board. When it first appeared we had four quick posts (adults) from non-forum members, but since it has moved lower down the Home Page, not really a sausage! I suppose we ought to be grateful that we are not the victims of 'kiddy power' or spammers for that matter, but it would be nice to know that there is someone out there! :roll:
User avatar
Moonraker
Posts: 22387
Joined: 31 Jan 2005, 19:15
Location: Wiltshire, England
Contact:

Re: New Message Board

Post by Moonraker »

Tony Summerfield wrote: I think that we may have to reconsider the positioning of the Message Board......but it would be nice to know that there is someone out there! :roll:

Hmm, I was thinking exactly the same thing, Tony. I wonder how many people bother to scroll down that far.
Society Member
User avatar
Anita Bensoussane
Forum Administrator
Posts: 26769
Joined: 30 Jan 2005, 23:25
Favourite book/series: Adventure series, Six Cousins books, Six Bad Boys
Favourite character: Jack Trent, Fatty and Elizabeth Allen
Location: UK

Re: New Message Board

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Tony Summerfield wrote:I think that we may have to reconsider the positioning of the Message Board. When it first appeared we had four quick posts (adults) from non-forum members, but since it has moved lower down the Home Page, not really a sausage!
Yes, I was thinking that too. Barney hasn't had much to get his teeth into for a few days and he really is very fond of sausages! Perhaps we could consider putting the Message Board back above the latest Forum posts on the Home Page, but only have about 5 messages showing so it doesn't take up too much room? What do others think?

Anita
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.


Society Member
User avatar
Moonraker
Posts: 22387
Joined: 31 Jan 2005, 19:15
Location: Wiltshire, England
Contact:

Re: New Message Board

Post by Moonraker »

In my view, the Message Board is primarily for non-forum members, so it would seem to need to be near the top of the home page for obvious reasons. We don't really need to see the Forum Posts on the home page at all, but if some of us really want to, then scrolling down shouldn't cause too much of a problem. I think a 5 message limit, with the link to show more, should certainly be sufficient to start with.

There is a butcher in Salisbury that has a surplus of sausages....Image
Society Member
User avatar
Keith Robinson
Site Administrator
Posts: 723
Joined: 05 Apr 2005, 22:06
Location: Georgia, USA
Contact:

Re: New Message Board

Post by Keith Robinson »

I have to agree with y'all about the message board, and to that end I've moved it back up above the forum links. I also wrote a quick message for Barney to get his teeth into; it's another Google test, but I won't mention the word because I want to appear only on the home page this time.

I have a theory that forums are crawled more often simply because of their ever-changing nature; I wonder if the home page will be crawled so quickly? We'll see! This is a great, and simple, way to test engines. Whenever I make up a word, I first check to see if it exists anywhere. Best to have no results at all to avoid confusion.
User avatar
Moonraker
Posts: 22387
Joined: 31 Jan 2005, 19:15
Location: Wiltshire, England
Contact:

Re: New Message Board

Post by Moonraker »

Keith Robinson wrote: Whenever I make up a word, I first check to see if it exists anywhere. Best to have no results at all to avoid confusion.
Tactful as ever, old thing. :wink: Another lesson you have taught me!
Society Member
Tony Summerfield
Posts: 6386
Joined: 26 Dec 2004, 12:20

Re: New Message Board

Post by Tony Summerfield »

I thought that Nigel's goonerism might be a unique word, but when I checked it out there were already 264 entries!! :lol:
User avatar
Keith Robinson
Site Administrator
Posts: 723
Joined: 05 Apr 2005, 22:06
Location: Georgia, USA
Contact:

Re: New Message Board

Post by Keith Robinson »

Moonraker wrote:Tactful as ever, old thing. :wink: Another lesson you have taught me!
:lol: I wasn't even thinking of you specifically when I wrote that, it was just that at one point I submitted ernpome and then realized it had 8 results already (some foreign word) and I thought it might be useful to pass on the tip.

I have a theory about Googlebot. I think Googlebot is like one of those probe droids in The Empire Strikes Back, sent by the Empire to check out the Hoth system for rebels. It checks and checks, again and again, poking its tin nose in every hour to see if any rebels have arrived yet. If it spots some, then it goes and reports to Darth Vader, who sniffs the air in a mystical way and says in a deep rumbling voice, "Yesss. Skywalker is there. Set course for the Hoth system." And that's when a platoon of Imperial stormtroopers come barging in to see what's what. Then of course the Blytonites have to get out their snowspeeders to shoot at the approaching AT-AT (all-terrain armored transport) walkers, and......

Er... ahem. What I mean is, Googlebot reports back to Google only if something has changed, and then Mother Google comes along and crawls the site, noting the changes.
User avatar
Lucky Star
Posts: 11485
Joined: 28 May 2006, 12:59
Favourite book/series: The Valley of Adventure
Favourite character: Mr Goon
Location: Surrey, UK

Re: New Message Board

Post by Lucky Star »

Keith I am your father, join with me and together we can rule the homepage. :lol:

Erm Ok seriously I had noticed a lack of messageboard posts since its demotion down the page so yes I agree that it should be put at the top again. Cant have poor old barney going hungry now can we. :D
"What a lot of trouble one avoids if one refuses to have anything to do with the common herd. To have no job, to devote ones life to literature, is the most wonderful thing in the world. - Cicero

Society Member
Post Reply