Note on profile if a journal can be searched

[melannen]

Title:
Note on profile if a journal can be searched

Area:
privacy

Summary:
People can set their journal to be indexable or not by outside search engines, and also whether they can be searched through site search. It would be nice to be able to tell which journals have that turned on and which don't.

Description:
Right now, AFAIK, there is no way to tell from looking at a person's journal whether the journal content can be indexed/cached by Google and other outside services, and also which who can find the journal from site search. I suggest that this information be included somewhere on the profile, even if it's just the extended profile.

It would be useful in several different cases:

- Some people prefer not to leave comments in journals that can be publicly indexed, due to stalkers or other privacy issues. This would make it easier for them to tell which journals are (relatively) safe.
- When people are compiling linkspams, newsletters, or similar overviews, it would be helpful to know which relevant journals won't show up on search and will need to be checked individually.
- Knowing whether a person allows search and outside indexing is a useful piece of information regarding their overall feelings on privacy (in the linkspam example, say, people might decide to ask about linking a post widely if the owner has indexing and search turned off.)
- Having the information on the profile would remind people that the setting exists and they need to keep an eye on it.

And etcetera.

Downsides: There might be privacy concern over people not wanting their searchability to be publicly visible, but I'm having trouble seeing why anyone might need that kept a secret. There also might be issues if people comment in a journal assuming indexing is off, and the journal owner later turns it on, but that sort of thing is already a risk with any sort of semi-public posting.

Poll #6501 Note on profile if a journal can be searched

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 52

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
21 (40.4%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
11 (21.2%)

(I have no opinion)
18 (34.6%)

(Other: please comment)
2 (3.8%)

Comments

[elf]

While people might prefer to have their comments etc. on other journals not-searchable, that's not much protection, since the journal owner could change the setting at any time. (I suppose it's comparable to locked entries where the journal owner could unlock them later.)

I have outside searching turned off and DW searching turned on, and I'm trying to sort out my thoughts on whether I'd want those facts posted in my profile. My immediate thought is "No! Don't make me publicly announce how much privacy I want!" but as you say, I can't figure out why it matters.

I can see opportunities for wank coming from it, but I can imagine wank coming from pretty much any change in publicly-viewable info. And I don't think it's got big opportunities for wank. I can see more confusion caused by people who don't understand what this label is on their journal.

I can't think of any real objections. The idea makes me nervous, but that's probably just paranoia.

[matgb]

My take: I really want to know what the search status of communities is when posting to them &c.

In the past (elsewhere), I've spent real effort posting properly formatted posts to comms that were public, meaning them to be public facing and findable. One of the things that saw me disengage from comms was finding some of those public posts were hidden from search, and thus not public, thus the work I put into formatting them properly was partially wasted.

I'm much less likely to make informed posts on an area my knowledge is strong in to a comm with search switched off, and I'd rather not waste my time with such comms, they simply don't suit me, if I want something locked down, I'll lock it, I've never understood search removal choices, if it's still public it's public.

So yeah, I want this, for different reasons. Possibly a note on the update page when posting to a comm "note, this comm has minimised it's search presence so your public post might not be found easily by general public readers"?

[thorfinn]

I voted no on the basis that posting in someone else's journal is implicitly giving them collection rights to your comment.

This may seem like an obscure Intellectual Property issue - but it's the argument that makes comment importation from elsewhere acceptable.

Searchability as defined by robots.txt is a very thin shield. I wouldn't rely on it for anything - especially not if I had stalker issues.

Even posting in someone else's locked post is not necessarily safe - they can always make the post public later.

[turlough]

I can see enough good and bad consequences of this that I simply can't make up my mind if I want it or not.

[feathertail]

I think it'd add cognitive load, it has bad consequences as described in the above comments, and most people probably either wouldn't notice (it'd get buried in all the other clutter on a profile page) or wouldn't know how to make use of the information.

[msilverstar]

I think it's a good idea, as it makes explicit what the journal owner knows and most people don't know how to find out.

This is especially valuable for communities, as matgb pointed out. So even if there's no consensus on private journals, I'd like to suggest that it be implemented for communities.

[ninetydegrees]

If your journal can't be searched with site search, there's no 'search for entries' link on your profile.

the journal content can be indexed/cached by Google and other outside services

Public content can always be indexed/made searchable, etc. Setting the "Attempt to block..." option on one's journal only means that some services won't; it doesn't mean it can't be. If this is implemented, it will need to be very carefully phrased so as not to cause misunderstandings.

Also, what happens if I change the options? You commented thinking it was 'safe' except it no longer is because now my journal is indexable/searchable.