What if I accept SE bots as registered members. Is this harmful for my forum security or anything other problem I can face by doing this?
What I want that I have put some restrictions on guests, so, I think bots will also skip those hidden things... Am I wrong?
If guests can't see the hidden stuff, then neither can bots. I don't recommend settings things up that way.
There shouldn't be a problem with setting the bots up as registered members.
(2011-06-16, 04:09 PM)lucasbytegenius Wrote: [ -> ]If guests can't see the hidden stuff, then neither can bots. I don't recommend settings things up that way.
There shouldn't be a problem with setting the bots up as registered members.
My forum is new, so I want to force visitors to register so that I get some activity on my forum. Later on, I will give full viewing permissions to guests.
(2011-06-16, 04:57 PM)Thruster Wrote: [ -> ]My forum is new, so I want to force visitors to register so that I get some activity on my forum. Later on, I will give full viewing permissions to guests.
You should be doing exactly the opposite (although even if your forum is big, you shouldn't block content to guests). Considering your forum is new, content should be easily accessible by guests. If guests face an error page while trying to view a thread, they will just leave. You will loose more potential members than those you will get to register.
Also, if you allow bots to crawl pages and block guests from viewing threads, Google will detect that. It's called cloaking:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters...swer=66355
So, cloaking is good or bad for website/forum SE reputation?
And you don't know about my country people,
It's bad and you will be penalized by Google.
(2011-06-16, 07:30 PM)pyridine Wrote: [ -> ]It's bad and you will be penalized by Google.
To minimize the threats, I allowed bots as registered users, but they are very fast and don't have any mercy... lol
I made the point elsewhere: it's not a good idea to grant user privileges (like posting, sending pm or email) to bots. Anyone can assume the identity of, say, googlebot by forging their User-Agent string and then needs not even register to mess up your forum.