[Foundation-l] Searchability of non-mainspace pages

Mon Apr 28 02:19:24 UTC 2008

On Sun, Apr 27, 2008 at 7:05 PM, Todd Allen <toddmallen at gmail.com> wrote:

> What about developing a functionality where editors (or perhaps admins
> and up only) could set an individual non-mainspace page to be
> excluded? The vast majority of non-articlespace content is not
> problematic, so the proposed sledgehammer solution seems a bit
> overkill as compared to handling individual pages, and would certainly
> be much less deleterious to the ability to use superior external
> search capability while improved internal search is developed, while
> still addressing the fact that some pages are problematic if they show
> on search engines and allowing us to respond appropriately to
> complaints and concerns about the same.
>

Something like a special keywork such as "__NOINDEX__" would be just about
perfect.  Then it is could be embedded in templates and the like and placed
on individual pages as appropriate.

I generally agree with Todd that blocking search engines from all
non-Article pages is effectively using a sledgehammer to kill a fly.

-Robert Rohde