Changing forum permissions and bots...

[collectiques]

does anyone know please - I have just changed my forum permissions so that guests can see forums but not see topics...by allowing only members to view posts...

does this in anyway prevent bots from reading the entire site? I have regular bots coming at the moment will this effect them coming in the future?

[travis_cooper]

You shouldn't be concerned with bots visiting your site. They are just crawlers for the search engines, that is how the index your forum for searches. In fact bots are probably a good thing in that regard. Anyway, a bot, since it isn't logged in, is a guest, so whatever your permissions are for guests will determine what the bots can access.

[collectiques]

No I'm not concerned about them being there...I understand what bots do...I was worried if I changed the permissions then they wouldnt be able to read the posts as a guest...that is a real bummer...thanks though...

[zakir321]

I think I've once read something, that this wouldn't stop the bots from browsing the site. That would depend what is written in your metatags. But I'm not sure though.

[Jamierules34]

To get rid of Bots...do the following:

Admins panel => General => Under Homepage, go to Hierarchy => Scroll down to the last thing. It should say:

Display bots in statistics of the forum

Then click NO for that...That should help...

But like they said, dont worry about them. They are there to help bump your website URL on a website if its there, or to check on occasion to see how the website is doing...

Thanks.
~Jamie

[zakir321]

This would just prevent the name from being displayed. The bot itself can still continue his work in the background.

[Jamierules34]

Yes it can, But it would make the person who wrote this thread not worry about this anymore because he wont be able to see it...

[travis_cooper]

Yes it can, But it would make the person who wrote this thread not worry about this anymore because he wont be able to see it...

Actually I think the OP wants the bots to keep coming. They are worried that perhaps they way they did the permissions the bots would stop coming. What you did won't stop them from coming, but if you have made any areas of your forum not visible to guests the bots just won't be able to access those areas.

[collectiques]

yes exactly Travis ...I definitely want the bots to keep coming ...my site is doing ok on google rankings ..which is great...

I was just concerned that if I locked some forums off to members only that the bots wouldnt be able to get in and update info...so I've compromised and locked off just some...thanks for everyones help though