Can i stop bots visiting my forum

[megadread]

As my forum is private i don't want the bots visiting and caching pages, can this be done. ?

[Sanket]

Not really.

[LilyPat]

Are you saying that forumotion message boards cannot be made private?

I was about to begin building a board, but it's for trauma survivors and we are unanimous in needing it to be a private board. Do you have any suggestions for finding a free board that does offer privacy?

LilyPat

[Master Marc]

I don't think you can keep the bots out,but you can make your forum un-seen to guest...

ACP=>General Tab=>Forum=>Categories and forums=>Select the forum=>Permissions=>Tick off view and read for guests=>Save

And,only allow admins to activate member's accounts:

ACP=>Users & Groups Tab=>Users=>Users options=>Members=>New accounts activation=>Admin=>Save

[Goku93]

Well bots don't do anything if bots are still coming and you keep your forum unseen to guests then it would also be a private forum

[alicia]

Can I just confirm this.

My forum is for vulnerable people also. It is not accessible or viewable to guests and registration is by invitation only and admin activated.

If you follow the instructions abover your forum will be secure and private, mine is.

[Guest]

Just an update for you,

To stop bots visiting your forum you can use the meta tags section with the relevant codes

1. Navigate to:

Admin Panel\Display\Generalities

2. Scroll down to "Additional Tags" and select the green cross

3. Select "Create a "Meta" tag type" and hit 'Select'

4. For the name add:

Robots

5. For the Content add:

noindex, nofollow

6. Press 'Add'

From now on your forum will not have bots on it, your page will not be index at all and will not show up in search engines

Regards








Craig

[kirk]

bots can only gather information on boards that are open to guest.
so they might be showing up on your forum but if you have the boards set for members only then it is not gathering any information for search engines.

[megadread]

Thanks placehold, i've added the tag, hope that solves my problem.

[nelsaidi2]

Also make sure guests cant see any forums, if they cant then problem solved.