Security Threat

[satpalsharma]

All the forum topics are generally protected by login id. It shows a message "You do not have the required permissions to read topics within this forum." when you try to go inside a topic without logging in.

But recently I noticed that the Google Search Result shows everything in their searches including the content inside forum topics which generally requires login id & password.

You may need to check on the Google Bots or similar bots of another sites such as Yahoo etc.. so that it can not crawl through the contents of the topics.

Otherwise what's the use of having the topics protected by login id & password?

try this search to reproduce what i'm saying:

http://www.google.com/search?q=rps+savana+satpal

[ddamitav]

THIS IS SOMETHING TO DO WITH GOOGLE ADSENSE,

[satpalsharma]

Then there must be some option to turn off the appearance in the google search results.

[webmaster]

Thanks satpal for your input.

However as far as I can comprehend, this is not a security threat but is working as desired

Even though it requires a user to register in order to view the contents, we have allowed the search engine bots like google and yahoo to crawl the forum without any limitations and given them access to the forums. The reason for this is to allow the savana forum topics and threads to appear in google search results. The more savana search results appear in search engine websites, the better it is for our forum's popularity on the internet, increasing our reach and increase the members database. Whenever any savana owner on any corner of the world searches on google or yahoo regarding savana, we would want Savana forum to come up in the search results, thus more awareness. If we restrict the google bots access to the forum, then it would greatly hamper the publicity of our website.

[mkpawar]

We should be careful while posting - Not to mention any confidential information like email, phone# etc. which we don't want to be Public.

[satpalsharma]

If publicity is the main idea behind it, then why to restrict people to view the forums without logging in.

There should always be a clear distinction with what is Public and what is Private and they should mean the same across platform.

If a certain set of information is public, it should always remain public.

There are various websites out there where you can browse and view the forums BUT you can not post anything unless you're a member. This is a good practice.

It is very frustrating for the user to see something on Google and when he/she clicks the link to read the full thread, you put a Login Dialog.. and the only option for him to read the full thread is that he MUST made an account on the forum.

Forcing a user to see the information by creating an account is not good on the brand.

Either the information should not be visible throughout.. or else if it is public.. it should be accessible from everywhere. i.e. google search results vs visiting forum

[webmaster]

Based on your feedback, we have allowed guest to read the forums without having to log in.

However, the reason for asking people to login to read the forums was not to force them to sign up to get into the forum, but to get a count of the number of members of the Savana community. Mostly people tend to only browse through a forum, read the topics and avoid the process of registration or is unaware of the fact that they need to register.