QBWiki talk:Search indexing

In the past there's been some contention about information on the wiki being viewable from search engines. In a (somewhat) related vein, it's pretty common for people to ask that their pages be cut down (or removed entirely). It seems like a reasonable idea to me that we just adopt a very broad "no indexing" policy for these sorts of pages. It would avoid at least some fraction of the issue that people have had without meaningfully removing any of the information, meaning we wouldn't have to really re-evaluate the privacy policies. People who intentionally visited the wiki would still be able to find the pages, but it'd be much less likely for people doing a search of someone to find it (which I imagine is often at least part of the problem).

I'd like to propose the following rule:

a. A page should not be indexed if it meets any of the following criteria:

i. It focuses on an individual and describes them engaging in or being suspected of engaging in cheating.

ii: It focuses on an individual and describes them committing misconduct.

iii: It focuses on an individual and they have requested to have their page cleared or not indexed.

iv: It has been deemed so by an admin of the wiki.

v: It is the talk page of any page described by points a.i - a.iv.

b. Any page which should not be indexed will be given the __NOINDEX__ tag at its end.

I'll tag User:Jonah Greenthal.

Also, is there a centralized "rules" page?

-Kevin Wang (talk)

I don't generally object to using the no-index feature more, but I'm not sure about these criteria. Don't we want the QBWiki to cover problematic behavior, on some level, in such a way that people who have a good reason to know about it can? (E.g., so that people considering working the offender, whether on a quizbowl project or otherwise, know about the concerns and can seek additional information to make a well-informed decision.) This is a broader issue than search indexing, and one I don't think we've ever adequately addressed as a matter of general policy, but I think we should try to figure something out, and the no-index issue is just one possible small piece of it.

I don't think there is a centralized rules page, but there should be. I'll try to draft one for comment soon.

Related to both of those things, I wonder if we should have a way of seeking input on big-picture QBWiki issues that's more visible than discussions like this one. —Jonah (talk) 11:20, 5 November 2022 (CDT)