Re: [tlug] Open archives are bad?

[Dave M G <martin@example.com>]

Uva,

Thanks for your comments.

> >  it just seems like we're on different wavelengths.
>
> Thanks.
For saying were on different wavelengths...?

> Perhaps it's the lets dump it in a search engine

That's an odd choice of words. "Dump"? Dumping implies movement, and 
there's no need to move the archives in any way. Nor change them. Nor 
rely on search engines for anything, since the existing functions of the 
archives would be left in place.

I'm simply wondering about removing the password that prevents search 
engines from seeing them. That's it and that's all. There's no 
"dumping", just removing a barrier.

> Let`s see how well things work and if it is as satisfying as we
> expect.

Huh? What is there to expect? I doubt there would be any noticeable 
difference to anyone, really. Possibly minutely higher traffic, mostly 
from search engine bots. Every now and again someone out there might do 
a search and hit a TLUG archived posting and maybe find something 
useful. Or not. And in either case, would TLUG or its members notice or 
need to know?

Maybe someone out there will find some helpful information they wouldn't 
have otherwise. Maybe a potential member of TLUG will find it when they 
otherwise might not of. There could be some good from making the 
archives more open. But not to any degree that I think will really 
impact anything in a big way.

> The nice thing about Google et al is that if you decide to later to
> remove access to the content, then we`re back to where we are now... 
> If we find something very wrong then we could consider backing
> out of the change. 

Which could be done anyway, without a switch to any other system. 
There's nothing stopping the TLUG powers that be from re-implementing 
the username/password requirement if they wanted to.

--
Dave M G
Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn
Kernel 2.6.20-15-generic
Pentium D Dual Core Processor