Post by ProBoards Help Guide on Apr 30, 2013 14:24:15 GMT -8
Who are 'guests' and how do I stop them from visiting my forum?
A guest is someone who visits a forum while not logged into a member account. When you visit your forum, for example, you are counted as a guest until you are logged into your account. Guests can be people who are already existing members on your forum and are logging into their accounts, or new users who have found your forum and are interested in joining the forum.
Guests can also be automated bots from places like search engines. Google and Microsoft, for example, are two of the more popular companies that visit forums frequently using bots to try and gather information about your forum to provide in search results. If you happen to see a handful of guests suddenly appear on your forum at one time, they are likely these automated bots as they tend to visit websites in packs for them to gather info from your forum quicker.
But my forum is a private forum where guests must login; are automated bots from search engines allowed to read my forums content anyway?
No. If your forum settings are set so guests must login, then the only people who can view the content on your forum are users who are logged into their member accounts. All guests will be able to see is the page that prompts the guests to login. This includes bots from search engines, and there are no exemptions.
I have the Guests Must Login feature enabled and I'm the only member online on my forum, yet some boards are saying '1 Viewing' next to their name on the index page. Why is this, and should I be concerned?
In short, you shouldn't be concerned. Guests will only see the login prompt regardless of what areas they attempt to view on your forum, even if they have a direct link to a specific board or thread on your forum. With the Guests Must Login feature enabled, the only time anyone can ever see the content on your forum is if they are logged into a member account.
For example, say you have a General Discussion board on your forum and your forum is set so guests must login. If you link someone directly to a thread in that General Discussion area and they are not logged into your forum, they will only see the page that asks them to login. However, since the thread you linked them to is in the General Discussion area, you will see a '1 Viewing' message next to the name of the General Discussion area even though the guest is not actually able to read the content of the thread you linked them to.
This is the first time I have heard of the "Guests Must Login" feature. How do I enable it on my forum?
Visit your admin panel and then navigate to Settings > Forum Settings. On the next page, look for the Login Settings category and it will be the last option listed there.
A guest is someone who visits a forum while not logged into a member account. When you visit your forum, for example, you are counted as a guest until you are logged into your account. Guests can be people who are already existing members on your forum and are logging into their accounts, or new users who have found your forum and are interested in joining the forum.
Guests can also be automated bots from places like search engines. Google and Microsoft, for example, are two of the more popular companies that visit forums frequently using bots to try and gather information about your forum to provide in search results. If you happen to see a handful of guests suddenly appear on your forum at one time, they are likely these automated bots as they tend to visit websites in packs for them to gather info from your forum quicker.
But my forum is a private forum where guests must login; are automated bots from search engines allowed to read my forums content anyway?
No. If your forum settings are set so guests must login, then the only people who can view the content on your forum are users who are logged into their member accounts. All guests will be able to see is the page that prompts the guests to login. This includes bots from search engines, and there are no exemptions.
I have the Guests Must Login feature enabled and I'm the only member online on my forum, yet some boards are saying '1 Viewing' next to their name on the index page. Why is this, and should I be concerned?
In short, you shouldn't be concerned. Guests will only see the login prompt regardless of what areas they attempt to view on your forum, even if they have a direct link to a specific board or thread on your forum. With the Guests Must Login feature enabled, the only time anyone can ever see the content on your forum is if they are logged into a member account.
For example, say you have a General Discussion board on your forum and your forum is set so guests must login. If you link someone directly to a thread in that General Discussion area and they are not logged into your forum, they will only see the page that asks them to login. However, since the thread you linked them to is in the General Discussion area, you will see a '1 Viewing' message next to the name of the General Discussion area even though the guest is not actually able to read the content of the thread you linked them to.
This is the first time I have heard of the "Guests Must Login" feature. How do I enable it on my forum?
Visit your admin panel and then navigate to Settings > Forum Settings. On the next page, look for the Login Settings category and it will be the last option listed there.