[thelist] Robots.txt, the robots meta tag, and copyright referencesneeded.

[martin.p.burns at uk.pwcglobal.com]

Memo from Martin P Burns of PricewaterhouseCoopers

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To:   thelist at lists.evolt.org
Subject:  Re: [thelist] Robots.txt, the robots meta tag, and copyright
      referencesneeded.

>i just wanted to add that when you show "technical" people that they are
>wrong, they will resent it, and the relationship will continue to suffer

Which needs care to not interpret as "agree with everything they say".
Actually, this is true of most people, not just technical ones. Marketing
folks can be just as stubborn, and don't get me started on lawyers.

>so this is more a question of politics, which really means the fine art of
>getting people to do what you want and have them think it was their idea
in
>the first place  'o)

Of course... although it sounds like it's a bit late for that.

>>2.  If we don't have a robots.txt disallowing all access, we are giving
>>people a legal right to take our information.

>ask them nicely why search engines should be prevented from indexing other
>pages within your web site besides the front page

Or alternatively, ask them (nicely) what they're basing their legal advice
on. (hmmm - legally qualified techical people? Not impossible)

IOW if they're making change requests, then they should be the ones to
justify their position, rather than being the default which you have to
find
evidence to refute.

It's a 'show me the money' question.

>if the idea is that the technical people only want just the front page
>listed in search engines (maybe they think all site visitors have to start
>at the front page?),

A bigger question - why are the technical people deciding what is and
isn't indexed. Isn't that a question for the business? Sounds like a
marketing
issue to me.

Cheers
Martin



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