[syslinux] Request for the Admin

[Ady]

> On Tue, Sep 17, 2013 at 2:41 PM, Geert Stappers <stappers at stappers.nl> wrote:
> > Op 2013-09-17 om 17:43 schreef Ady:
> >> To the Syslinux mailing list administrator(s):
> >
> > Hello All,
> >
> >> There seem to be some issue when searching the Syslinux mailing list
> >> archives.
> >>
> >> To replicate (example):
> >>
> >> 1_ Open a Google web search page
> >> 2_ Search for "site:http://www.syslinux.org/archives/"
> >> 3_ Click "Search tools"
> >> 4_ Limit the search to "Past month".
> >>
> >> Result: no match!
> 
> For today, August 17th is the last noticed records.
> 
> Is this only an issue where the last 30-ish days are not searchable in
> this manner?
> 
 
Some emails are found (for whichever reason), but this is not the 
same behavior as in the past (until around 10 months ago or so). Just 
for example, limiting the search to June 2013, I found less than 20 
results (some of them, from the same email thread), while there are 
more than 20 threads in the Syslinux mailing list for that month.

> >> This has been happening for about 10 months or so.
> >>
> >> A few mailing list search repositories / engines had kept caching the
> >> Syslinux mailing list until a few months ago, even after Google
> >> stopped.
> >>
> >> I know of at least one such mailing list search repository / engine
> >> based on Google results which eventually moved the Syslinux mailing
> >> list to "dormant" state. This was on May or June 2013.
> >>
> >> The reason this type of searches are important is that users are
> >> repeating their questions (typically, related to newer versions of
> >> Syslinux), and I am sure that much time would be saved if a simple
> >> web search would provide a meaningful result.
> >>
> >> If there is anything / something that the Administrator / Owner can
> >> do (e.g contacting Google and finding out what the problem / reason
> >> is), I'm sure it will be helpful for all.
> >
> > Yeah, right.
> >
> >
> > Groeten
> > Geert Stappers
> 
> Perhaps an explicit robots.txt could be of help.
> 
> Per http://www.robotstxt.org/robotstxt.html an empty file or
> 
> "User-agent: *
> Disallow:"
> 
> A HTTP return 404 _should_ be sufficient (but we know how well some
> things that _should_ work may not always).
> 
> -- 
> -Gene
 
As I mentioned before, at least one ML search website based on Google 
have decided that the Syslinux mailing list is "dormant". This is one 
more sign that "something" changed. This changed "status" in this 
repository / search site came after several months already of Google 
not finding results in a systematical way.

This is happening not only in Google, but in any web search engine I 
tried. This has been happening since around the same time the 
Syslinux wiki changed the way new users are accepted (which, BTW, has 
its own issues too).

If at least there were other alternative popular methods for users to 
effectively find relevant results, then this issue wouldn't be such. 
I have seen enough repeated questions / problems (in the ML and in 
several other sites) regarding newer Syslinux versions, so to 
conclude that solving this "search and (not) find" situation would be 
very beneficial. Not changing this status means less and less 
relevant results in the future, and more and more repeated questions 
in every forum / channel / communication method.

NOTE: Google, and others like Yahoo, Bing, etc., only accept requests 
/ claims from Site Owners / Administrators. My guess is that knowing 
why one search engine stopped systematically finding the ML results 
from www.syslinux.org , would help solve the problem for the others 
too.

TIA,
Ady.