Noindex the thread at https://wordpress.org/support/topic/porno-notifications-on-my-behalf/

[jonoaldersonwp]

Whilst not standard policy, we should urgently add a meta robots tag to ​https://wordpress.org/support/topic/porno-notifications-on-my-behalf/ with a noindex, nofollow directive.

See discussion at ​https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQC6RW/p1586249752080700

[Otto42]

No means or method currently exists to apply such things to individual topics or pages on the support forums.

That said, I'm failing to understand the actual problem here. Are you suggesting that the support forums should not be searchable by search engines in general? Or are you simply objecting to a single word "porno" which, by and large, is not a subject of prohibited discussion on the site?

[jonoaldersonwp]

Replying to Otto42:

No means or method currently exists to apply such things to individual topics or pages on the support forums.

That said, I'm failing to understand the actual problem here. Are you suggesting that the support forums should not be searchable by search engines in general? Or are you simply objecting to a single word "porno" which, by and large, is not a subject of prohibited discussion on the site?

See the slack thread.

[Otto42]

Replying to jonoaldersonwp:

See the slack thread.

I did read the slack thread, and it doesn't answer my questions.

People are allowed to talk about porn. WordPress is allowed to be used for porn. The fact that search engines picked up on a thread talking about porn for searches for porn isn't some kind of major crisis, as I see it.

So, what I am asking is how one can generalize this topic into something actionable. You are claiming that the fact that this thread exists in search results is so harmful, so damaging, that we should take actions to micro-manage and specifically target it. I would like you to explain the damage and provide a suggested course of action in a way that eliminates micro-managing of SEO for the support forums.

Generalize the problem. Because a solution of having people decide, for every thread posted, whether it is acceptable for search engines or not, is rather a poor solution.

And again, please explain the actual damages, because I'm not understanding why having this show up in search results is "bad".

[jonoaldersonwp]

I'm not asking us to micro-manage all support forum threads. I'm asking us to micro-manage *this* thread, whilst we buy time to develop a more robust and systemised approach.

[Otto42]

Replying to jonoaldersonwp:

I'm not asking us to micro-manage all support forum threads. I'm asking us to micro-manage *this* thread, whilst we buy time to develop a more robust and systemised approach.

Okay, can you please explain why the existence of this topic in the forums this is so damaging that we need to take such targeted and specific actions to hide it from search engines?

[ocean90]

Do we now have to noindex this ticket as well?

[jonoaldersonwp]

Replying to Otto42:

Replying to jonoaldersonwp:

I'm not asking us to micro-manage all support forum threads. I'm asking us to micro-manage *this* thread, whilst we buy time to develop a more robust and systemised approach.

Okay, can you please explain why the existence of this topic in the forums this is so damaging that we need to take such targeted and specific actions to hide it from search engines?

Do we really have to play this game? How much time do you want to invest in begin sceptical about SEO and marketing, vs fixing an immediate problem to the benefit of WordPress / wp.org / users / the brand?

Instead, why don't we fast-forward to the point where I've spent an hour drawing out laborious explanations about how Google and brand/topic associations works, and just fix the immediate, trivially complex issue?

If you want to learn SEO, Yoast has an ​excellent course (which is currently free). I believe you also have access to Google Search Console and Google Analytics, and the same data that I do.

If we want to protect WordPress' market share, then we need to put out this fire. Then we can take our existential questions to Slack for discussion. I completely agree that we need to put more thought into systems, processes, and policies for NSFW (and potentially illegal/damaging/harmful content), but let's sort that later, please?

[Otto42]

Replying to jonoaldersonwp:

Do we really have to play this game? How much time do you want to invest in begin sceptical about SEO and marketing, vs fixing an immediate problem to the benefit of WordPress / wp.org / users / the brand?

I don't know what game you're talking about, but the simple fact is that you consistently refuse to explain anything when you demand such changes, and I'm not going to play that game.

If you cannot be bothered to explain why a search engine result finds a post with that search term in it is bad, then the answer is a simple no.

[dd32]

Just noting that I agree this thread shouldn't be noindexed, however, #2018 does suggest adding a NSFW tag for anything that links to a NSFW location/content which I would suggest could be used trigger a noindex tag.

[Otto42]

A NSFW topic-tag exists, however it is not well used: ​https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/nsfw/

It would be reasonable to search for NSFW content and add such a tag to these topics, and then noindex the topic pages based on that tag. This would be a more generic solution to identifying content which shouldn't be listed. An interface to specifically flag such content could be added as well. Not sure that the proposed methods in #2018 are the correct way to do that, but the backing method of simply adding a topic-tag would be feasible regardless of the UI.

Vaguely related: Earlier today I added code to add the rel=ugc to all links in forum topics and replies, in [9708]. This won't have much effect as they were already nofollow'd.