[snopercod]

I have complained to JR about the archives being minimally-searchable via google several times in the past, and always got the feeling that he just didn't want to talk about it.

It's possible that google.com initiated the cutoff themselves, but my conclusion was that Jim and John intentionally made the archives invisible to search engines for some reason that they didn't wish to disclose. The lawsuit, probably.

Google used to work amazingly well on FR - you could find anything at all, but all that quit abruptly in February, 2001 (or was it 2000?). There was a thread about it, but unless you remember the title, you can't find it. How ironic...

I am still somewhat miffed about the lack of searchability, since Ernest and I and several others went back and "tagged" thousands of threads on the California Energy Crisis with the keyword "calpowercrisis" so they could be located later. All that work is down the memory hole now.

The lack of searchability, and the balkanization of the forum were both fundamental changes in the nature of Free Republic. We've become more like a chatroom now, I'm afraid.

[backhoe]

I agree. The information available on this site could be invaluable to researchers and pundits if it were easier to locate.

[Quix]

I just know that

as a professor who loves to give educational exercises to students on MULTIPLE LEVELS

and who likes to tailor make handouts to relatives, friends and associates . . .

not having FR more searchable is a real pain in the kazoo.

I wonder if the benefits of not having it searchable are less or more than those of having it searchable and thereby making so much more of the info so much more widely distributed???