[snopercod]

I never requested that they not index our archives.

Thanks for that information, Jim. While we are on the subject, did google ever approach you and ask for money for their services? Not that it's any of my business, you understand...

I noted long ago that Washington (com)Post is a paying google customer, so there has always been a question in my mind whether they applied some pressure on google to limit hits on your forum.

But of course the problem could have nothing to do with google and instead be related to the way the FR database is set up - John was making a lot of changes back then to deal with the increasing traffic FR was getting. There are many websites that are just unsearchable - the official California State website, for instance.

Regardless, I just want to impress upon you that the ability to go back through the archives and dig out what some liberal said two years ago was one of the great things about your forum. I miss it terribly.

[tpaine]

Regardless, I just want to impress upon you that the ability to go back through the archives and dig out what some liberal said two years ago was one of the great things about your forum. I miss it terribly.
648 -SCod-

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Yes. Isn't it a mystery why so many threads have vanished.. Darn liberal hackers..

[Jim Robinson]

As far as I know I've never had any communications at all with Google. If they sent me an email solicitation, it probably ended up in the recycle bin along with the hundreds of other unread spam email messages I receive daily.

And yes, we have made many changes to our filing systems over the years. And there was a period of several months while we were transferring from one system to another and changing the software from flat file to database while we were at it, that the archives were inaccessible to all, including the search engines. Some of the search engines may have dropped their indexing of our inaccessible files during that period, but I have no way of knowing for certain. All I can say is, I never requested that anyone drop their indexing of our files.