I've got more than one site that uses go.php to cloak off-site links. (Ok, I know some of you think that's not cool, but ...) I have a forbid in robots.txt but the digital point spider seems to ignore it. Why? There's no way I can put links on somebody else's site. I stuck the links in go.php and it validated (for the moment) but that's total nonsense. This particular site has a weight well over 3000 and it seems kind of silly to dump it off the system because of something I can't fix. Eventually this is going to happen on other sites of mine, as well as other people who use any kind of cloaking on off-site links. I've already put the ad network code in affiliate cloaked redirect pages (that no-one ever sees) because the spider insisted - at least that was on-site and I could do it. This latest silliness is out of control. Is there no way you can make sure the spider will follow the rules in robots.txt? I like the co-op and I think it works, but there are limits to how much totally pointless work I'm willing or able to do. HdBiker
Cloaking violates the TOS. Use common sense, don't do things like: Automatically generate pages of content just to have them. Design pages for endusers, not search engines. Cloaking Hiding ads (using layers, text color, font size or anything else along those lines). Ads need to be clearly visible to the end user. Shannon
I don't recall seeing that 'cloaking' off -site links violated the TOS - if so, fine, my problem. I'll check. My issue is that the spider is not following the rules, either. If that's the case, then let's stop kidding around. It's all a crock. Your assumptions about what I'm doing and why are simply that -- assumptions. I think having to put the code into files that redirect to affiliate sites ( so the commisssions don't get stolen ) - which never ever get seen by a human, is absurd. And, yes, my site has some generated pages. If that's against the TOS then you better take a real good look at about 75 t0 90% of the pages in the digitalpoint network. I think you have misinterpreted what I'm talking about here and taken a dubious position on the supposed high moral ground. The pages I "generate" are carefully designed to be useful to my visitors. I don't hide ads or do rollover redirects or do page cloaking/stuffing. It's all out there for SE or human. Put a check on your arrogance and explain - in detail - why you believe you are better than me. HdBiker