📈 Similar Worlds #️⃣ pages Indexed, UP 3x since Group Consolidation 🚀
The number of webpages from Similar Worlds being indexed by Google [i](which will resultingly translate to other Search Engines)[/i], has [b]increased by Threefold (x3) since our release of Group Consolidation[/b], / Restructuring, which was done on [u]July 23rd, 2021[/u]. [i](Initial improvement changes were started in the prior month of June.)[/i]
This will lead to future growth on SW, in the coming months and years ahead.
📈 [b]More Pages Indexed = More Visitors = More Signups & Growth[/b] 🚀
[c=666666][i](Corrected chart labelling)[/i][/c]
This is as we have strategized, which is that these recent changes will improve the overall "Site Quality", Relevance and Organization, over time.
The real benefits to users, will be more visible once we have implemented the planned significant improvements to our "Relevance Algorithms", which will provide more relevant:
While we understand that many users will not be happy with many of our decisions made in improving/adjusting the way how this site works and operates,
we (SW Staff) DO definitely always consider user feedback, very strongly, in every decision we make.
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Please note that a "Majority Vote" on a public poll (for example) will not always be indicative of the path we have decided to take on a decision, (especially for years old feedback polls, where many factors would have since changed).
There will always be a lot of crucial data that is only available to SW Staff (just as with any other website/service), that also factors heavily in the final decisions we make.
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We continue to look forward to incoming growth for SW, in the coming months. 👍
Many of our recent and in-development changes to this site, are being done, in part, to allow and facilitate such user growth, as well as to provide a higher quality experience to all of our users, in the long-term.
Thanks for your continued feedback, support and patience! 🙂
Kind regards, -SW Staff
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[big]Would users prefer [u]3 Modes of Post Visibility[/u]?[/big]
1) [big]Public[/big] = Maximum reach of your shared content
2) [big]Limited[/big] = Reduced reach, limited to Friends/Circle + Relevant Users [i](Cannot be Seen/Indexed by Google/Crawlers)[/i]
3) [big]Private[/big] = Friends-Only [i](Cannot be Seen/Indexed by Google/Crawlers)[/i]
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We will also soon release the (already planned): [big]Edit Post Visibility[/big] feature.
[u]Which will allow users to:[/u] • Turn Public posts into Private (Friends/Circle Only), but • NOT the reverse (Private => Public) (for privacy reasons of those who may have engaged in the post)
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[u][i]Please note:[/i][/u]
a) We actually have never had functionality / settings to fully hide Posts from Search Engines/Public. There was in the past some "Truncated Preview" of logged-out posts long ago, but this never provided any actual additional privacy in terms of finding the posts and profiles of users. Any logged out user that found the Preview could just create an account to read the full post.
Any change to old "Post Preview" structure, was done very long ago (+1 year maybe?), and we did not think adjusting this would be considered consequential to users, as at most, that would be a "False sense of security", if one felt that Truncating content prevented people from finding it.
b) [b]We have actually INCREASED users ability to Privacy[/b], far more than it has ever been since the start of SW, by the [b]addition of the "Friends/Circle Only"[/b] (private post) feature.
Before the existence of this feature, no active post was truly "Private", to users, nor Search Engines.
c) Anything shared to a "Public Content Website", is actually "Public", including to Search Engines, Robots/Crawlers, and any random "John Doe" person who happens by that content. We are NOT showing Google preferentially more of your content/data, than can already be seen my any other user, or even visitors crossing by this site.
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[b]We are Currently Working on these mentioned features[/b] (and may be able to release these changes today), which may be able to fulfill what it seems users are asking for, in terms of Privacy, hiding content away from the Public / Crawlers / Bots.
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SW-User
@Andrew I don’t have an issue with privacy…it’s a public forum on the internet - it’s not a new thing I’m not sure why everyone seems to be just finding out about google this week 🤷🏻♀️ But this seems to solve that problem for the users that do need to feel a level of privacy. I think this is a good solution
@Andrew I already have mine set for private but now I don’t actually care anymore , however I would suggest making a limited amount of times you can click on a user’s profile if they aren’t members.
@Andrew This makes sense for those who want to feel a level of control on their privacy settings.
Users should always remember that whatever is posted on the internet is on the internet in some way or another. We should all keep that in mind when sharing identifiable information.
@SW-User me too and that would already be ideal for other suggestions too. But when relating to privacy this stuff needs to be explained specifically 😅
@Andrew More details on this limited and public options please. Is "public" the same as "limited", just crawlable? If there are more differences, why not an option for "public" ("maximum reach") with just crawling disabled?
[quote]@Keepitsimple Where did I sign off on that or what did I not click.[/quote]
Please read what Andrew just said:
[quote]Anything shared to a "Public Content Website", is actually "Public", including to Search Engines, Robots/Crawlers, and any random "John Doe" person who happens by that content. We are NOT showing Google preferentially more of your content/data, than can already be seen my any other user, or even visitors crossing by this site.[/quote]
@adorbz [b]"Relevant Users"[/b] = Users you frequently interact with [i](mostly positive interactions)[/i], who may not be on your Friends/Circle list.
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@PirateMonkeyCabinet Crawlers access and Navigate through websites, in the same way Regular/Default users do.
It would be Manipulation / Obscuring of what the site actually is/contains, by intently showing Crawlers different content to what is available to regular users.
@Keepitsimple Please read what Andrew said on the Reply above:
[quote]We are Currently Working on these mentioned features (and may be able to release these changes today), which may be able to fulfill what it seems users are asking for, in terms of Privacy, hiding content away from the Public / Crawlers / Bots.[/quote]
@Andrew So basically anyone who wants to prevent their content being crawled are effectively not properly welcome on the main feed anymore?
You could have had an option to hide all of a users content from those who aren't logged in, No-indexed the main feed, as well as the user profiles and posts of those who have selected an option to prevent their content being indexable. Crawlers would still be able to crawl through the peoples list and find the content of users having this option turned off.
Also, these privacy options are something you should have implemented BEFORE you made the push to increase search engine visibility, not after.
@PirateMonkeyCabinet hiding only to logged out users is not *that* useful, they’d only need to make an account. If I am posting something sensitive, I would want it hidden from googlers and spam accounts I don’t interact with, there’s not much point differentiating them for this purpose
@Andrew How about an option to select certain users to have access to a particular post. The "Friends" selection is sometimes too broad.
Or even better would be the ability to create "Groups." Perhaps allow each user to create five separate Groups in addition to Friends.
Also, if you are going to use "Relevant Users" to view the posts of and allow viewing to, you should have a feature that shows each user the usernames of those users the system counts as relevant to that user.
