Bryn mentioned to me that Crush told her that ATHQ is scoring high on the list of Google results for "Bismarck World Pass" or some combination of those words. I tried this out and indeed we are the 4th result.

Trying a broader search, I input FFXI world pass. To my amazement we are result #10. This is pretty unexpected, I had no idea that this site would generate enough hits to rank that high.

As Crush surmised, this is most likely the source of all the random people coming in and asking for World Passes. I am working on what can be done with this information, I just wanted everyone aware.

Well, that explains almost everything then.

I suggest we do a clean sweep earlier then, now since we know what the problem is.

What do you mean by "clean sweep"? I don't understand you here.

google cannot google if there is nothing left to google.

As in purge the entire contents of this board?

Oh my...I just tried it ("FFXI world pass") and this is what I saw...

QUOTE

... Edit: if you want to be included in our world pass endevors please make sure you have posted on the FFXI AIM thread and have included your AIM screen name or ...

This does not look good and we might have to restrict the form to registered only....that might be the only way to restrict the search engine from seeing it.

This, however, will not solve new users from being created and then requesting. We might have to wait for a user to be approved before posting?

Make a welcome topic or some sorts that the new users can only post in to tell about themselves to get approval?

QUOTE (DarkEpyon @ Nov 18 2003, 07:35 PM)

As in purge the entire contents of this board?

I think we could "restrict" the contents...sure google will cache the information...so we are screwed either way. I think a restriction on who can view the topics...as in guests that have not registered...would maybe help.

I would hate to "purge" any posts on the boards. Having the hosting problem earlier was bad enough...I think the posts should all stay in one piece.

Couldn't we fix it by moving the WP request topic to Operations?

*lost*

QUOTE (Rogue @ Nov 18 2003, 08:09 PM)

Couldn't we fix it by moving the WP request topic to Operations? *lost*

Well, then other users of the board will not be able to post or see it. We are screwed either way we look at it... *sigh*

holy sh*t

that is truly nuts... something has to be done im thinking?

um.. yeah.

i am moving the WP request topic to Operations. anyone who needs a WP at this point knows the channels to go through.