We have been receiving more annoying commercial calls on our Helix phone lately, despite being on the 'PA do not call list'. I attribute some of that to posting our number in the body of posts on forum sites. I have starting encrypting the numbers by mixing numerals and written numbers. I have no idea if that works in tricking bots from collecting our number but I do it. My question for you is: can commercial (or Google) bots read PMs on MA?
Bots, Google or others such as Bing, Badu, are blocked from certain areas of Motoring Alliance. One of these is the address /forums/private.php. In addition to access that area one has to be logged into the site with their own unique username and password. None of the robots have been given username/password access to the site. This alone would keep them from privileged areas. In addition there is a robots.txt file in place that provides directions to all robot to not visit certain areas. In addition, a site map is submitted to Google, Bing and other search engines on a daily basis with new and changed information. PM's are not included in these site maps. In short, it is not possible that the phone number is coming from a PM on Motoring Alliance. Thread has been moved to Site Feedback area.
Thanks! I didn't mean to imply that I thought that MA was causing our phone to be compromised: I was generally curious about how the interwebs worked and thought that you would know. That's why I put it in the General forum vs. feedback: there was no accusation implied, just curiosity. I have no way of knowing how our phone number has gotten on Sir Spam-a-lot's list, but I'm going to change how I post to avoid calls in the future. BTW, I have had some success in extended conversations utilizing Arnold Schwartzenegger sound boards with off shore phone bank operators. I put them on hold, pull up the ol' soundboard, and see how long I can keep the conversation going. How do you think I got soooooo rich:biggrin5:.
Robots .... ??? Those are Traffic Lights .... Come on Mate if you're gonna have a Mini better learn all the Brit :biggrin5: