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Discussion: Private to Public to PrivateReported This is a featured thread

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Dan_Knorowski
Private to Public to Private
Nov 12 2009, 11:35 AM EST | Post edited: Nov 12 2009, 11:35 AM EST
Ok. Wetpaint has a problem with new invites accessing private sites.

A rhetorical question: Will Wetpaint prevent web crawler search sites from indexing our private sites? 1  out of 1 found this valuable. Do you?    
jeremy_wetpaint
jeremy_wetpaint
1. RE: Private to Public to Private
Nov 12 2009, 12:43 PM EST | Post edited: Nov 12 2009, 12:43 PM EST
"Ok. Wetpaint has a problem with new invites accessing private sites.

A rhetorical question: Will Wetpaint prevent web crawler search sites from indexing our private sites? "
The pages of a private site cannot be indexed by search engine bots. Do you find this valuable?    

Posted Anonymously
2. RE: Private to Public to Private
Nov 13 2009, 2:42 PM EST | Post edited: Nov 13 2009, 2:42 PM EST
"The pages of a private site cannot be indexed by search engine bots."
Your response is excellent; it clarified a lingering doubt I had about the security of the private site.

As a footnote, I take the site public for approximately 20 seconds giving the new member just enough time to log in. I restore the site to private status immediately after the login. :)
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Posted Anonymously
3. RE: Private to Public to Private
Jan 4 2010, 1:23 PM EST | Post edited: Jan 4 2010, 1:23 PM EST
"Wetpaint has a problem with new invites accessing private sites."

100% agreed. I just moments ago were cursing that. That I send invites and users can't join. Of course it worked when I made site public, but I don't want to make private content public. So there is clear problem with that. Do you find this valuable?    
Baby_Apple
Baby_Apple
4. RE: Private to Public to Private
Jan 4 2010, 7:30 PM EST | Post edited: Jan 4 2010, 7:30 PM EST
You cannot invite people to private sites anymore. Your only solution is to temporarily make your site public. Although this will allow search engine bots to index the pages of your Wiki (if they happen to visit your Wiki while it is public), your site will be closed to outsiders again as soon as you restore it to private. Do you find this valuable?    
Shadowclaw2008
Shadowclaw2008
5. RE: Private to Public to Private
Jan 4 2010, 8:48 PM EST | Post edited: Jan 4 2010, 8:48 PM EST
Why can't we invite people? >:( Do you find this valuable?    
Naru2008
Naru2008
6. RE: Private to Public to Private
Jan 4 2010, 9:45 PM EST | Post edited: Jan 4 2010, 9:45 PM EST
"Why can't we invite people? >:("
The reason Wetpaint got rid of it is because the people who make the ads couldn't get paid because they couldn't figure out how much traffic their ads got.

-Alex Do you find this valuable?    
CryingDove
CryingDove
7. RE: Private to Public to Private
Jan 4 2010, 9:52 PM EST | Post edited: Jan 4 2010, 10:54 PM EST
"The reason Wetpaint got rid of it is because the people who make the ads couldn't get paid because they couldn't figure out how much traffic their ads got.

-Alex"
Not quite true..The advertisers did not want to put their ads onto sites where they could not view the contents of that site. Can you imagine an ad for Gerber Baby Foods on a site that was a private site listing abortion clinics around the world? That is the reason for the private site advertising demise. The reason for removing the invites to private sites, is due to the amount of resources it takes to test and release features is double that of a public site. Wetpaint with resource cutbacks could no longer support that function with the resources it has. Do you find this valuable?    
Shadowclaw2008
Shadowclaw2008
8. RE: Private to Public to Private
Jan 4 2010, 9:56 PM EST | Post edited: Jan 4 2010, 9:56 PM EST
that somewhat makes sense. But I get it. Do you find this valuable?    

andrewtesting
9. RE: Private to Public to Private
Jan 25 2010, 5:34 PM EST | Post edited: Jan 25 2010, 5:34 PM EST
This is a really dumb move from a wiki administrator perspective. I use wetpaint for a college class wiki and now I have to make the site public for people to join? Bizarre. Do you find this valuable?    

Dan_Knorowski
10. RE: Private to Public to Private
Jan 26 2010, 3:34 PM EST | Post edited: Jan 26 2010, 3:34 PM EST
"This is a really dumb move from a wiki administrator perspective. I use wetpaint for a college class wiki and now I have to make the site public for people to join? Bizarre."
Bizarre? Yes, the site is still offered at no cost so we adapt. I have a limited number of new members to invite periodically so I will meet with them when I take the site public for a moment. Do you find this valuable?    

Posted Anonymously
11. RE: Private to Public to Private
Jan 26 2010, 4:15 PM EST | Post edited: Jan 26 2010, 4:15 PM EST
"Bizarre? Yes, the site is still offered at no cost so we adapt. I have a limited number of new members to invite periodically so I will meet with them when I take the site public for a moment."
It's never cool to remove features, especially when you provide a service that locks users in. I get the tradeoffs inherent in a free service, but this reeks of bait-and-switch.

But all that would be fine if there was some sort of useful error message when users of my private site try to sign up and can't. I had to spend about 30 minutes Googling just to figure out what the heck was going on. Do you find this valuable?    
CryingDove
CryingDove
12. RE: Private to Public to Private
Jan 26 2010, 4:36 PM EST | Post edited: Jan 26 2010, 4:39 PM EST
"Bizarre? Yes, the site is still offered at no cost so we adapt. I have a limited number of new members to invite periodically so I will meet with them when I take the site public for a moment."
Thank you Dan for the words "adapt" and "at no cost". Bizarre used in this context is seemingly mild. If one were to look deeper into the Ad-Free site offering changes that came about in Jul-Aug 2009 time frame, then the private site invites change that appeared shortly after it can be seen the changes moves more towards the truest meaning of Bizarre or Deliberate.

1rst Ad-Free sites and Educational free ad-free sites
$19.95 per month to have an ad-free site. Educators voiced their discontent about that cost and some have decided to move elsewhere. Understandable. But what they fail to realize, or is not observed is there are no banner ads (which seemed to be the most discussed ads of impropriety) on private sites. And most of the educational sites were opted to be private from site creation.

2nd Private Site Invites
The process of emails has always been a thorn for Wetpaint across the last 2 years. And today it still remains a thorn. Invites to private sites is the tip of the thorn. To solve any problem in that area requires a Wetpaint employee with credentials to visit the site or to work on the server side of the problem. In a round table discussion at WP, a proposal to drop Private sites entirely reared its head. A voice says: "Let's keep it alive but we will remove the invite process to private sites." Private to publc back to Private is the now.
Synopsis:
Private sites and ad-free sites are only entries in a database on WP servers. While other sites require the same type of entries, they do provide some revenue opportunities for WP.
More to come....
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CryingDove
CryingDove
13. RE: Private to Public to Private
Jan 26 2010, 4:37 PM EST | Post edited: Jan 26 2010, 4:37 PM EST
Cont'd

Conclusion:
Private and free ad-free sites have been pushed to the back-burner or even out the backdoor. And normal attrition rates will dwindle the number of existing ones to zero unless they adapt.

This is my personal point of view.



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