# What is BoardReader? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [August 2, 2007, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boardreader/414085 "2007-08-02T04:42:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2007, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boardreader/414085/1 "2007-08-02T04:42:51Z")
As I was cruising through Google looking at the various blog hits for “Bacon Salt” (don’t ask) I happened to notice that the SDMB posts on the subject came up on a website called “Board Reader.” [http://boardreader.com/t/Mundane\_Pointless\_Stuff\_I\_Must\_35101/Bacon\_Salt\_429516.html?o=60](http://boardreader.com/t/Mundane_Pointless_Stuff_I_Must_35101/Bacon_Salt_429516.html?o=60) Is this authorized? I thought the SDMB didn’t want to be google-able. ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2007, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boardreader/414085/2 "2007-08-02T06:46:10Z")
The stats on that site are pretty cool to, they have a lot of neat stats about both the members and the forums. I was reading the list of top posters and thinking, “Wow, these guys need a life,” then I saw who #10 was from last week. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2007, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boardreader/414085/3 "2007-08-02T13:35:04Z")
It appears we are being spidered by this search engine. I cannot say what management wants to do about this, though I do note they have attempted to block search engines in the past. I will refer this upstairs to management. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2007, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boardreader/414085/4 "2007-08-02T15:48:22Z")
My work here is done. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2007, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boardreader/414085/5 "2007-08-02T16:04:53Z")
[QUOTE=Fish] My work here is done. 🆒 [/QUOTE] [Ahem](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8818705&postcount=77) ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2007, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boardreader/414085/6 "2007-08-02T16:07:57Z")
[QUOTE=TubaDiva] It appears we are being spidered by this search engine. I cannot say what management wants to do about this, though I do note they have attempted to block search engines in the past. [/quote] This is news? I thought this was a “feature” that was welcomed, even encouraged, a few years past, back when most search engines did not start with “g”. Is there a downside? It seems that such a function, done at no cost to SDMB, would be a good thing. Tell me where I went wrong in my logic. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2007, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boardreader/414085/7 "2007-08-02T16:44:07Z")
I’m not a SDMB management guru, but at a guess: Spiders siphon away message board bandwidth by constantly crawling around, and they redirect viewer eyes away from the Google ads. Also, one of the benefits of SDMB paid membership is the ability to search the forums; this ability would be short-circuited by a free-loading off-site webcrawler service. ---
**Author:** ![spurdon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@spurdon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spurdon)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boardreader/414085/8 "2007-08-03T05:49:19Z")
Hello all. Thank you for your concerns and questions. BoardReader was approved to index [Straightdope.com](http://Straightdope.com)’s forums back in April 2002. Joe (not sure if he is still the admin here) talked with us at great lengths back then to make sure we indexed [Straightdope.com](http://Straightdope.com) in the least intrusive way. We continue to improve our indexing and hope users of Straightdope can benefit from what we do at [BoardReader.com](http://BoardReader.com) - connect online communities through search. ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boardreader/414085/9 "2007-08-03T07:04:42Z")
This thread: [SDMB Archived On Another Site](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=109034) Helped explain a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boardreader/414085/10 "2007-08-03T07:05:00Z")
[QUOTE=TubaDiva] It appears we are being spidered by this search engine. I cannot say what management wants to do about this, though I do note they have attempted to block search engines in the past. I will refer this upstairs to management. [/QUOTE] [Good luck with that](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=109034) (the first time this came up, in 2002, you did that twice with no (apparent) response) ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-boardreader/414085/11 "2007-08-03T07:05:45Z")
[QUOTE=Garfield226] [Good luck with that](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=109034) (the first time this came up, in 2002, you did that twice with no (apparent) response) [/QUOTE] Neener neener neener.