[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #24501: Request Allow Search Engines to Index this Site Option Turned Off By Default for Developers

[WordPress Trac]

#24501: Request Allow Search Engines to Index this Site Option Turned Off By
Default for Developers
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 Reporter:  bftrick          |       Owner:
     Type:  enhancement      |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal           |   Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Upgrade/Install  |     Version:
 Severity:  minor            |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  has-patch        |
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Comment (by nacin):

 I don't know if WP_DEBUG is the right indicator here, unfortunately. It
 means "debug mode" but more broadly it means "show notices and other
 errors" — which, if configured with WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY and proper error
 logging, is perfectly acceptable in a production environment.

 Changing this checkbox based on a hidden algorithm is probably a bit
 jarring. If you set up test sites a lot (which plugin/theme developers
 likely do), unchecking the box is second nature. If you *don't* set up
 sites a lot, then unchecking the box isn't repetitively annoying.

 I think a production site not being crawled when it should be crawled is
 worse than a test site being crawled when it shouldn't be. (If you don't
 want it to be public, don't put it on the internet.) Changing this toggle
 could result in more sites not being crawled when they should be.

 I'd imagine a lot of theme/plugin developers set up local or VM sites for
 testing. One thing we *could* do is for 'localhost', just hide the
 checkbox entirely (and set blog_public to 0). Doesn't cover a lot of
 bases, but you'd never want 'localhost' to be crawled, obviously. Of
 course, it also has no effect — Google ain't gonna start crawling your
 local webserver.

 I'd think wontfix here.

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Ticket URL: <http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/24501#comment:3>
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