Blog Errors -- Long-term Effects?
Is there a way to change the error message one gets when trying to access a blog, article, etc.?
Sorry this is a long post. Starting with the present software conversion, blogs, articles, attachments, and some other things have had problems with searching and retrieval. That was understandable and hopefully just a local, short-term inconvenience. But, it is apparently not just local and may not be short term. As we know, Google forgets nothing. Early on, I searched Google for my username and 16F1519 to see what is showed for my blog on the subject. Yes, it showed the blog, but when clicking on the link, I got a simple error message:
Today, I repeated the test and clicked on the very same Google link, but got something entirely different. It went to an ETO page from 2002:
Moreover, when I clicked on another Google link to the same blog, a different error message is received:
I assume that many, maybe most members of ETO are aware of the software change and understand that such errors will eventually be resolved. But what about those who reach ETO from another source, such as Google? At any one time, we know that the majority of ETO viewers are not members. What proportion of blog and article hits come from search engines? I suspect that proportion is high after the first few weeks of posting. When ETO is fixed, will the Google errors remain?
Well, I know we can't change Google, but maybe ETO can change the error message it is sending out so that it will explain the site is undergoing rebuilding and the searched item may in fact exist and be found. After explaining that, I think adding simply, "Please check back in a week for the information you need. We apologize for the inconvenience," might help.
As a realist, however, I fear the bad links may remain forever bad. Does anyone have experience with that aspect?
John