Last modified: 2010-05-15 15:41:09 UTC
In DefaultSettings.php you should document this better: /** * Robot policies for namespaces * e.g. $wgNamespaceRobotPolicies = array( NS_TALK => 'noindex' ); */ $wgNamespaceRobotPolicies = array(); else one is hard pressed to figure out what other things one can use other than noindex. The array we can figure out from a nearby hint about Language.php, but not the choices other than noindex, nor their effects. Document them here or say what other .php file to see. Don't just hope the user will use a search engine or check around meta.mediawiki.org, as that makes getting this simple answer dependent on having a working and external network connection, even before production time (i.e., at mere examining and testing the software time). Wait, mention parts of http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Robots.txt like The only way to keep a URL out of Google's index is to let Google crawl the page and see a meta tag specifying robots="noindex". Although this meta tag is already present on the edit page HTML template, Google does not spider the edit pages (because they are forbidden by robots.txt) and therefore does not see the meta tag. Wait, SpecialPage.php already has $wgOut->setRobotPolicy( "noindex,nofollow" ); so users will wonder why tinkering with NS_SPECIAL is futile. (Should be noted in bug 8338.) OK, enough for one day.
I would expect that a user installing a piece of web server software and wishing to enable custom robot policies for specific namespaces ("meta tags") would either know what options are available, or else be able to research this.
Please be concise and to the point in bug reports, not chatty. If something occurs to you midway through writing the report, go back and amend it, don't add it on the end.
I added some comments in r18810
