restore default "checked" behavior of blog_public switch in install.php

[stevejohnson]

​http://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/10574/trunk/wp-admin/install.php Rev 10574 of install.php changed the default behavior of the 'Allow my blog to appear in search engines...' checkbox from checked to unchecked.

This has caused a lot of problems as evidenced in forum threads such as this one: ​http://www.warriorforum.com/main-internet-marketing-discussion-forum/114180-starting-new-selfhosted-wordpress-site-read.html at the Warrior Forum.

Repairing this is an easy fix that should be done in 2.8.5.

[westi]

(In [11832]) Restore the default behaviour on install of blogs appearing in search engines. Fixes #10621 for trunk.

[westi]

Re-open for 2.8.x branch

[westi]

[11833] fixes this for 2.8.x branch.

[hakre]

New setups should respect the users privacy. It is important that users make an active decision to allow robot access to their data. Just as an info regarding this patch which did the opposite. Reading a book about website basics might be insightfull, and twice-thinking before doing a submit because of a misleading comment.

I'm pretty much for reverting this and re-open it to gather some awareness.

[stevejohnson]

"New setups should respect the users privacy."

What privacy? There is no privacy on the web. You put up a website, WP or otherwise, you're expecting people to visit, to be able to find you. I haven't taken it upon myself to do a survey ( have you? ), but I seriously doubt the percentage of WP users who don't want their site to show up in search engines reaches the double digits.

"It is important that users make an active decision to allow robot access to their data."

Tell that to Google. And MSN. And Yahoo. Or any other search engine. Since the beginning, people have had to make an active decision NOT to allow access to their data.

This patch restored WP to expected/prior behavior. There was no discussion on the original change, nor any notes, leading me to believe it was inadvertent.

"Reading a book about website basics might be insightfull, and twice-thinking before doing a submit because of a misleading comment."

Don't presume to lecture me about website 'basics'. I thought more than twice about opening the ticket in the first place. If hiding an install from robots had been default behavior from the beginning, I would have gone about it in a different way.

I'm pretty much for leaving this as-is, with the original default behavior restored. If you think it ought to be something different, open another ticket that discusses why original behavior should be changed against user expectation, why new installs need a net-nanny, and why you think the discussions on this subject across the web are misleading. Maybe you'll gain some awareness as to what BLOGGERS want - which is, I guess not so obviously, to BLOG.

[westi]

Replying to hakre:

New setups should respect the users privacy. It is important that users make an active decision to allow robot access to their data. Just as an info regarding this patch which did the opposite. Reading a book about website basics might be insightfull, and twice-thinking before doing a submit because of a misleading comment.

I'm pretty much for reverting this and re-open it to gather some awareness.

This change fixed a bug which we introduced by accident and put the default back to what it was meant to be.