UNsearchable Galleries Being Searched

BigRed

PROBLEM: Search is failing to be blocked for folders/galleries with settings "Web Searchable" and "SmugMug Searchable" = NO.

STATUS: I'm not sure when this changed, but I only noticed it a couple of weeks ago. It has been reported to the helpdesk, they confirmed it, and they have referred it to the QA team. I just wanted to alert other users who might be affected.

BACKGROUND: Most of my site is searchable but I have a section that I want to exclude. That branch was originally set up with a NO-searchable Public top folder (since I want everything in the branch to be visible via my navigation), and all sub-folders & sub-galleries inherited those settings. Worked perfectly, until recently. Remembering that folder/gallery Visibility (Public/Unlisted/Private) inheritance had been modified in November (see this), at first I wondered if Searchability inheritance might have been accidentally affected. But I checked every sub-folder and gallery and confirmed that all Searchability toggles were still off, before I reported the issue to the Helpdesk (who also suspected that change).

leftquark

I'm diving in a little more into this, so I can make sure I fully understand the situation. I pulled up your Help Desk ticket and am looking at the specific galleries / photos you've mentioned.

The photos are hidden from the smugmug.com/search results, but do appear when doing a search from your own site. I'm first trying to understand if this is intended and if so, understand the decision making behind that. I'll report back when I know more.

BigRed

@leftquark said:

I'm diving in a little more into this, so I can make sure I fully understand the situation. I pulled up your Help Desk ticket and am looking at the specific galleries / photos you've mentioned.

The photos are hidden from the smugmug.com/search results, but do appear when doing a search from your own site. I'm first trying to understand if this is intended and if so, understand the decision making behind that. I'll report back when I know more.

A year later, and I'd appreciate an update. This behavior continues. It appears that the "Smugmug Searchable" gallery setting toggle no longer controls searches within our sites (only searches from the smugmug.com pages). How/why did this change, and can it be fixed, please?
(BTW, I just tried toggling that gallery setting for one of my galleries on and off, but which had no effect.)

leftquark

I don't believe the behavior had / has changed, and our help page related to those settings hasn't been rewritten since then; it mentions that even with the setting at NO, your photos will still return on searches within your site (https://help.smugmug.com/make-my-website-completely-private-BJsgPkNrM):

No: Other SmugMug pages will pretend they don't know you. But on your SmugMug pages, visitors will be able to use the search box, keywords, etc., to find your photos (like they can in option two, above).

With that said, I'm talking with the team to see if we feel that is the expected behavior with that setting. It feels a little odd to me, however, the "LOCK DOWN" feature is what you're looking for (none of your visitors can search your galleries and have them returned). Interestingly, that feature is only available in your Site Wide SEttings (Account Settings) and not on a gallery-by-gallery basis.

Long story short, there's still some things that feel odd to me here.

BigRed

@leftquark said:
[SNIP]
With that said, I'm talking with the team to see if we feel that is the expected behavior with that setting.
... Long story short, there's still some things that feel odd to me here.

Has this puzzle been solved yet? I now understand that I was mistaken (as were some heroes) about how the "Smugmug Searchable" gallery setting works, and it is indeed odd. I agree that adding "Lock Down" as an additional option there would solve this issue. As a (hopefully temporary) workaround, I have made all of my "do not search" galleries Unlisted.

Thanks.