Restrictions on things I can and can't view are weird in light of Google indexing

[SweetPotato]

I'd really like to browse content by tag but every time I try it says it's not available to me.  This sort of parallels the fact that on the old site I couldn't search even logged in, which annoyed me then too but I got around pretty easily by using Google and telling it to only look at this site.  I'm not entirely sure why these restrictions are in place, and if so where they're stated.  I'm not trying to get people in trouble, I'm just looking for content for a kink I share with a lot of other people.  And honestly I would probably post more on this site if I was able to easily find things I liked while being logged in.

[Joal 555]

Hi SweetPotato

Thanks for your post. The way that the forum works has evolved over a number of years and it is felt by both previous and current staff members that the present situation is the best balance between encouraging new members and making sure that the forum is a safe environment for the entire membership.

As a result, certain features (including the search function) are only available once member's accounts are fully validated. Details of our validation system can be found in How do I get validated? and that should provide you with all the details you need to progress your membership to the next level.

I hope that answers your question!

Joal

[SweetPotato]

No, frankly, it doesn't.  I've already seen the information on how to get validated.  That still doesn't answer the question of why that feature's not available to logged in people but fully replicable by Google indexing.

[Dusty15]

I cannot speak for the staff that put the rule in place originally, because the search function coming with validation has been a long-standing thing that happened long before my time here on staff, but I can take a guess that the reason for the restriction is to prevent new members from bumping up a ton of old threads. I think if we didn't have the restriction, new members would search for their niche interests and fandoms right away and we'd get constant waves of all the Supernatural stories popping to the top of the story forum when a new member who liked that fandom joined. It's easy to get carried away when you're new and eager. So I imagine that's a lot of the rationalization for why it is restricted to Validated members only. I understand that it's frustrating, but that's just the way we've got it set up and it's been working well for many years.