If you own or operate a forum on the web, you might want to take notice of a new spider that is crawling discussion boards exclusively. The purpose is to create the largest index of discussion boards on the web.
Here are the details of the spider:
Website: http://www.boardviewer.com (aka BoardViewer)
UserAgent: BoardViewer (ISSpider-3.0; http://www.boardviewer.com; compatible; MSIE 6.0)
IP/Host: 64-158-138-48.intelliseek.com (there may be more)
They have the normal Spider Policy jargon here. This spider is not listed in the robot registry -- and is probably not in your robots file for your log analyzers either. My logs suggest that the spider is non-obtrusive and crawls politely.
BoardViewer is a member of the Planetfeedback family of services. More aptly, BoardViewer is part of Intelliseek which specializes in unstructured data—information found in multiple formats and disparate sources. They are also the same group behind BlogPulse.
BoardViewer will continuously be growing their list of discussion boards. You can send them your favorite discussion boards via suggest@boardviewer.com so they can be sure they're included.
Website information suggests they will soon be offering a the BoardViewer Search Engine which will allow you to search a comprehensive collection of discussion boards.
Also, a message board registration page for Boardmasters (their term, not mine) will soon be available. Boardmasters will be able to register with them to receive periodic updates as they grow the BoardViewer service, as well as update their listing.
Join the discussion at The Forum Zone, a discussion board dedicated to forum owners.
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