I have to admit to vanity here - I put my book title into Google to see whether my own website would come up. The fourth link displayed was a direct link to a chapter I posted on WW - even though it is set to be viewed by 'Only me'.

Does this mean that anyone could access the work if they type in the title (perhaps while looking for something else)? I used the 'Only me' option because I wanted to keep the comments, but I don't like the idea of random people being able to stumble across it on the web.

Caro, could they actually read it, though, if they clicked on the link? To check, log yourself out of WW, then go to the link in Google and click on it. If the WW site won't let you look at it without logging in, then it won't let anyone else in either.

Emma

Is this The Non-Descripts, Caro? I googled it and couldn’t see any link to it, so it might be that Emma is right. However, I thought that if it’s set for anything other than ‘can be viewed by ‘Everyone (Visible on the Internet to non-members)’ it shouldn’t be picked up by the search engines and therefore you shouldn’t have been able to see it. Apparently there is a timelag of several weeks if you change the setting (and it’s not something WW has any control over) so have you recently changed it from Everyone to Only Me?

Or have I got the wrong title?

Dee

The title is Kill-Grief, which I haven't done anything with for ages (can't remember when I set it to 'Only me', but I think it was last year). Before that, it was set to 'WW members only,' so still shouldn't have been on the web. I've just tried logging out and I can still access it - though if anyone else could have a go too, that would be helpful, as there could be a cached page on my computer or something.

I have now just put a bit of placeholder text in, as it's only the crits I need to keep.

Caro

Yes, I can see it now, and go straight to the WW page. If it's definitely set for your eyes only, I think you should ask David to look into it. There might be a glitch in the system.

Dee

Thanks, Dee - I'll get in touch with David.

Dee, did that happen even when you logged out? You'd automatically get in if like me you stay logged in all the time.

Emma

No, I didn’t log out, but Caro has it set so only she can see it, which means the search engines shouldn’t pick it up at all.

Dee

I'm very sorry about this - I think this bug crept in during some recent editing of the site code. It's been corrected now so any piece set to only me shouldn't be viewable by anyone other than the author. Please check and let me know if it looks ok.

Yes - it's fine now - it asks people to log in. Many thanks for sorting it out.

C

Hello there. I thought I should mention that when I typed in the name of my novel title google found Lammi's bookmark page (I wasn't logged into WriteWords at the time). You couldn't click through to read it but...