SEO and site structure [split from: Is this forum dying?]

[Laird]

Page two: A blog-like static page titled something like your suggested “Why Psience Quest is a Unique Space for Exploring Mind, Psi, and Science”, making the case to potential members for joining our community.

Now live, with assistance once more from ChatGPT:

Why Psience Quest is a unique space for exploring mind, psi, and science.

Feedback welcome.

An important aspect of step two is the development of a MyBB plugin to support the insertion into threads of DiscussionForumPosting schema markup

I'm making good progress on this.

[Ninshub]

Hey Laird, 

I'm OK with what you propose.

Sorry I missed this thread. Usually PQ is always an open tab for me, but after a reset of my computer I forgot to turn it back on.

[Laird]

I'm making good progress on this.

Now completed, and Google seems to be happy with the results. For those interested or curious, you can see the new schema.org markup by searching in the HTML source of thread pages for "itemid", "itemprop", and "itemscope".

I tried to google the forum using some keywords but it didn’t appear anywhere near the top of the list. I sesrched for “spiritusl and philosophical discussion forum”.

[Laird]

Yep, we've still got a long way to go with SEO, and the changes I've just made won't affect our ranking immediately, because Google still has to crawl all of our pages again, but at least we're currently ranking fourth for parapsychology forum on Google.

[Laird]

After a lot of careful consideration, here's my final proposal: existing structure on left; proposed new structure on right. Given the thought I've put into it, I'm happy to explain and/or justify (and, in two cases, qualify) anything. Just let me know. In the absence of objection, I'll implement this in due course.

Now implemented.

I tweaked a few forum renamings after further consideration:

• "Psi forum (ESP, psychokinesis, remote viewing)" => "Psi research forum (ESP and psychokinesis)", because ESP already includes remote viewing, and "remote viewing" is in the forum's description already.
  
• "Ghost and poltergeist forum (apparitions, hauntings)" => "Ghost, poltergeist, and spirit forum", because including spirits accommodates topics like (demonic) possession and exorcism, which, along with "apparitions" and "hauntings" I've included in this forum's description.
  
• "Spirituality and science forum" => "Spirituality and magic forum: science and practice", because, in practice, threads on magic have been posted to this forum, and there's a synergy there.
  

I've also moved those threads that seemed to fit:

• From "Philosophical Discussions" (renamed to "Connected philosophy forum (free will, causality, metaphysics)") to the new "Philosophy of mind forum".
  
• From "Other Topics" (renamed to "General off-topic forum") to the new "Off-topic mainstream science forum".
  

@Sci, I invite you in particular (but anyone is welcome) to review those threads both moved from, and left in, the general ("Connected") philosophy forum to the new philosophy of mind forum and let me know if you think I've erred in any of my judgements.

I've also failed to identify any threads suitable for the new "Off-topic philosophy forum". It is probably redundant, and can be deleted, but I'll leave that decision open to feedback for now.

Other than adding and rewording forum descriptions, the other changes that I've made are:

• On the Roundo theme, categories in the sidebar on the main page are now clickable, and lead to a page which lists the category's description, along with a note below it to select a subforum from the sidebar to view threads. I'm hoping that this will help search engines recognise our forum structure and content.
  
• On the Roundo theme, changed the sidebar heading "Categories" to "Forums" (per @Max_B's earlier suggestion, which I had been slow to recognise as sound).
  

Suggestions for further fine-tuning of forum names and descriptions are welcome, as are suggestions for further SEO.

Yet to do is update the How to navigate creating threads about science and scientific controversies on PQ thread the contents of which are now a little out of kilter with the new forum structure.

One last time Skeptiko links on wiki are broken... and may look like keyword stuffing to google... for example any links under
Consciousness & Science forum threads: headings are dead.

[Laird]

One last time Skeptiko links on wiki are broken... and may look like keyword stuffing to google... for example any links under
Consciousness & Science forum threads: headings are dead.

Alright, Max: even though I'm not sure this is a problem, to satisfy your concerns I've blocked that page from indexing by adding an `X-Robots-Tag: noindex` HTTP header to it as recommended by Google. I've confirmed with the URL Inspection Tool in Google's Search Console that it's recognising the header. That page should no longer be indexed by Google (and most if not all other search engines).

@Sci, I invite you in particular (but anyone is welcome) to review those threads both moved from, and left in, the general ("Connected") philosophy forum to the new philosophy of mind forum and let me know if you think I've erred in any of my judgements.

Wouldn't "free will" and "causality" fit under "metaphysics" and/or "ontology"?

I think it might be better to have a tag line such as "metaphysics, ontology, theology, ethics"?

This would also give a better place for discussions such as ethics of eating meat which I think otherwise might get put in the "Other Philosophy" forum.

I'm also not sure we need that extra forum if we re-label the tag for Connected Philosophy? 

Anyway, just my thoughts...

[Laird]

I like your suggestions, @Sci. I had had the thought myself that "free will" and "causality" fit under "metaphysics", but had put it to the back of my mind. You're right though: the tags "metaphysics, ontology, theology, ethics" make more sense, and by including ethics we wouldn't then have any need at all for the new "Off-topic philosophy" forum. (And I do think that ethics qualify as philosophically "connected" with core PQ subject matter: NDEs, for example, often lead to life and character changes entangled with or inspired by moral wisdom; I seem to remember that some NDErs have changed their diets accordingly).

The only complicating issue (which I think we can ignore) is that ontology is also an aspect of the philosophy of mind forum, as noted in its current description: "For discussions and debates about the merits of the different ontologies and metaphysical positions on the mind-body problem." I wrote it that way because a position on the mind-body problem often if not always entails some sort of ontological position, e.g., idealism, pansychism, or physicalism. I say that I think we can ignore this because there's more to ontology than is entangled with positions on the mind-body problem, and which can fit in the general ("Connected") philosophy forum with the new tagline you suggest.