Even if its true that you *need* Google for this purpose, its nowhere near important enough a function to effectively argue against turning on noindex for non-article/portal pages. Of the number of people using searches on Google that might turn up a DRV, AfD, user page, etc. with damaging information - few of them are going to be Wikipedians searching for dirt or dish on other Wikipedians.
The purpose of Wikipedia isn't to be available to historians researching its creation, or to various editors looking for meta-details - its to be an encyclopedia, for the public, with useful information. Having damaging information available on real people thats relevant only inside Wikipedia doesn't serve that purpose, so making it unsearchable outside Wikipedia is completely sensible.
Nathan
On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 4:21 PM, WJhonson@aol.com wrote:
You know perfectly well (I think) that that is not to what I refer. I'm not looking for the user's page, but rather the user, wherever they appear.
If there is an allusion to so-and-so getting into a nasty fight with such-and-such, I need to look for the two of them together to see what it's about. It's not perfectly likely that that fight appeared on either user or user talk pages of *them* but it may appear on the talk page of somebody else.
Historians need to preserve the ability to biograph the historians themselves. That is part of the history of Wikipedia. We are not just a series of articles, but rather individuals and some of those individuals create intriguing historians of their own. Noindexing user talk pages effectively wipes the ability to learn whatever-can-be-known about the people who create Wikipedia.
Will Johnson