On Fri, 14 Feb 2003 21:46:59 -0500, Tom Miles <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Can Listserv archives be searched by Google or other search engines? If
>not can they be made to be searched by these search engines?

Difficult.  Because the archives pages are dynamically served and do not
exist as a static page of the type that can be indexed in web search
engines.  The list archives 'main' page
http://server/cgi-bin/archives/listname.html  is a static page and you
might be able to edit the template that produces this page to include the
kind of keywords in HTTP <meta name="keyword"> tags that the search engines
look for.  You can't just edit the page as this page is re-created every 24
hrs or everytime a new message is posted to the list.  I dunno if this
template can be edited in Listserv-Lite however.

Checking further, this template is not available through the WWW interface
to LISTSERV-Lite.  It can be edited, but only by manually editing the
default.mailtpl file by hand. (need login privs on the machine to do this).
Also the default.mailtpl file defines templates applicable to all lists on
the server.  List-specfic templates (listname.mailtpl) are not available in
LISTSERV-Lite.  This will take some creative template work with conditional
blocks to apply the right keywords to the right lists.

The template in question is
>>> WWW_INDEX HTML for main list archive screen (listname.html)
Note that the default.mailtpl file is a system file subject to be
overwritten in future updates to LISTSERV.  So be sure to save a copy of
any changes you make, and be prepared to re-do them after an update.