[HN Gopher] Instructions around the usage of meta robot tags and...
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       Instructions around the usage of meta robot tags and robots.txt
       files
        
       Author : volgo
       Score  : 97 points
       Date   : 2021-04-14 14:42 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | mimsee wrote:
       | Why are they banning the methods instead of saying how the
       | pricing should be displayed. E.g. why say you cannot have
       | "noindex" instead of saying "the pricing information needs to be
       | in plain-text, human-readable, accessible, indexable..." and so
       | on.
        
         | toomuchtodo wrote:
         | Why not both?
        
           | mimsee wrote:
           | Because wouldn't they have to keep adding new techniques to
           | the list continuously when in the other case they can say in
           | what format the content needs to be available in.
        
             | [deleted]
        
         | lmkg wrote:
         | They are doing that as well. They are posting general
         | requirements, as well as providing details on specific
         | situations. From the main project @
         | https://github.com/CMSgov/price-transparency-guide
         | 
         | Section: Overview
         | 
         | > _All machine-readable files must [...] made available to the
         | public without restrictions that would impede the re-use of
         | that information._
         | 
         | Section: Public Discoverability
         | 
         | > _These machine-readable files post made available to the
         | public without restrictions that would impede the re-use of
         | that information._
        
         | rmah wrote:
         | They do both. As well as provide a description of the
         | regulation's goals, context and examples. This is how
         | regulation works. It typically starts with a rather vague law,
         | then the regulatory agencies make up general rules to implement
         | said law. Then they create a bunch of more detailed rules. Then
         | as times change, they amend those rules. You can even ask them
         | about novel situations and get a (non-binding) "opinion" from
         | government agency. In my experience, the federal gov regulatory
         | apparatus is not as inept as most people seem to think.
        
         | dillondoyle wrote:
         | Better yet in a database with consistent schema
        
         | SllX wrote:
         | That's a good way to write a law but regulations are guidance
         | under which the regulator won't come after you when it
         | considers law enforcement action i.e. the law enforcement
         | agency's interpretation of the law and your obligations under
         | it. They can afford to get into the nitty gritty, and it can
         | even be beneficial for them to do so for all involved.
         | 
         | This way lawyers don't have to divine from the law that noindex
         | and nofollow tags might invite enforcement action, if they have
         | even heard of them before, they can read the regs, and advise
         | their companies and clients properly.
        
       | MattGaiser wrote:
       | At least they are keeping up with current technical tricks.
        
       | rbinv wrote:
       | Nice. They should probably add HTTP headers (X-Robots-Tag) to the
       | list. Cloaking, too.
        
         | charrondev wrote:
         | If you check the main read me proprietary formats are
         | specifically not allowed, with notable examples of PDF, and
         | excel
        
         | walshemj wrote:
         | And ban the use of PDF's - which is another way this could be
         | avoided.
         | 
         | Oh and mandate clean links no funky javascipt links that search
         | crawlers don't follow.
        
           | bawolff wrote:
           | Search engines can index pdfs.
        
             | dvfjsdhgfv wrote:
             | Provided the content is not encrypted.
        
           | lmkg wrote:
           | Per the main project link, the pricing information required
           | to be posted in JSON format with specific schema and file
           | names.
        
             | breischl wrote:
             | JSON is allowed, but not required. They just required open,
             | non-proprietary, formats. They specifically gave YAML and
             | XML as other examples.
        
       | cosmotic wrote:
       | They should retroactively penalize hospitals for trying to hide
       | this information as it is clearly against the spirit of the law.
        
         | colejohnson66 wrote:
         | The US Constitution prohibits "ex post facto" laws. You can
         | punish someone for something that wasn't a crime when they did
         | it.
        
       | ninetax wrote:
       | Typo in headline?
        
         | TuringTest wrote:
         | Nope, they're artistic regulators
        
         | ajarmst wrote:
         | My brain initially parsed "meta robot" as "megarobot" and I was
         | really excited until I got to the last part of the sentence.
        
         | dang wrote:
         | We've changed the title from "Regulartors ban hospitals from
         | using "noindex, nofollow" on pricing pages" to what the page
         | says.
         | 
         | Submitters: If you want to say what you think is important
         | about an article, that's fine, but do it by adding a comment to
         | the thread. Then your view will be on a level playing field
         | with everyone else's:
         | https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...
        
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       (page generated 2021-04-14 23:01 UTC)