Are vbulletin cloaking?

UPDATE: vBulletin aren’t cloaking - they simply set up DHTML menu’s in such a way that if a non-Javascript enabled browser accesses the forum, a non-DHTML menu is available to access.

However, a problem with this approach so far is that vBulletin’s are inadvertently feeding a range of duplicate content URLs to the Googlebot, even when the duplicating features in question are supposed to be disabled via the admin panel.

While surfing one of my vBulletin’s earlier today, I suddenly noticed a set of extra links were at the foot of the board pages.

At first it was simply confusing, then I became very worried that someone had somehow accessed admin permissions and had modified the template with admin options I had not specified.

Then I realised that what I could be seeing was a form of cloaking, apparently directed at the Googlebot useragent.

After offering free listings in the Platinax Directory, I had used the useragent swticher in Firefox to ensure that I could spot badly cloaked content - and I’d left this active while taking time out for forum admin duties.

I’ve previously raised concerned about how Invision Power Boards were hiding user-signatures from search engines, which has potential benefits for forum admins in preventing attribution for links to third-party sites.

However, the potentially cloaked vbulletin sections merely present a set of links which were previously hidden by javascript, and otherwise merely create duplicate copies of the page in question, which offers no advantage to webmasters.

Confusingly, these links are provided with a nofollow attribute in vBulletin 3.5.

I’ve taken up the issue with the vBulletin staff to find out what the actual conditions are for triggering the extra link block.

If sustained as an actual example of cloaking, I don’t believe it represents an issue in terms of webmaster guidelines being violated due to lack of benefits and intention.

However, it shouldn’t really be the case that purchased software display such redundant links to Google, and definitely needs chasing up/addressing.