1 Reply by AlexanderS

(3 replies, posted in PunBB 1.2 troubleshooting)

Slavok wrote:

Comment the line with function set_magic_quotes_runtime() in the "<FORUM_ROOT>/include/common.php".

Hey Slavok,

I did the same thing. I updated xampp to PHP 5.3* and had the same errors. You're fix, fixed it!

I discovered 2 other scripts I use which won't work in PHP 5.3* on my test server, and am working on those. My host will be updating later this year and I want to cover all the bases before it happens.

I'm using PunBB 1.2.22,  but due to rewrites (I think) I can only view the index page on my test server. Do you know of any other incompatibilities I may encounter when my host upgrades to PHP 5.3* from 5.2*?

Thanks.

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2 Reply by AlexanderS

(3 replies, posted in PunBB 1.2 modifications, plugins and integrations)

Oh, and the same applies to my request on multiple pages. Page 2 of a topic is all new content, and should also have the title keywords in the URL, only with the page number added on to eliminate duplicates.

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3 Reply by AlexanderS

(3 replies, posted in PunBB 1.2 modifications, plugins and integrations)

qie wrote:

it's useless for SEO.

Hi qie:

You really should research that further. Matt Cutts has noted the advantage to having the title keywords in the URL, and I've seen testing between identical pages (one URL with keywords, and one without) where the SEO friendly URL ranks higher.

Just that fact that URL keywords are highlighted in search results should be enough to verify the significance.

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4 Reply by AlexanderS

(18 replies, posted in PunBB 1.2 modifications, plugins and integrations)

Connorhd wrote:

btw google is fine with punbb urls its ones with session ids it doesn't like

looks good though i don't think anyone has tried to include the topic name in the url yet, you've missed a few things though, the links on each post with the post id, and what about post.php and search.php and stuff

You don't need keywords in the post URLs because post URLs are the same page as the topic URLs -- only positioned at the post. You're best bet is putting only the SEO friendly topic URLs (with PunRewrite installed) in your sitemap.xml. This way the search engines know the preferred URL for that page. The way they see it, the post URLs are duplicates of the topic URLs.

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5 Topic by AlexanderS

(3 replies, posted in PunBB 1.2 modifications, plugins and integrations)

Hello,

Can anyone help me (or know of someone how can) tweak the PunRewrite mod on 1.2.21

The PunRewrite mod adds forum names and topic subjects to the URLs, but only works on the first pages (I know, 1.3* does it without a mod, but I have too much into the customization of my 1.2.21). I've already added the page numbers to the multipage viewforum (list of topics) and viewtopic (list of posts) Titles and H1 tags (avoids duplicates), but I need the the forum names (with page number) and topic subjects (with page number) in the URLs of pages 2,3,4... also (Optimum SEO).

Not sure, but it may only involve correcting the mulitpage navigation links.

I'm very willing to pay a fee for the service.

Please let me know what you think!

Thank you,

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6 Topic by AlexanderS

(1 replies, posted in PunBB 1.2 discussion)

I'm interested in paying someone to do a small mod on my version 1.2*.

I just want to include the page number in viewtopics and viewforums titles, like in 1.3*. Otherwise you get duplicate title messages from Google on every page.

I don't think it's a big job?

Let me know.

Thank you.

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7 Reply by AlexanderS

(9 replies, posted in PunBB 1.2 modifications, plugins and integrations)

MattF wrote:
AlexanderS wrote:

The only thing I don't have perfect is valid HTML. I've done some funky stuff that comes up as invalid on W3C, but it's all cross-browser friendly. I've read that it's kind of irrelvant as long as the bots can read the text and tags. Also, the biggest sites, including Google, have more errors than mine.

Is it possible to post the link to your site? (Or e-mail it direct to me if not?) Very few things other than IE specific code or suchlike are irrepairable. smile Source code validity is something worthwhile working towards, if possible. It has benefits in just about all areas. smile

I know what you mean with the likes of Google and such. It wouldn't be so bad but most of those widgets and such they do either don't work or screw your page validity up too. big_smile Hardly a shining example for standards.


AlexanderS wrote:

Let me ask you something that I just noticed. When you're at say a Topic, and log in to post a reply, my Punbb 1.2* redirects to the index page. That's not happening here, it brings you back to where you were. Is there a fix for that, or is it just an upgrade on 1.3*?

It was a feature added in 1.3. The previous page you visited is stored in the DB, and the redirects use that value instead of just redirecting back to the index and suchlike.


I PMed you my site. Check it out. The thing is that I'm no coder, and it's seems more important for me to get my data installed (it's a drawn out process) at this time so I can get some traffic.

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8 Reply by AlexanderS

(9 replies, posted in PunBB 1.2 modifications, plugins and integrations)

MattF wrote:

Aye, that pretty much sums up the general gist of things. smile Provide them with good links as hints, i.e: the sitemap, but leave the classification and general decisions on what to include to their indexing bots.

The only time I've ever redirected or blocked content is when I'm specifically wanting them to view a different version of a page, (printable version over full version, etc.), or when it's a section or portion of the site which they have no need to access. Providing good quality metadata information, useful titles, good quality, valid (x)html and suchlike seems to have far more effect than the likes of worrying about duplicate content or trying to provide fancy URL schemes and suchlike. The indexing bots have had plenty of time to become well adapted to their job by now. big_smile


Yeah, I'm putting SEO at the top of my list and have everything in pretty good shape. I'm only disallowing irrelevant files and directories. They say you don't want the bots wasting thier time crawling irrelevant files, and I've seen first hand that Yahoo will index stuff like CSS files.

The only thing I don't have perfect is valid HTML. I've done some funky stuff that comes up as invalid on W3C, but it's all cross-browser friendly. I've read that it's kind of irrelvant as long as the bots can read the text and tags. Also, the biggest sites, including Google, have more errors than mine.

Let me ask you something that I just noticed. When you're at say a Topic, and log in to post a reply, my Punbb 1.2* redirects to the index page. That's not happening here, it brings you back to where you were. Is there a fix for that, or is it just an upgrade on 1.3*?

Thanks.

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9 Reply by AlexanderS

(9 replies, posted in PunBB 1.2 modifications, plugins and integrations)

MattF wrote:

Judging by one bit of info I found, do nothing. smile The search engines are smart enough these days to glean what information they need from where they prefer to glean it from.

http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/show … hp?t=54493


I think I've found the correct answer in the Google Webmaster article on duplicate content. They mention using canonicalization when dealing with duplicates. In this case the best way to do it is not disallow posts in robots.txt, but exclude them from the xml sitemap. Google will then perceive the Topic URL as the preferred URL and index accordingly.

So you're right. The theory behind that phpbb mod is unwarranted.

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10 Reply by AlexanderS

(9 replies, posted in PunBB 1.2 modifications, plugins and integrations)

Hey Matt,

How are you?

So, this would be a bigger job than I thought? I thought about doing it with 301 redirects, but that doesn't look possible because the post urls don't include the topic number.

I keep getting different answers to this question. Should we disallow posts in robots.txt? I think the most common answer is yes, because they are duplicates of the topic urls. The post urls were also excluded from the SEO rewrite mod, and from the xml.sitemap in the sitemap mod. Right now I've been disallowing /forums/p.

What's your opinion? Allow or disallow?

Then I noticed that phpbb came out with a mod adressing this issue, and instead of just disallowing, I think they used 301 redirects to point all last post links to the topic. This way the duplicates are gone, and you don't lose all those internal links.

What do think?

Alex

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11 Topic by AlexanderS

(9 replies, posted in PunBB 1.2 modifications, plugins and integrations)

I'm sure this is a simple one for a lot of you guys, but not for me.

I want the change all last post links to point to the subject Topic instead, while maintaining the links appearance designating the date and time of the last post. I know the links will no longer point directly to the last post (instead, the top of the topic page), but I believe this to be a small but valid SEO advantage, because it eliminates duplicate URLs without losing your total number of internal links. phpBB has a mod that does just that.

I think, for the Index page last posts I need to change some stuff here, or maybe not.:

//$forums_info = $db->query('SELECT num_topics, num_posts, parent_forum_id, last_post_id, last_poster, last_post, id, forum_name FROM '.$db->prefix.'forums ORDER BY disp_position') or error(implode($db->error(),''),__FILE__,__LINE__,$db->error());

$forums_info = $db->query('SELECT f.num_topics, f.num_posts, f.parent_forum_id, f.last_post_id, f.last_poster, f.last_post, f.id, f.forum_name, p.poster_id as last_poster_id, t.subject FROM '.$db->prefix.'forums AS f LEFT JOIN '.$db->prefix.'posts AS p ON (p.id=f.last_post_id) LEFT JOIN '.$db->prefix.'topics AS t ON t.last_post_id=f.last_post_id ORDER BY disp_position') or error(implode($db->error(),''),__FILE__,__LINE__,$db->error());
while($current = $db->fetch_assoc($forums_info)) {
 if ($current['parent_forum_id'] != 0)
  {
   $sfdb[$sfcount][0] = $current['parent_forum_id'];
   $sfdb[$sfcount][1] = $current['num_topics'];
   $sfdb[$sfcount][2] = $current['num_posts'];
   $sfdb[$sfcount][3] = $current['last_post_id'];
   $sfdb[$sfcount][4] = $current['last_poster'];
   $sfdb[$sfcount][5] = $current['last_post'];
   $sfdb[$sfcount][6] = $current['id'];
   $sfdb[$sfcount][7] = $current['forum_name'];
   $sfdb[$sfcount][8] = $current['last_poster_id'];
   $sfdb[$sfcount][9] = $current['subject'];

   $sfcount++;
  }
}

What do I change to have the last post links point to the topic instead?

Thanks!

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12 Topic by AlexanderS

(0 replies, posted in PunBB 1.2 troubleshooting)

Hi,

I'm using PunBB 1.2.21 with Sub Forums, Rewrite and a bunch of other Mods. It's working great except for two things. One is a slow page load due to the high volume of Forums--almost 1,000. Any ideas on speeding it up? I've tried everything including limiting ads, ads in Iframes, bottom of the body, etc.

The immediate issue I just discovered is that the "Last Post" links for the Sub Forums are no good. They all point to: .../forums/p-Never.html#p. The last post links for the parent forums and topics are fine.

Thanks.

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13 Topic by AlexanderS

(0 replies, posted in PunBB 1.2 modifications, plugins and integrations)

How do I undo the "* Remove words of less than three letters" feature in the PunRewrite mod.

I'm hoping it's an easy fix. It's eliminating some important stuff in my urls.

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14 Reply by AlexanderS

(5 replies, posted in PunBB 1.2 troubleshooting)

Hey Matt,

The problem may have been there before the JS and punrewrite. I never had that number of categories before. I ran a virgin 1.2.21 with all 40 and there was no problem. It's either from a mod or perhaps my website header/footer install. I'm back tracking. The iconized cat mod is a good idea, but I haven't given up on this route yet.

If I don't get it today we'll move on.

Thanks.

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15 Reply by AlexanderS

(5 replies, posted in PunBB 1.2 troubleshooting)

Sub forums, reputation, RSS, google sitemap, punrewrite and alphabetical topics. I discovered the problem after installing expand/collapse categories and I thought that the javascript for that mod was causing the issue. But I uninstalled it and the problem was still there. The more categories, the slower the index page load. It does it on IE6 and IE7. No problem on other browsers. I removed the RSS links on the categories and it helped a little, but still way to slow. I replaced the 40 categories with 40 forums and it's fine.

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16 Topic by AlexanderS

(5 replies, posted in PunBB 1.2 troubleshooting)

I really need to use about 40 categories, however, I discovered that a high number of categories slows down index page load time dramatically on IE. It's fine on Firefox, Opera and Safari. The same number of forums on the index page has no affect on speed, just categories. Does anyone know why, or if it's fixable?

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17 Reply by AlexanderS

(11 replies, posted in PunBB 1.2 discussion)

Yes, Matt Hutchings. He's been great.

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18 Reply by AlexanderS

(11 replies, posted in PunBB 1.2 discussion)

Thanks twohawks,

Matt has been helping me and it's almost right where I want it.

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19 Reply by AlexanderS

(11 replies, posted in PunBB 1.2 discussion)

Twohawks,

You're one of the few who have been helping me out.

Thank you.

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20 Topic by AlexanderS

(11 replies, posted in PunBB 1.2 discussion)

I’m new to web development and learning every step of the way. PunBB 1.2.21 will be a critical part of my upcoming site (holding off on 1.3* because of the lack of necessary mods, and the work I’ve invested in 1.2*). However, I’m no coder, and was interested in someone who could install a remaining list of mods for a fee.

Thus far: started with 1.2.20 and updated to 1.2.21, integrated to my site with customized styles, installed Sub Forum Mod - version:  1.0.9.3, Reputation System - version:  2.2.3 and the RSS Mod with updates. I would like to install the Pun Rewrite mod for SEO purposes, but the installation requires replacement of a number of code changes applied by previous mods. This is where it gets too involved for me to do myself, efficiently and correctly. I would also like to add the Google site map mod and I believe there are two applicable bridge files to complete the group installation.

Who would be interested?

Thank you.

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21 Topic by AlexanderS

(2 replies, posted in PunBB 1.2 modifications, plugins and integrations)

I found PunRewrite Mod version: 1.0 and it says it only works on 1.2.10. Will it work in 1.2.21? Or is there an updated version I can't find?

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22 Topic by AlexanderS

(1 replies, posted in PunBB 1.2 modifications, plugins and integrations)

I have 1.2.20 and when I go to administration and click "check for upgade" it says I'm up to date. Meanwhile there is a 1.2.21 upgrade along with 1.3*. Also, I've seen more than one discription about installing an upgrade. I downloaded a new install of 1.2.21 and just uploaded and ran the 1.2.20 to 1.2.21 upgrade file. Admin now shows I'm running 1.2.21. Is that all I need to do?

Also, I'm about to install the subforum mod - sub_forum_mod-1.0.9.3. Is anyone familiar with it's operation and install. It looks like I have to run the install file and then change about a million files after that. Is there and easier way?

One more, I'm also intersested in a url rewite mod. Is there one?

Thanks.

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23 Reply by AlexanderS

(4 replies, posted in PunBB 1.3 extensions)

Sounds like I'm going to have to stick with 1.2* if there are no subforum mods available for 1.3*. Are you familiar with MyBestBB package for PunBB? Looks like it adds a few good mods including subforums and URL rewrite. Is it safe and from a good company???

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24 Topic by AlexanderS

(4 replies, posted in PunBB 1.3 extensions)

This may be a dumb question, but is there a way to upgrade from 1.2 to 1.3 or must I do complete install? And if I install 1.3 will there be problems importing the same database and the files/templates I customized with ads and styles in 1.2?

Also, I really need to use subforums. I found Mod version: 1.0.9.3, Author: pabb to add subforums but it doesn't specify my version 1.2.2. Is that a problem, or is there another Mod I could use? Is there a subforum mod for 1.3?

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25 Reply by AlexanderS

(16 replies, posted in PunBB 1.2 troubleshooting)

Matt,

I got a fresh download and replaced the 7 /include/ files because it seemed like they had all the hard code (old) urls. This gave me an error in the header.php file. I replaced that with a fresh file and it's fixed. Everything works! I'm never going to change the base url in the database before administration/options. It still seems like that had something to do with it.

Thanks for all your help, and Happy Holidays!

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