UBB.threads PHP Forum Software Community Forums Resources and Customizing Admin Zone htaccess redirects for "old" forum addresses?

I've been wondering about this for a while: is there an htaccess file that will 301 Redirect old style addresses to the new search engine friendly ones? The reason is to get rid of duplicate content issues on SEs.

I've been looking at the "make_ubb_url" function and figured it might provide a basic template for me to build my own redirects, but it'd be a helluva job. So, if the htaccess for this already exists, I'd really appreciate it!

Well, there are php and cgi redirect files available in the member area; unless your heart is set on using htaccess for some reason...

Both UBB.C and UBB.T v6 used different filenames than UBB.T7 so there should be no conflict...

Hi Gizmo - thanks for that. PHP is absolutely fine - but I've not seen the files? I'll take another look...

Ok, thanks Gizmo. I took a look, but those files aren't quite what I was after - though to be fair I probably didn't quite say what I meant!

It's to do with changes in the URL structure from the dynamic URLs to search engine friendly URLs. The SE friendly URL system is great, but currently it leads to a duplicate content. Take this:
and this...

The thing is BOTH of these addresses are valid, but I only want the SECOND to lead to a page - the first I want to 301 redirect. Now, I've discovered that I can use something like the following to match up query string pairs for an htaccess redirect:


However, though this reconstructs the query string in order, often the result is a database error, so it clearly isn't the foolproof method. So, has anyone done any work on this? HELP?

ADD - It occurs to me that this COULD be achieved in the UBBThreads PHP. If a query string is set, then rather than dealing with it it could be 301 Redirected to the SE friendly address. At least as an option for SEO bent admins?!??!

Ahh, i was thinking something different lol...

Curious what advantages you're seeking over using the built in SEO methods in threads...

It's to do with "duplicate content" (give it a Google).

If you have dynamic pages that can be generated in more than one way - as described in my last post - then the search engines (in particular Google) can and do interpret this as two distinct pages on your site with duplicated content. This can, and does, lead to two distinct SE listings, with two completely separate page ranks and sets of incoming links, all for the exact same content. The result is watered down SE listings at best, or in the worst cases even listing penalties for duplication.

Google do assert that they have this covered, and that their algorithms take the issue into account. They suggest that their algorithm "chooses" one of the addresses, and bases results on that. The bottom line is, that's just not true!

Our main forum page had two distinct page ranks based on the access URI: forums/ or forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb/cfrm. Besides, even if Google DID manage to "choose" one URL to concentrate on, who's to say that they'll choose the one you want?!

The existing 'Threads SEO works great at what it does, but it doesn't deal with the duplication issue. This is the kind of thing I'm starting to tackle, and I'll post back here on any progress I make.

Of course, if anyone else wants to throw in it'd be appreciated! Particularly, it'd be useful to know, if anyone has them, the query string patterns going back quite a few versions of 'Threads, because we've been running it for nearly 10 years and some of our incoming links actually still remain from way back then!

As I said before, I guess I can fish all this out of the 'Threads PHP if necessary, but it's an arduous task to confront a lowly coder all alone in his attic...

I know exactly what you are talking about. When I converted from classic two years ago. Bookmarks and indexes were issues even with the redirectors in place. And still are in some cases.
I never could get the rewrite rule to work for me either.
Not when I enabled the spider friendly URLS option.

To make it worse for me I went from a windows host to linux. So Case issues with URls came into play.

Well, one of my sitemap threads talks about the ubb multi urls, so i get you there...

Is that a plug Gizmo?
Maybe talk TED into buying your sitemap to include in the stock code.

LOL, HAHAHAHAHA. Buying?

I'm ultimately sure he'd just have Rick code his own ...

The first one is a link to the start of the topic; the second a link to a response to the original post, hence the "Re".

The number is the number of the post; it's also an anchor in the page. The text before .html is the subject line; when you access a child post of a parent topic it will link you to the thread of the parent topic with the anchor of the post defined...

So, you access 226059 it loads the thread starting with topic 226056 and "anchors" you to 226059.

Why do they display duplicate content? Well, it's the same thread... page=1 would also link you to duplicate content...

Yup, and that's what needs to be brought under control. The anchor isn't so much an issue, but having multiple URIs, even if they're dynamic, to have identical content listed is a big problem.

For what it's worth, and forgive me if I'm wrong, but I suspect hoainam may be trolling...

This is the point, the redirectors work from old URI to new URI, but they don't disallow concurrent URI methods.
That's a 404 issue for an htaccess nightmare ! ...
Yay! So where do I find that thread - I've looked...?!!? (Well, a bit...)

Believe it or not, I'm having issues using the search to find it lol... I'll take a closer look over the weekend and try to see if I can find it

I also posted about this issue in this thread:
https://www.ubbcentral.com/forums/u...l_Your_top_feature_you_w.html#Post217664

I hope Rick is going to fix this in version 8