Would this be the most suitable MOD for my forum?

EdmundTurner · Joined: 03 Jan 2008 Posts: 4

Hello there,

I have always wondered why my forum topics have never really shown that well in Google and came across this rewrite mod. I have posted this here partly as a compulsory post so that I can also download the Zero Duplicate mod and also to get some confirmation from some of the more experienced members around here in this matter. The forum in question is http://www.drccentral.com/forum would you feel this site would benefit from this mod due to the forum category titles appearing in the URLs or would you leave it as is due to the large database that already exists? I would appreciate any views on this.

Regards,
Ed

SeO

Since you are running phpBB2, it may be a good occasion to convert to phpBB3 now.
This could save some work for later, and we have a nice and ready to use SEO premod you could use to do so.

This being said, the mixed mod rewrite seems a good choice for your forum, and even better if you decide to go for phpBB3 with the new virtual folder trick.
Topic tht could help to convert : phpBB2 => phpBB3 : Where to start
phpbb3 conversion help

There is no particular issue if you decide to go for url rewriting, with the premod, the old URLs will be redirected to the new ones directly, if you stay with phpBB2, you'll have to install the phpBB2 zero duplicate mod to do so. That's pretty much the only precaution you'll need to follow to keep your indexing and SERPS during the URL update.

EdmundTurner · Joined: 03 Jan 2008 Posts: 4

Thank you very much for your quick reply. I am eager to convert to phpBB3 and had already seen your Premod version (I think it's a great piece of software by the way) but I am only a bit aprehensive due to the extensive amount of current modifications I have already carried out on the phpBB2 software.

The most problematic (or what I can see causing one) being the sub-forum mod in which I put in. I don't know how phpBB3 will react with this mod which happens to be the Standard >> Simple Sub-forums >> Sub-forums Plus mod.

I may carry out a test installation of your phpBB3 Premod software and upload my database to it just to see what the outcome is.

Thank you again.
Ed

SeO

You should definitely try converting, because chances are really great it will work Wink

Sub forum will just be converted as regular forums, you'll just have to re set them as sub forum in phpBB3 that's all.

Problematic mods are the one that do not convert and that would make you site loosing pages, such as the smartor album or things like that.

It in all cases something to prepare well, since you'll have to do it one day or the other, you won't loose time if you give first try converting, it's a good way to see how thing goes, and to become familiar with the numerous new option before the real conversion.

Wink

EdmundTurner · Joined: 03 Jan 2008 Posts: 4

That was my mindset too.

Whilst the database is converting the old one to a phpBB3 one, I have listed all the mods that are currently active on my phpBB2 forum:

Admin Userlist
Admin Flood Limit Bypass
Admins Not Disabled (when board is disabled)
Advanced User Search
Align BB Code
Auto Cookie
Captcha Mod
Chunk Long URLs
Configure Member Profile Requirements
Disabled Board Message
Firefox Bypass
Forum Sponsors
Freeze Postcount
Full Name Mod
Guest Sessions Mod
IP Unmasker
Merge Threads
ModeratorCP
Quick Reply
Pagination Mod
Rank in Memberlist
Simple Sub-Forums > Sub-forums Plus
Submit to Sending Mod
Username to Profile
Welcome Panel
Xtreme Styles Mod

Not many of these required SQL injection into the database (around 300mb raw) so hopefully there will not be many lines for the conversion to slip up on. I'll keep you posted with the progress.

EDIT: Seems to be working pretty much okay. Got it all set up now. Just like you said, the sub-forums just because forums in their own right so I just have to specify the parent forum.

Thank you.

SeO

I did not mentioned it, but extra bbcode will need special attention too. The other mods should not cause trouble except the loss of some functionalities (most of them are already in phpBB3 though).

So for the align bbcode, since it does not exist, you will have to create a custom one, it's pretty easy in the ACP.

Then, all the messages using them should work again after one edit. If you are not afraid about coding, it should be possible to make so the conversion "knows" about this extra bbcode and parse it right directly (no need to edit messages).
I did not look into it yet, worth asking at phpBB.com, I'm sure someone already had this done.

By the way, how do you like the SEO option in the premod ?

EdmundTurner · Joined: 03 Jan 2008 Posts: 4

I had already spotted the BB Code problem but it wasn't a popular feature at the forum anyway so it doesn't really matter that much.

The whole pre-mod of the phpBB3 software I think has turned out awesome. The fact the conversion from phpBB2 went smoothly and whole thing works just as described flawlessly except for maybe loading a little slower than it used to... maybe that is due to the conversion of the URLs every time you load a page, I do not know because I am not an advanced php/html coder so I am not completely sure how the whole thing functions.

One thing I have noticed is that you can't use HTML in any of the forum description or category names and also not in posts/signatures etc. I know phpBB had a big problem with this throughout there V1/2 development as hackers were injecting script into these areas to de-face forums and as such have now taken the HTML ability out of the software. I guess this is a feature I should take up in the phpBB forums but I am just making sure you are aware of this de-grade if it ever pops up anyway again.

Finally, I am curious as to how upgrading the software is going to work. Will I just be able to use the official phpBB3 forum software updates as they are released or would I need to come here and download SEO specific software updates that take the SEO mod code into consideration?

Thank you for your time,
Ed

P.S. One problem, I have toggled SID removal on in the SEO Class Settings section in the ACP but am still getting SIDs in my URLs as I am browsing my forum. Any ideas, could it be something in the .htaccess file?

SeO

I moved the topic because we are going pretty far from phpBB2 mixed mod rewrite Wink

so yes, no html in phpBB3, but you can create many custom bbcode. Let's hope the phpBB2 html bbcode will one day or the other be updated for phpBB3, it was a good way to allow html for some user.

About the load, phpBB3 is doing a lot more things than phpBB2, but in a better optimized way. UTF-8 make the db bigger as well. But overall, it should better deal with high load.

The url rewriting process was benchmarked in the release thread :

SeO

I forgot about the update.

So it's not a trap, the idea is our update packages will make it easier for you to update, but you could use the regular one, and manually merge the premod's code whenever necessary.

Just like for any other mod.