~Clara Listensprechen to Khadafi~

[Clara Listensprechen]

Yes since I now know what you are referring to


Are you talking about what I did to my child;____;


Or are you referring to splitting and merging topics?
So rather than the topic ID you'd prefer links to the individual message ide.
Essentially having a URL such as "boyah.net/forums/index.php/topic30303.html fairs better in terms of SEO than "boyah.net/forums/index.php?topic=30303"I don't think I can fix the issue of search engines needing to be better developed.  Q('_' Q)
Oops not pretty urls.

In the admin panel under "Features and Options" there is a checkbox "   Search engine friendly URLs"  

"This changes the format of URLs a little so search engines will like them better. They will look like index.php/topic,1.html."

I've been following your discussion with gri about this and it's at this point I have to interject a comment about spammer use of search engines and how I'm not terribly crazy about search engines finding stuff on my board easier than they already do. If you just want traffic regardless of who it is that cruises your way, I guess being worried about search engines is your business. On the other hand, if you're particular about who cruises by your board and don't want spammers, well, I respectfully submit that concerns over what urls that search engines like (or think are pretty) is overrated.

[Daddy]

I forget exactly how it works but it has to do with how some search engines parse the URL and link to the results.  It won't really increase or decrease spam since everything would still link to boyah.net/forums, but a difference between a path and a query string might matter for a human searcher when clicking results.

Someone explained it a few years ago, I forget their exact wording.  Basically query strings sometimes act screwy when fed into a search engine and the result doesn't get linked properly. Google used to have this issue IIRC but they've since fixed it.



While I can see why a global quote feature could be cool and useful, I can't really think of how the URL rewrite would be much of a benefit especially by gri's own (I think) description the parameter in "topic" could be anything and it'd still link to the same msg#id

[Clara Listensprechen]

The use I have for it is for tracking back a research discussion where there's valuable references, analyses, and other information about a research topic. I'll agree that not every board has a use for something like that, but a research community certainly would....hence my (specialization) interest. I see that others have asked about a trackback mod and pretty much have gotten the answer that you just gave me.  It's a niche that SMF clearly is unwilling to fill, but the niche exists.

[Daddy]

By trackback are you referring to gri's desired URL rewrite or a global quote mod?

[Clara Listensprechen]

By trackback are you referring to gri's desired URL rewrite or a global quote mod?

Actually both.

[Daddy]

I believe the one I haven't displayed an interest in writing could easily be implemented with mod_rewrite.

I'm not 100% certain what gri wants from that. he did clear it up slightly such that I realized it wasn't something that would require a database query since the text in ?topic= is inconsequential and smf fineds the thread via its message id.

Is what he wants simply rather than linking to topic id, have SMF's links generate a message id so links don't break when a topic is split or merged? That I can understand but the tag that isn't even parsed by smf can be manually added and done without any modification though it makes the url uglier which is why i'm not fond of it.

[Clara Listensprechen]

I believe the one I haven't displayed an interest in writing could easily be implemented with mod_rewrite.

I'm not 100% certain what gri wants from that. he did clear it up slightly such that I realized it wasn't something that would require a database query since the text in ?topic= is inconsequential and smf fineds the thread via its message id.

Is what he wants simply rather than linking to topic id, have SMF's links generate a message id so links don't break when a topic is split or merged? That I can understand but the tag that isn't even parsed by smf can be manually added and done without any modification though it makes the url uglier which is why i'm not fond of it.

Well, speaking as a person with a board with an ugly url (so I've been told by royalduke anyway) I'm pretty sure what he wants isn't a drag on the database. Like I said, he did have one working although briefly and he didn't impart that code he used to me, although I asked for it a number of times.  I *know* it's faulty, but it's a great starting point if only he'd let loose of it. As to what he means NOW...well...he'd have to show me what he means before I can cipher that out. But that's partly why I gave him a section of my board to work with. When he illustrates stuff I get a better idea.

[Daddy]

I see.

By ugly URL it just generally means filled with query strings as opposed to a webiste.tld/directory/subdirectory structure.  Though I guess from a standpoint, if you can do it properly "boyah.net/forums/msg.39939/uneededtitlegoeshere"; it would be less ugly of a url than the current layout due to the fact that the URL would hypothetically describe the content and that is one of the qualifiers of a pretty url vs ugly url.

If you can get a better explanation from gri let me hear it.  If "boyah.net/forums/msg.39939/uneededtitlegoeshere"; would meet his need it wouldn't be as bad but as someone who's studying software engineering and programs as a hobby I really can't advice adding additional query strings and adding additional url components in either situation needs security safeguards but it can work.

[Clara Listensprechen]

On a slightly sidetracked side road, I'm wondering how hxxp://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/numbernumbernumber etc actually works. Other websites do this, so it must be possible.

[Clara Listensprechen]

I see.

By ugly URL it just generally means filled with query strings as opposed to a webiste.tld/directory/subdirectory structure.  Though I guess from a standpoint, if you can do it properly "boyah.net/forums/msg.39939/uneededtitlegoeshere"; it would be less ugly of a url than the current layout due to the fact that the URL would hypothetically describe the content and that is one of the qualifiers of a pretty url vs ugly url.

If you can get a better explanation from gri let me hear it.  If "boyah.net/forums/msg.39939/uneededtitlegoeshere"; would meet his need it wouldn't be as bad but as someone who's studying software engineering and programs as a hobby I really can't advice adding additional query strings and adding additional url components in either situation needs security safeguards but it can work.

I'll just have to ask him to show me I guess. Lemme get back to ya on that.

[Daddy]

On a slightly sidetracked side road, I'm wondering how hxxp://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/numbernumbernumber etc actually works. Other websites do this, so it must be possible.

Do you have any example posts?

Most use Apache's mod_rewrite module to do some server magic with the URL, I believe that's how our URLS are handled in the background.   I'm not 100% if this is the situation with typepad but it is one common workaround fori t.

[Clara Listensprechen]

Hmmm.  Well, I got that partial url from stuff I was doing on the web in relation to the movie "Page One". Here's the full trackback:

http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8347ead2f69e2014e893145df970d

....and it generates an error. I guess it's not the slick li'l trick I thought it was.

[Daddy]

It looks like it searches for posts by some sort of hash which will also work as a unique key. 

the page probably has some filter that only works if you're sending POST headers which is what that header is implying.

[Clara Listensprechen]

Well, I'm glad somebody understands it. I'm still in coder kiddiegarten over here. It's also why I think it's gonna take somebody more knowledgeable than me to give gri a hand...it's just that I'm also interested in that final product.

I'm at the end of my day over here and will have to give it a rest for now. I just got tuckered winning the championship on Othello just now, and I got only 7 days to play in your arcade. MAN that's expensive! G'night.

[?????]

What are PMs?