[Shelnutt2]

I was searching some stuff on the intertube and came across this old thread.

In the second post is a link to "http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=&threadid=133686" . This thread is still valid but the url is wrong. if you go to "http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=133686" the thread works. Would it be hard to do a blanked replacement of "http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=&threadid=" with "http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=" ? I think you can use the language filter right?

If its more than a couple clicks don't worry about it, who reads threads from 2002 anyway?

[mbentley]

normally that would be a few clicks but the replacement variable feature is one that is restricted by iNET, even for me. i'd probably have to get it added to the weekly to do list.

[Ben333]

If we're running apache all we'd need is a directory on the server and a one line php redirect file in that directory. Soooo easy... and maybe there's even an easier way. No reason it shouldn't be done.

[mbentley]

Originally Posted by Ben333

If we're running apache all we'd need is a directory on the server and a one line php redirect file in that directory. Soooo easy... and maybe there's even an easier way. No reason it shouldn't be done.

yes, it would be easy if i had access to the file system of server to make changes like that but since i don't...

[CompuTamer]

Originally Posted by mbentley

yes, it would be easy if i had access to the file system of server to make changes like that but since i don't...

... it's still easy?

[I.M.O.G.]

The replacement variable manager chokes on the equals sign in the URLs, so it doesn't work for this purpose. Unfortunate, because that would be the quick and easy not totally terrible solution.

I could try to get this fixed, but should probably explain these 3 obstacles:

1. URLs like this have been broken for a very long time and haven't ever (or rarely) come up as a problem. No biggy, I want it fixed anyways - but the question of why we are fixing ancient URLS will come up and I don't have a strong argument for why they are actually important.
2. It is not as straightforward as it seems at first glance. A directory on the server with a PHP redirect may not do us any good when the domain the URL points to is registered to iNet, but doesn't exist in DNS, and doesn't exist as a webserver instance. It isn't hard to create it in DNS, or setup a new webserver instance - but that isn't as trivial as creating a folder and a PHP file. It also means considerable maintenance of legacy domains and redirects, which is a real problem for administrators to document, maintain, and ensure they are not broken over time. Back to obstacle #1, what is really gained by fixing this again - is it good long term for Overclockers, or is it minutiae that distracts from doing something else more useful for the community.
3. It would require us getting a ticket in for the development team to fix it. That means I need to describe exactly what I want to have changed. Since I'm doing that, I would like to do it well...

Doing it well, in this instance, means we should list any old forum URLs which need redirects of a similar nature created.

For example, this is one URL that would need redirected, but what other old URL formats exist on the forums, or on external sites?
forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=

"showthread.php?s=&threadid=" had different variants to identify threads. Can anyone help figure out what they were?

If we can list whatever the URLs may be that would need redirected, we can get them all in at once and see about fixing this issue up once and for all. It has existed since 2004 or so.

[Shelnutt2]

I think I have a solution. I was testing and it appears that "http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=&threadid=682461" is a valid url.

So if you just replace "http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t" with "http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t" it *should* work. I can't find specifics on showthread.php so I had to do all of it by just testing combinations. That brings you to the thread with a valid url and without having to replace an equal sign. So it should be doable?



Some of the variations I've discovered also works with our current setup are if you identify a thread by a specific post. Using ?p=postid . Its on;y if you do ?p=postid#postid that it brings you to the specific post.

So http://www.overclockers.com/forums/s....php?p=6919863 also points to this thread.

I haven't had any luck looking for old style urls though but I'll keep the hunt on!

[I.M.O.G.]

Nice work, that seems to have done the trick for those URLs.

The simplest fix may be the best fix in this situation... I'd honestly still like to get a real fix in place with redirects, but will need to track down old URL formats for the old versions of vbulletin.

Am I forgetting any of our old domains? (anything after Dec 2000, domains before that don't matter as the forum DB doesn't have any of that content)

forums.oc-forums.com
ocforums.com