Feedback: Why no redirect rules for non-passive URL changes in forums?

[Trench4569]

Can anything be done to mitigate the negative consequences in the recent URL structure changes made to the site this week? There's a handful of reasons why this is a step backward.

• SEO loss of less readable URLs
• Broken links everywhere users have historically linked to forums.
• Dead bookmarks and broken autocomplete when modern browsers autocomplete URLs based on history.

It's a little disappointing that a simple redirect rule wasn't written to maintain some passivity.

good - http://cyclonefanatic.com/forum/mens-basketball/
not as good - http://www.cyclonefanatic.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=8

 

[hostduplex]

Thanks for the feedback.

vBSEO has become the infamous SEO plugin of vBulletin. It reached its EOL last year and then they suddenly disappeared off the internet. Exploits have been floating around forums and we felt it was prudent to disable the plugin. We have setup redirect rules for all threads and categories. Rules were put in place at upon disabling it, but somehow we forgot to insert the category redirects (it's working now). If you see others, please let us know.

Can anything be done to mitigate the negative consequences in the recent URL structure changes made to the site this week? There's a handful of reasons why this is a step backward.

• SEO loss of less readable URLs
• Broken links everywhere users have historically linked to forums.
• Dead bookmarks and broken autocomplete when modern browsers autocomplete URLs based on history.

It's a little disappointing that a simple redirect rule wasn't written to maintain some passivity.

good - http://cyclonefanatic.com/forum/mens-basketball/
not as good - http://www.cyclonefanatic.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=8