Recent changes and issues

**Stuart Wright** · 07-10-2008, 9:51 PM

It was a pure coincidence over the last few days that while we were getting additional SEO working that we had some server issues.
SEO is Search Engine Optimisation, and it means that search engine unfriendly links like

HTML Code:

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=734506

are changed to the rather more meaningful links like

HTML Code:

http://www.avforums.com/forums/plasma-televisions/734506-lg-pg6000-series-thread.html

Ultimately we hope that our search engine rankings will rise meaning more visitors.

While the SEO changes were being tested we experienced a few problems with big server log files and a large video on AVForums.tv tripping up the replication from one server to another. Those have been fixed with some short downtime scheduled for Wednesday am to re-replicated the database.

Fingers crossed we are back on track. Apologies for the inconvenience and I hope that your experience of AVForums going forward is similar to mine - which is nice and fast and problem free.

An additional change made late yesterday is the limitation on initial size of displayed external images. Having images which are ridiculously big sends the forum display out of whack, forcing us to scroll sideways to see the post controls. Click the images to see the full size versions.

tryingtimes · 08-10-2008, 8:38 AM

The new photo thing causes a nasty side-effect
See New forum update - photos can't have links!

bsuttie · 08-10-2008, 8:57 AM

Thanks for the explanation. Please remember to update any static references to links.

e.g. "example: http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123456"

in the submit feedback area, I spent a while yesterday trying to work out why my link looked different from the example!

regards

Brian

**Stuart Wright** · 08-10-2008, 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bsuttie

Thanks for the explanation. Please remember to update any static references to links.

e.g. "example: http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123456"

in the submit feedback area, I spent a while yesterday trying to work out why my link looked different from the example!

regards

Brian

The old links still work.

bsuttie · 08-10-2008, 12:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stuart Wright

The old links still work.

I think you misunderstood me.

If you go to add feedback, there is an example on the page of how a link should look :

avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123456

But if you now copy and paste a thread link it will look like :

avforums.com/forums/home-cinema-classified-adverts/836419-sale-x-rite-eye-one-display-2-tv-lcd-calibrator-colorimeter.html

Which looks nothing like the example given. I'm just suggesting that wherever you have static text showing an example of how a link should appear, then that example needs updated to the new link format.

regards

Brian

THE_FORCE · 08-10-2008, 1:15 PM

Hi Stuart. The mouse rollover says 'click the image to open in full size', yet the images are still downsized in the new window, which gives them jagged edges ?

All my pics were 900px wide which didn't incur any need to scroll sideways, so I can't work out why all my pics are now being downsized after clicking on them, and also not all to the same width when they were originally? Some are wider than others, even though the originals are all the same width lol ?!!

Am I doing something wrong ? Or do I need to do something to the original images I posted ?

Cheers for your help in advance.

guest_05 · 08-10-2008, 2:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stuart Wright

while we were getting additional SEO working that we had some server issues.
SEO is Search Engine Optimisation, and it means that search engine unfriendly links like

HTML Code:

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=734506

are changed to the rather more meaningful links like

HTML Code:

http://www.avforums.com/forums/plasma-televisions/734506-lg-pg6000-series-thread.html

Ultimately we hope that our search engine rankings will rise meaning more visitors.

What a waste of time! (Sorry)

SEO urls wont help at all. You want some free advice -- put your css into a separate file, and use H1 tags for the title of the first posts.

Want proof that fake-page-url-rubbish-htaccess-rewrites.html do nothing...

Search google for ANY film title -- and you will see IMDB, and there urls are:

www.imdb.com/title/tt0468569/ (You'd never guess that was batman?)

Love AVforums by the way!!!

WATTS · 08-10-2008, 7:35 PM

I do SEO work for BT and there is quite a lot of things that go into making a website "Search Engine Friendly".
A lot of what we do is pretty much based around google as thats the big player in Search engines and you would be surprised how much the little things do help.
You are limited with what you can do with a forum when compared to a website but its nice to see you guys doing what you can.

SEO Urls will help, not much but if done along with all the other things you can do it makes a difference.

Guest 05 is right though. The big big thing you can do is externalize your CSS, externalise ALL java code and use H1, H2 and H3 tags if possible.
Also keywords and descriptions to be unique to every single page as possible.

You do need to be looking into externalising this though:

Code:

/**
* vBulletin 3.7.2 CSS
* Style: 'AV Forums standard display style'; Style ID: 12
*/
body
{
	background: #E4E4FF;
	color: #000000;
	font: small verdana,arial, tahoma, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', helvetica, sans-serif;
	margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px;
	padding: 0px;
}
a:link, body_alink
{
	color: #000000;
}
a:visited, body_avisited
{
	color: #444444;
}
a:hover, a:active, body_ahover
{
	color: #666666;
}
.page
{
	background: #FFFFED;
	color: #000000;
}
td, th, p, li
{
	font: small verdana,arial, tahoma, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', helvetica, sans-serif;
}
.tborder
{
	background: #C0C0C0;
	color: #000000;
}
.tcat
{
	background: #738FBF url(http://www.avforums.com/forums/image...ient_thead.gif) repeat-x top left;
	color: #FFFFFF;
	font: bold medium verdana,arial, tahoma, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', helvetica, sans-serif;
	vertical-align: middle;
}
.tcat a:link, .tcat_alink
{
	color: #FFFFFF;
	text-decoration: none;
}
.tcat a:visited, .tcat_avisited
{
	color: #FFFFFF;
	text-decoration: none;
}
.tcat a:hover, .tcat a:active, .tcat_ahover
{
	color: #FFFFED;
	text-decoration: underline;
}
.thead
{
	background: #738FBF url(http://www.avforums.com/forums/image...ient_thead.gif) repeat-x top left;
	color: #FFFFFF;
	font: bold small verdana,arial, tahoma, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', helvetica, sans-serif;
}
.thead a:link, .thead_alink
{
	color: #FFFFFF;
}
.thead a:visited, .thead_avisited
{
	color: #FFFFFF;
}
.thead a:hover, .thead a:active, .thead_ahover
{
	color: #FFFFED;
}
.tfoot
{
	background: #738FBF url(http://www.avforums.com/forums/image...ient_thead.gif) repeat-x top left;
	color: #FFFFFF;
	font: bold small verdana,arial, tahoma, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', helvetica, sans-serif;
}
.tfoot a:link, .tfoot_alink
{
	color: #FFFFFF;
}
.tfoot a:visited, .tfoot_avisited
{
	color: #FFFFFF;
}
.tfoot a:hover, .tfoot a:active, .tfoot_ahover
{
	color: #FFFFED;
}
.alt1, .alt1Active
{
	background: #F5F5FF;
	color: #000000;
}
.alt2, .alt2Active
{
	background: #EDEDFF;
	color: #000000;
}
.inlinemod
{
	background: #FFFFCC;
	color: #000000;
}
.wysiwyg
{
	background: #F5F5FF;
	color: #000000;
	font: small verdana,arial, tahoma, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', helvetica, sans-serif;
}
textarea, .bginput
{
	font: small verdana,arial, tahoma, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', helvetica, sans-serif;
}
.bginput option, .bginput optgroup
{
	font-size: small;
	font-family: verdana,arial, tahoma, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', helvetica, sans-serif;
}
.button
{
	font: small verdana,arial, tahoma, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', helvetica, sans-serif;
}
select
{
	font: small verdana,arial, tahoma, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', helvetica, sans-serif;
}
option, optgroup
{
	font-size: small;
	font-family: verdana,arial, tahoma, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', helvetica, sans-serif;
}
.smallfont
{
	font: x-small verdana,arial, tahoma, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', helvetica, sans-serif;
}
.time
{
	color: #666686;
}
.navbar
{
	font: small verdana,arial, tahoma, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', helvetica, sans-serif;
}
.highlight
{
	color: #FF0000;
	font-weight: bold;
}
.fjsel
{
	background: #000080;
	color: #E0E0F6;
}
.fjdpth0
{
	background: #F7F7F7;
	color: #000000;
}
.panel
{
	background: #E1E4F2 url(images/gradients/gradient_panel.gif) repeat-x top left;
	color: #000000;
	padding: 10px;
	border: 2px outset;
}
.panelsurround
{
	background: #D1D4E0 url(images/gradients/gradient_panelsurround.gif) repeat-x top left;
	color: #000000;
}
legend
{
	color: #22229C;
	font: small verdana,arial, tahoma, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', helvetica, sans-serif;
}
.vbmenu_control
{
	background: #738FBF url(http://www.avforums.com/forums/image...ient_thead.gif) repeat-x top left;
	color: #FFFFFF;
	font: bold small verdana,arial, tahoma, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', helvetica, sans-serif;
	padding: 3px 6px 3px 6px;
	white-space: nowrap;
}
.vbmenu_control a:link, .vbmenu_control_alink
{
	color: #FFFFFF;
	text-decoration: none;
}
.vbmenu_control a:visited, .vbmenu_control_avisited
{
	color: #FFFFFF;
	text-decoration: none;
}
.vbmenu_control a:hover, .vbmenu_control a:active, .vbmenu_control_ahover
{
	color: #FFFFFF;
	text-decoration: underline;
}
.vbmenu_popup
{
	background: #738FBF url(http://www.avforums.com/forums/image...ient_thead.gif) repeat-x top left;
	color: #000000;
	border: 1px solid #0B198C;
}
.vbmenu_option
{
	background: #FFFFED url(http://www.avforums.com/forums/image...selected.gif);
	color: #000000;
	font: small verdana,arial, tahoma, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', helvetica, sans-serif;
	white-space: nowrap;
	cursor: pointer;
}
.vbmenu_option a:link, .vbmenu_option_alink
{
	color: #000000;
	text-decoration: none;
}
.vbmenu_option a:visited, .vbmenu_option_avisited
{
	color: #000000;
	text-decoration: none;
}
.vbmenu_option a:hover, .vbmenu_option a:active, .vbmenu_option_ahover
{
	color: #000000;
	text-decoration: none;
}
.vbmenu_hilite
{
	background: #ACA45E url(http://www.avforums.com/forums/image...selected.gif);
	color: #000000;
	font: small verdana,arial, tahoma, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', helvetica, sans-serif;
	white-space: nowrap;
	cursor: pointer;
}
.vbmenu_hilite a:link, .vbmenu_hilite_alink
{
	color: #000000;
	text-decoration: none;
}
.vbmenu_hilite a:visited, .vbmenu_hilite_avisited
{
	color: #000000;
	text-decoration: none;
}
.vbmenu_hilite a:hover, .vbmenu_hilite a:active, .vbmenu_hilite_ahover
{
	color: #000000;
	text-decoration: none;
}
/* ***** styling for 'big' usernames on postbit etc. ***** */
.bigusername { font-size: large; }

/* ***** small padding on 'thead' elements ***** */
td.thead, div.thead { padding: 4px; }

/* ***** basic styles for multi-page nav elements */
.pagenav a { text-decoration: none; }
.pagenav td { padding: 2px 4px 2px 4px; }

/* ***** define margin and font-size for elements inside panels ***** */
.fieldset { margin-bottom: 6px; }
.fieldset, .fieldset td, .fieldset p, .fieldset li { font-size: 11px; }

/* ***** don't change the following ***** */
form { display: inline; }
label { cursor: default; }
.normal { font-weight: normal; }
.inlineimg { vertical-align: middle; }

/* ***** avforums-specific ***** */
.topmenubig
{
	font: bold 14px verdana,arial, tahoma, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', helvetica, sans-serif;
}
.topmenubig a:link
{
	text-decoration: none;
}
.topmenubig a:visited
{
	text-decoration: none;
}
.topmenubig a:hover, .topmenu a:active
{
	text-decoration: underline;
}
/* ***** avforums-specific ***** */
.topmenu
{
	font: bold small verdana,arial, tahoma, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', helvetica, sans-serif;
}
.topmenu a:link
{
	text-decoration: none;
}
.topmenu a:visited
{
	text-decoration: none;
}
.topmenu a:hover, .topmenu a:active
{
	text-decoration: underline;
}
.mediumfont
{
	font: small verdana,arial, tahoma, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', helvetica, sans-serif;
}

/* Start Sub-forums-list in Columns */
.subforum {
	padding:0;
	margin:	0;
}
.subforum li {
	display:inline;
	width:150px;
	float:left;
	padding-left:0.5em;
	padding-right:0.5em;
}
.clear {
	clear:both;
}
.tcatfooter
{
	background: #EDEDFF url(http://www.avforums.com/forums/image...tcatfooter.gif) repeat-x top left;
	color: #000000;
	font: bold medium verdana,arial, tahoma, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', helvetica, sans-serif;
	vertical-align: middle;
}
/* End */
/* Start Sub-forums-list in Columns */
.subforum {
	padding:0;
	margin:	0;
}
.subforum li {
	display:inline;
	width:250px;
	float:left;
	padding-left:0.5em;
	padding-right:0.5em;
        font-size: x-small;
}
.clear {
	clear:both;
}
/* End */

**Stuart Wright** · 08-10-2008, 9:53 PM

Externalising the CSS is a single click option in the setup and was not external simply because it breaks for a while when modifications are installed, which we have done recently.
It's now external again.
WRT headings, adding them in would require some template work.

suniil · 09-10-2008, 1:35 PM

meaningful URL does help, but even without that google crawls, index and ranks AVFORUM topics better than almost all other forums in similar area.

Badger0-0 · 09-10-2008, 7:36 PM

I'm quite chuffed that we're getting explanations as to what is happening, FWIW.
It's extremely rare that people actually explain stuff, so fair play and nice one Stuart

Europa80 · 10-10-2008, 1:50 AM

I was adding stuff to my DVD collection when unfortunately got caught in your down time on Wednesday. I had a bit of time to kill so I thought I'd add some more DVDs to my list. I got a few on and then the site went down. Have not been able to access it since! I mean, I don't want people thinking I''ve only got about ten DVDs, do I! This is the message I get when I click the link:-

Fatal error: Call to undefined method thumbnail::size_all() in /home/sites/avforums/public_html/movies/includes/display_functions.php on line 72

Cheers,
Europa80.

**Stuart Wright** · 10-10-2008, 2:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Europa80

I was adding stuff to my DVD collection when unfortunately got caught in your down time on Wednesday. I had a bit of time to kill so I thought I'd add some more DVDs to my list. I got a few on and then the site went down. Have not been able to access it since! I mean, I don't want people thinking I''ve only got about ten DVDs, do I! This is the message I get when I click the link:-

Fatal error: Call to undefined method thumbnail::size_all() in /home/sites/avforums/public_html/movies/includes/display_functions.php on line 72

Cheers,
Europa80.

Can you give me the exact link you are having problems with, please?

CloggyNL · 10-10-2008, 5:11 PM

Sorry to hijack, I am having the same issue's when trying to add the title Brotherhood, I get the message-

Fatal error: Call to undefined method thumbnail::size_all() in /home/sites/avforums/public_html/movies/includes/display_functions.php on line 72

Mark_a · 11-10-2008, 1:08 PM

Not sure if it's related in anyway, but for a good few days now I can't look further than the first page of any thread. Clicking on 'More replies below current depth...' link in any thread simply takes me to the first page again. Even clicking on the right hand blue chevron on the right hand side of the thread name doesn't take me to the last post as I'd expect, but again simply to the opening page of the thread. Is it me and my settings, or is something amiss with the database?

Regards

Mark


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