Links to threads send me to homepage

[Purpl3_Haz3]

Hope this is the right place...Search returned nothing useful.

I have noticed over the past few days on the new server, that clicking on some links to threads within the forum, result in me being taken to the FC home page, not logged in. I generally have this issue when clicking any link like the one in the quote below...links to threads in FC.

For instance, I was reading the Extreme Q thread this evening, and I clicked a link posted by oldiebutgoodie. The link is in the quote below. Clicking the link resulted in a new tab opening as usual, but I was brought to www.fuckcombustion.com as opposed to the intended link. Also, in the new tab that opens and brings me to the homepage of FC, it shows me as logged out, whereas I remain logged in in the other tab.

This happens on my iPhone, iPad, and Windows 7 pc running the latest version of Mozilla Firefox.

...Here's a look at the guts:

http://www.fuckcombustion.com/viewtopic.php?pid=31439

This is post number 3668, located on page 147 of the EQ thread.

Any help would be greatly appreciated...and if this thread is in the wrong place, or an another similar one exists, please move or delete this. Thanks!

 

[aesthyrian]

Happens to me too, it would be great if there was way to fix this considering many people like myself find FC through a google search, but with most links broken now it is now harder to search threads.

 

[VapeVoice]

Agreed. It is very frustrating. The benefits of this forum are great. But, if I am trying to come here for the first time and every link I click just brings me to a homepage I may just give up. It's at least better than it was the first day when all you got was an error screen :/

 

[hanfhead]

I help moderate another forum that switched to xenforo over a year ago. They said links and attached files would be preserved in the merge but both were gone. It was a major loss having the attached files get corrupted because it is a programming forum and many scripts were attached to posts. The files ended up being recovered after a month but the links were never fixed and many of the cross forum links are broken to this day. Xenforo was still in beta then and maybe there is a fix for it now, I haven't kept up with the XF dev like I used to so I don't know.



Sometimes you can search to find the thread. If you are using chrome type

cache:

Into the address bar and paste the link you want after and hit enter, it will pull up a google cache of the page you want.


It was easier finding threads merged from vb because the thread title was in the link. You could just search the title in the new forum software to find the original thread. The software FC was using only uses a thread number for the link.

 

[pakalolo]

I've poked around the XenForo support forums and as far as I can see, the unofficial and thus unsupported import tool for the old software (FluxBB) doesn't support internal links. There are workarounds for some of the other forum software but I couldn't find one for FluxBB. I therefore suspect fixing these links is difficult at a minimum, and might even be impossible. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[vtac]

The plan was to have old thread links redirect gracefully to the new counterparts but it ended up being a nightmare and I made the tough decision to go forward anyway. Currently any links starting with *fuckcombustion.com/viewtopic.php? are being redirected to the main page.

It sucks, believe me I know. There's a lot involved when migrating to a new platform like we did. I did the best I could to ensure everything went smoothly but I dropped the ball here and I apologize. I've been updating dead links manually as I see them but there are surely hundreds more.

If you find a post with a dead link you can post it in this thread and I'll find the new version and update the post. To get the link, click the number beside the like button.

 

[Purpl3_Haz3]

The plan was to have old thread links redirect gracefully to the new counterparts but it ended up being a nightmare and I made the tough decision to go forward anyway. Currently any links starting with *fuckcombustion.com/viewtopic.php? are being redirected to the main page.

It sucks, believe me I know. There's a lot involved when migrating to a new platform like we did. I did the best I could to ensure everything went smoothly but I dropped the ball here and I apologize. I've been updating dead links manually as I see them but there are surely hundreds more.

If you find a post with a dead link you can post it in this thread and I'll find the new version and update the post. To get the link, click the number beside the like button.

Thank you very much for your timely response vtac! It's very appreciated!

I get ya, in that it's not an easy process to correct the dead links, so I don't really expect anything miraculous :-) I wasn't aware though, until now, that this was an issue for everyone, or why it was happening at all...so knowing what's going on is very helpful!

 

[pakalolo]

The plan was to have old thread links redirect gracefully to the new counterparts but it ended up being a nightmare and I made the tough decision to go forward anyway. Currently any links starting with *fuckcombustion.com/viewtopic.php? are being redirected to the main page.

It sucks, believe me I know. There's a lot involved when migrating to a new platform like we did. I did the best I could to ensure everything went smoothly but I dropped the ball here and I apologize. I've been updating dead links manually as I see them but there are surely hundreds more.

If you find a post with a dead link you can post it in this thread and I'll find the new version and update the post. To get the link, click the number beside the like button.

GAH! We have to find something that won't drive you crazy. I'll set up a demo forum at XenForo and see if there's anything I can figure out.

 

[hanfhead]

The plan was to have old thread links redirect gracefully to the new counterparts but it ended up being a nightmare and I made the tough decision to go forward anyway. Currently any links starting with *fuckcombustion.com/viewtopic.php? are being redirected to the main page.

It sucks, believe me I know. There's a lot involved when migrating to a new platform like we did. I did the best I could to ensure everything went smoothly but I dropped the ball here and I apologize. I've been updating dead links manually as I see them but there are surely hundreds more.

If you find a post with a dead link you can post it in this thread and I'll find the new version and update the post. To get the link, click the number beside the like button.

I remember when we had to make this same decision. It was to the point everything was running except the in forum links and they almost decided to scrap it and go with another software. In the end the ups of xf beat out this one bad thing, so began the finding and replacing of broken links.

Overall I think you made the right decision, and you are a wonderful admin and have a great site and community here. Thanks for that.

 

[sessnet]

Hey

There's actually a discussion on this here. Since all the new thread id numbers are different from the old ones there's really no way to automate it. The forum section links wouldn't be that hard to set up for redirection and that may be something to do.

Thank you for offering to help, it's much appreciated. We have the best members here.

I see. If the ID's are different here is a possible solution:

1. Create a new field in the DB for threads. This will house the old # of the thread ids.

2. Start populating that field, will take time, since it's manual (a day or two?)

3. Create a custom PHP page that looks up OLD thread ID

4. Modify htaccess file to forward any old "viewtopic" etc...php pages - to go to the PHP in #3

5. All old links fixed!

I can help out with #3 and #4 if needed, and even #1 if not sure! #2 is the tedious part, but I bet it will be well worth it.

-Pete

 

[pakalolo]

I'm still looking into this. I have a demo XenForo forum but as I suspected, it doesn't expose the database through the admin UI. I should be able to find a description of the database in the docs somewhere, but I haven't yet.

I also investigated creating a theme. That turns out to be even more complicated than I expected, but if I find time I will be tinkering with that. If I come up with something I consider presentable I will offer it to vtac as an alternative here. It looks like that's feasible because you can export and import styles.

 

[vtac]

I see. If the ID's are different here is a possible solution:

While the offer is appreciated, I'm aware of technical situation and the decision has been made. My offer to update posts by request stands.

 

[sessnet]

Ah, I thought you were more interested in the incoming links. For instance - ThermoVape (or MFLB?) printed up hundreds of flyers/postcards with a shortened url to the TV/MFLB fuckcombustion thread.

I would be less worried about the internal links/posts instead of the HUGE amount of incoming links FC ALREADY has all over the web. But, that is just my opinion - it's your site, so it's your call.

 

[VapeVoice]

Just my $.02. I don't think it will be a huge issue for people that are already a part of the forum. I would think that newer users would be the ones turned off and look for another forum. If you want to continue to gain new users wouldn't it be better to fix everything. I don't personally care, just playing Devil's advocate I guess.

 

[vtac]

For companies who have literature containing links to old threads shortened using a redirection service they can't control I'm definitely willing to help. Again, updates by request.

Example: http://fuckcombustion.com/viewtopic.php?id=909

 

[sessnet]

Ahh nice to see you got it working - using PHP and/or htaccess?

 

[ru_frothi]

So one concern I have is that all the external links from the vaporpedia entries that represent the FAQ and best of the FC currently don't work.

 

[vtac]

Ahh nice to see you got it working - using PHP and/or htaccess?

Magicflight contacted me about it right after the move and it was sorted out. We're serving pages with nginx which doesn't use .htaccess files. Rewrites are done in server config files.

So one concern I have is that all the external links from the vaporpedia entries that represent the FAQ and best of the FC currently don't work.

I responded to your private message on the same topic.

 

[sessnet]

Super - you guys are awesome!

Rock on!

 

[vtac]

The broken links are surely the biggest downside to the migration. It sucks a lot, there's no doubt about that. I believed that the upsides to the new software were worth it. Manually updating 5000+ links may be something I'll tackle in the future but not now and probably not soon.

 

[sessnet]

Can you fix a link for me please? http://www.fuckcombustion.com/viewforum.php?id=2 used to go to the forum list, if it just goes to the main page it's OK. Right now it's broken.

Also if you just fix all the 404's errors and stuff that would fix the problem also. In the htacces usually you declare these:

ErrorDocument 400 http://fuckcombustion.com
ErrorDocument 401 http://fuckcombustion.com
ErrorDocument 403 http://fuckcombustion.com
ErrorDocument 404 http://fuckcombustion.com
ErrorDocument 500 http://fuckcombustion.com

 

[vtac]

Again, I'm aware of the old links and may address them in the future. To point out further issues please contact me privately.

My offer to update old posts stands and a new thread will likely be made for clarity's sake.