vBulletin 5 URL structure (Split from "What do you like about vB5?")

[s.molinari]

I like the url structure.

Are you serious or is that sarcasm?

Because the URL structure is a long running issue with a good number of customers (and effectively ignored by IB.....again).

Here is standard URL on vB.com for a thread.

http://www. vbulletin.com/forum/forum/vbulletin-sales-and-feedback/licensed-customer-feedback/4009026-vbulletin-5-1-0-release-discussion

If you go down a couple forum levels down further, it gets worse and the URL gets even more mofugly.

Like this gem.

http://www. vbulletin.com/forum/forum/customizing-vbulletin/vbulletin-downloads/vbulletin-language-packs/172210-ae-3-x-vb-perfect-arabic-language-packages

This is how this URL should look.

http://www. vbulletin.com/forum/172210-ae-3-x-vb-perfect-arabic-language-packages

In this form, it is simply a lot cleaner.

Although search engines don't care how long your URLs are, people do. They have to sometimes work with them and are often visually referenced for the key words the user is searching for (mostly in search results, but also on the website too). If the URL is too long, often it will get concatenated or your user can't even see the end, where the important key words are, and if your lucky, like with Google, the key words are still highlighted in the result. Still, a long cut up URL looks a lot uglier in the results and long URLs are generally a user experience no-no.

It is also highly debatable about whether or not such long URLs containing key words from the parent forum hierarchy help with rankings. Google might, in fact, not like it at all, as it looks sort of like key word stuffing. I am not sure about that, so don't take this supposition for granted as correct information. I'd go look it up, but personally, I just wouldn't do such long URLs, simply because of the usability factor.

Scott

 

[Sherrie]

Oh dear, I just had a look and you're right, was it always like this? I could've sworn when I looked a few months ago it was setup as /forum/forumsectiontitle/threadtitle

Feel real silly now, that was the only thing I liked!

I hope they fix that, those urls look as spammy as the forum meta tags in vb4!

 

[s.molinari]

No, unfortunately, its been like that from the start of vB5.

I am uncertain too, but I think the "forum/forum" crap in the URL is only native to vB.com. It's still pretty lame to have that on their showcase/ customer forum, especially when it most likely could be fixed fairly easily. If it can't be fixed and is a actually another poor part of the software, well, that is just really sad.

Scott

 

[BirdOPrey5]

Oh dear, I just had a look and you're right, was it always like this? I could've sworn when I looked a few months ago it was setup as /forum/forumsectiontitle/threadtitle

Feel real silly now, that was the only thing I liked!

I hope they fix that, those urls look as spammy as the forum meta tags in vb4!

That is basically what it is. vBulletin 5 is installed in the /forum/ directory on vbulletin.com, that is why there is a double /forum/forum/ if it was installed in the web root or a folder like /community/ there would only be one /forum/ in the URL.

 

[s.molinari]

If it were to be installed in the /community directory, wouldn't the URL be "/community/forum"? And the unnecessary extra directory in the URL is a general problem with the software? If it was in the root (why isn't it in the root?), what would the URL to the forum look like then?

Scott

 

[BirdOPrey5]

If it were to be installed in the /community directory, wouldn't the URL be "/community/forum"? And the unnecessary extra directory in the URL is a general problem with the software? If it was in the root (why isn't it in the root?), what would the URL to the forum look like then?

Scott

Yes it would be /community/forum/

Only your OPINION it is unnecessary. There is also /blogs/ and /groups/ so you can easily tell what type of content you are dealing with. I like the unique URLs.

Why isn't it in root? Because the pages to sell the product are in root. Way back in VB2 days it was installed in /forum/ and that is where it remains.

 

[s.molinari]

It is unnecessary, and not just my opinion. There are many others who complained about it, because it should be

vbulletin.com/forums
vbulletin.com/blog
vbulletin.com/social-groups

and not

vbulletin.com/forums/forums
vbulletin.com/forums/blog
vbulletin.com/forums/social-groups

What is the new CMS going to be?

vbulletin.com/forums/articles

????:cookoo:

Scott

 

[Jack_Rouse]

I always install directly to the root, that shortens the URL by one directory, reading this it sounds like I am doing something wrong.

ie: http://www.footballlounge.net/forum.php

 

[we_are_borg]

It is unnecessary, and not just my opinion. There are many others who complained about it, because it should be

vbulletin.com/forums
vbulletin.com/blog
vbulletin.com/social-groups

...

Scott

This is a good example how it should look and work and people should be allowed to say vbulletin.com/ is CMS or forum or blog or Soucial-groups tha would make it great to use.

 

[s.molinari]

I always install directly to the root, that shortens the URL by one directory, reading this it sounds like I am doing something wrong.

ie: http://www.footballlounge.net/forum.php

The way it looks, you aren't using friendly URLs at all. Which is actually not a problem either. They just don't look so pretty for the user, that's all.

Scott

 

[BirdOPrey5]

It is unnecessary, and not just my opinion. There are many others who complained about it, because it should be

vbulletin.com/forums
vbulletin.com/blog
vbulletin.com/social-groups

and not

vbulletin.com/forums/forums
vbulletin.com/forums/blog
vbulletin.com/forums/social-groups

What is the new CMS going to be?

vbulletin.com/forums/articles

????:cookoo:

Scott

If that decision was made 10 years ago it would have been great- but once you already have the forum installed in a directory changing it now would break all old links, which people would be complaining about. No win scenario. They made the right choice to keep old links working and not worry about how a url looks. Logic > Vanity.

I always install directly to the root, that shortens the URL by one directory, reading this it sounds like I am doing something wrong.

ie: http://www.footballlounge.net/forum.php

You're doing it fine.

 

[s.molinari]

If that decision was made 10 years ago it would have been great- but once you already have the forum installed in a directory changing it now would break all old links, which people would be complaining about. No win scenario. They made the right choice to keep old links working and not worry about how a url looks. Logic > Vanity.

None of the vB4 URls on vB.com had "/forum/forums" in them.

So your argument is flawed.

Scott

 

[Lizard King]

All forum scripts have forums , topics/threads in their rewrite modules.

http://community.invisionpower.com/
http://xenforo.com/community/forums/announcements/

That is not the problem , problem is how things are implemented to vBulletin.com , they could easily move vBulletin installation to their route and keep their existing urls in place. Instead they simply choose to keep that un user-friendly url format on their show case vBulletin installation

 

[Mark.B]

The vB5 URLS are completely logical

/forum
/blog
/socialgroups

Etc

The unfortunate thing is that if your existing path is /forum, then anything in the forum channel will display as /forum/forum

What's missing is the ability to change this.

Of course, I'll, now receive the usual load of abuse, what a fail vB is, etc etc, by the usual crowd, but that doesn't change how the design is meant to work. If you take out the second /forum completely, you are then missing one level of the proper path to that channel.

 

[Mark.B]

It is unnecessary, and not just my opinion. There are many others who complained about it, because it should be

vbulletin.com/forums
vbulletin.com/blog
vbulletin.com/social-groups

and not

vbulletin.com/forums/forums
vbulletin.com/forums/blog
vbulletin.com/forums/social-groups

What is the new CMS going to be?

vbulletin.com/forums/articles

????:cookoo:

Scott

That requires you to have your forum installed in the root. Not everyone wants that.

As I said in my previous post, the only thing missing is the ability to change the name of the channel. What you seem to be proposing, is banning anyone from installing the software anywhere other than the root, or possibly having an inconsistent URL structure (some channels at top level, others not). Good luck with that.

 

[s.molinari]

All forum scripts have forums , topics/threads in their rewrite modules.

http://community.invisionpower.com/
http://xenforo.com/community/forums/announcements/

That is not the problem , problem is how things are implemented to vBulletin.com , they could easily move vBulletin installation to their route and keep their existing urls in place. Instead they simply choose to keep that un user-friendly url format on their show case vBulletin installation

Right. Xenforo does it better.

http://xenforo.com/community/forums/
http://xenforo.com/community/resources/
http://xenforo.com/community/members/

Mark, you admitted to the URL being a problem. You shouldn't get knocked for that.

Basically, any data about the physical path of the software on the server shouldn't be in the URL.

Is it in Jira?

Scott

 

[Mark.B]

Right. Xenforo does it better.

http://xenforo.com/community/forums/
http://xenforo.com/community/resources/
http://xenforo.com/community/members/

Mark, you admitted to the URL being a problem. You shouldn't get knocked for that.

Basically, any data about the physical path of the software on the server shouldn't be in the URL.

Is it in Jira?

Scott

As Joe says, I'm sure if vBulletin's support forums were being set up from scratch, they'd do something other than install them in /forum.

XenForo had the advantage there, they chose a different Folder.

In every other way, the criticism of vB5's generic URL structure is equally valid for XenForo, but nobody ever mentions that. I wonder why. Nothing to do with personal agendas, I'm sure.

 

[GTB]

As Joe says, I'm sure if vBulletin's support forums were being set up from scratch, they'd do something other than install them in /forum.

XenForo had the advantage there, they chose a different Folder.

In every other way, the criticism of vB5's generic URL structure is equally valid for XenForo, but nobody ever mentions that. I wonder why. Nothing to do with personal agendas, I'm sure.

Not true, it makes perfect sense to have: /community/forums.

Whereas, forums/forums is daft.

But I understand vB have always had it that way, so don't want to change it now due to links in Google and other search engines all breaking.

 

[s.molinari]

In every other way, the criticism of vB5's generic URL structure is equally valid for XenForo, but nobody ever mentions that. I wonder why. Nothing to do with personal agendas, I'm sure.

Um, Xenforo doesn't add all the forum and sub-forum names into their URLs and make them so ugly like vB5 does. So no. You are wrong and that is why Xenforo customers don't have a problem with Xenforo.

And at the time of the downgrade to vB5, someone could have easily changed the /forum directory to /community. All the past links were destroyed by the downgrade anyway.

And every "personal agenda" every (ex)customer here has is 1000 times better than the agenda you or Joe have here to try and defend a very poor software.

Scott

 

[GTB]

And at the time of the downgrade to vB5, someone could have easily changed the /forum directory to /community. All the past links were destroyed by the downgrade anyway.

Good point, never thought about that. Yes, they could have changed it then.