Allowing for .com and .net?

Before I installed vbseo our forums could be accessed via .com or .net. This worked great because we have a couple moderators that have one domain blocked at work and use the other. When I installed vbseo it started forwarding the .net requests to .com in the forums, the rest of the site works fine. Can I change it so that it doesn't do that?

Having multiple domains pointing to the same content is bad for SEO, which is why vBSEO uses the Forum URL as defined in your vBulletin Options when building URLs.

Okay, I can understand that. But we need to keep our moderators connected. Does this mean we have to choose one or the other? There is no work around for this?

having 2 domains to one thing is really a bad idea. you'll get duplicate content penalties.

if they are blocked at work, teach them how to use a proxy.

a neat trick is to use the translator from a language to english.

ie,

Translated version of http://www.vbseo.com/

translated from french to english, everything is in english

So I need to bring this back up... my moderator works at a financial company that doesn't allow proxies and we have not found a way to get him access to the site - trust me, we've tried everything. The translated version above is blocked too.

I'm willing to take the "duplicate content penalty" for having 2 domains pointing to the same site/content. I just need to do something to grant him access to the site. He's our only Super Moderator/Admin and we really need him to access the site during the day.

Just tell me how I can make this happen. The domain being used right now is a ".com" and we would like to make the ".net" version available for him to use like we had in the past. Thanks.

tell him to get a new job. lol

it's only a matter of time before they block the .net version too....

vBSEO uses the Forum URL as defined in your vBulletin Options to create URLs.

Originally Posted by briansol

tell him to get a new job. lol

it's only a matter of time before they block the .net version too....

He's been using the .net version for 2 years now with no problem.

Originally Posted by Keith Cohen

vBSEO uses the Forum URL as defined in your vBulletin Options to create URLs.

So is there absolutely no work around for this? I basically either have to use vbseo or uninstall it to achieve what I'm trying to do?

correct. vbseo is designed for ONE url.

So what would happen if I go in and deactivate this plugin? Would all of the links that point to the rewritten pages break? For example, if someone posted a link in the forums that uses the link structure vbseo creates will that link now be broken?

If you remove vBSEO, you will need to setup some reverse .htaccess 301 redirects, to direct back to the original versions.

Originally Posted by Joe Ward

If you remove vBSEO, you will need to setup some reverse .htaccess 301 redirects, to direct back to the original versions.

You wouldn't happen to have an example .htaccess file that does that?

Here are a few to get you started, if you are using the default URL formats. Adjust the /forums/ path as needed.

The member profile one will be "iffy" since it's using usernames, and we all know the issues surrounding usernames with special characters. If you were using a Member Profile URL Format that included the userid, then another redirect could be used and it would be 100% accurate.

I assume that the threads are the primary thing you want to redirect anyway.

Code:

 
Showthread:
RewriteRule ^[^/]+/([0-9]+)-.+.html$ /forums/showthread.php?t=$1 [L,R=301] 
 
Member Profiles:
RewriteRule ^members/.+-([0-9]+)\.html$ /forums/member.php?u=$1 [L,R=301] 
 
Member List:
RewriteRule ^members/list/index([0-9]+)\.html$ /forums/memberlist.php?page=$1 [L,R=301]
RewriteRule ^members/list/(\w)([0-9]+)\.html$ /forums/memberlist.php?ltr=$1&page=$2 [L,R=301]
RewriteRule ^members/list/$ /forums/memberlist.php [L,R=301] 
 
Attachments:
RewriteRule ^attachments/[^/]+/([0-9]+)-.+$ /forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=$1&%{QUERY_STRING} [L,R=301]
 
Posts:
RewriteRule ^([0-9]+)-post([0-9]+)\.html$ /forums/showpost.php?p=$1&postcount=$2 [L,R=301]

Originally Posted by Keith Cohen

Here are a few to get you started, if you are using the default URL formats. Adjust the /forums/ path as needed.

Thanks.