Contradicting Sitemaps?

I have a question regarding contradicting sitemaps..

I am creating a sitemap for my site's root directory. It would only make sense to include my forum's directory within that sitemap (/forum).

I am thinking of setting that directory's priority to 0.7, however, I noticed that vBSEO's sitemap plugin has the priority of the forum set (within the forum's directory with the sitemap that it creates) set to 1.0.

If I set the forum directory within my root sitemap's priority to 0.7, will it contradict the forum directory's sitemap and its priorities?

How shall I do this? Should I just put the sitemap in my root sitemap for further reference instead, ie do <sitemap> instead of <url> for the sitemap and its priorities?

Urgent response would be appreciated.
Thanks.

..anyone?

I don't think this is a problem. You can find more details on priority attribute here: sitemaps.org - Protocol

Originally Posted by Oleg Ignatiuk

I don't think this is a problem. You can find more details on priority attribute here: sitemaps.org - Protocol

Should I just set the priority of the forum directory or should I set the sitemap setting for the forum directory.

I would set the same priority for forum in both sitemaps.

Originally Posted by Oleg Ignatiuk

I would set the same priority for forum in both sitemaps.

What do you mean?
In my forum's root sitemap, I'd be setting the forum directory priority to 0.7...if I were to do it as a URL.

In the forum's sitemap file, it's automatically set as 1.0...so if I did it as a sitemap in my root sitemap for my forum sitemap, would both my root directory and forum directory priority be set 1.0?

You can change forums homepage priority in functions_vbseo_sitemap.php file:
FIND:

PHP Code:

vbseo_add_url($vbseo_vars['bburl'].'/', 1.0); 


and replace 1.0 with desired number.

Originally Posted by Oleg Ignatiuk

You can change forums homepage priority in functions_vbseo_sitemap.php file:
FIND:

PHP Code:

vbseo_add_url($vbseo_vars['bburl'].'/', 1.0); 


and replace 1.0 with desired number.

But I don't know..should it be 1.0 or what ?

We recommend 1.0.

Originally Posted by Oleg Ignatiuk

We recommend 1.0.

So is having the forum's directory and the root directory (the main pages) set to 1.0 okay..?

Yes, that's fine.

Can I just add this bit of code to my root sitemap so that it can find my other sitemaps?

Code:

<sitemap>
<loc>
http://www.link-to-site/forum-directory/sitemap-file-name.xml.gz
</loc>
<lastmod>2008-06-02T02:00:22+00:00</lastmod>
</sitemap>

You can submit forums sitemap index separately in webmaster account.

Originally Posted by Oleg Ignatiuk

You can submit forums sitemap index separately in webmaster account.

Yes, I know...but shouldn't I still have the <sitemap> in my root's sitemap for the forums?

It's not required.