Moved forum threads - now get 404's

[ctfortner]

Hi,

A mod of mine moved some threads last week to an appropriate forum. Some of these threads had external links to them. Now they dont work from the external links, i get a DB error. The new link (after moving) works fine, however other sites that link to the old thread/forum, no longer work. I was under the impression that vbseo would redirect it correctly, but maybe I have something set wrong, or maybe they were moved incorrectly. Anything I can do to fix this, or handle it better moving forward?

I found these in google webmaster tools under webcrawl, there are 10 404's, which were the 10 that were moved to a newly created forum.

Thanks

[Oleg Ignatiuk]

Hello,

did the thread IDs change after moving them? What exactly is the db error message you get (you can see it in html source)?

[ctfortner]

Yes, according to google tools, the thread ID's are different. I realize that is probably the problem, is there any way to correct it? What should be done to avoid that in the future?

When you go to the link, it actually gives an error, here is a screenshot of it.



Here is what the error on the page says

Database error in vBulletin 3.7.2:

Invalid SQL:

        SELECT *
        FROM threadrate
        WHERE userid = 4
            AND threadid =;

MySQL Error   : You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '' at line 4
Error Number  : 1064
Request Date  : Tuesday, February 3rd 2009 @ 01:07:38 PM
Error Date    : Tuesday, February 3rd 2009 @ 01:07:38 PM
Script        : http://www.mywebsite.com/forum/showthread.php?t=76
Referrer      : 
IP Address    : removed
Username      : removed
Classname     : vb_database
MySQL Version : 4.1.21-standard

[Oleg Ignatiuk]

You can setup a Custom Redirect in vBSEO CP in this case. Please post old/new URLs here and I will prepare an example of redirect rule.

[ctfortner]

Ok, here is one of them.

Old - http://www.campercommunity.com/forum...ricks-etc.html

New - Camping/RV Hints, Tips, Tricks, etc.. - RV Forum - CamperCommunity.com

thanks for the help. What should I do in the future to avoid this, and maintain thread ID's?

[Oleg Ignatiuk]

You should define this Redirect in vBSEO CP:

'^rv-camper-discussions/290-camping-rv-hints-tips-tricks-etc\.html$' => 'camping-tips-hints/798-camping-rv-hints-tips-tricks-etc.html'

and similar with other threads.

What should I do in the future to avoid this, and maintain thread ID's?

When you move threads, you should disable "leave redirect thread in old forum" option - then new thread will have the same ID and vBSEO will automatically redirect it.

[ctfortner]

Excellent, I will do this, thanks a lot for the help!

[Oleg Ignatiuk]

You are welcome!