Some Questions About The New Website?

[MI Compassion]

First of all let me say that I think the new site is a significant improvement over the old site and for a work in progress it's very promising.

 

However I have made a couple of observations and have two quick questions...

 

1.) Why was the content from the old forums moved to a different URL or made inaccessible.

 

There was a significant amount of information on the old forums, countless thousands of pages worth of highly related content that was indexed in countless search engines. By making it no longer accessible at the old urls the search engines will have far less indexed, which will certainly cost you search engine rankings. Also many inbound links from other websites will be broken (people on other websites linking to the old forum posts) and you will lose many inbound links which are so important to search engine positioning and driving traffic.

 

Increased traffic could be monetized through ad revenue, and help to fund the activist functions of the 3MA, as well as go to pay a qualified website administrator, further strengthening the community and our cause.

 

It seems to me the best way the forum transition should have been done was by adding a second forum to the site (keeping the Drupal forum in place and adding the IPB forum), and then change the links to the forums to the new forums once in place. Then disable registration and posting on the forums, and post a sticky with a link to the new forums. That way all the old information and posts would still be available, and the search engines would rank you much higher because of it, and it would not break all of those all important imbound links from other websites.

 

This would have retained the same layout and functionality of the site we where used to, but would allow those involved in the forum discussions the many added new features of the new forums.

 

2.) Why no 404 error page with a redirect to the new site?

 

You should have a redirect to the new site on the 404 error page (Page Not Found), so those that do come to the new site through a link to an old forum post get sent to the new site instead of just getting a blank 404 page that never redirects them and with no links to the new site. If someone comes to the site though a broken link and you don't redirect them to the new site most will just click the back button and continue browsing other sites.

 

Thanks again for all the time you've put into getting the new site up and running. Keep up the great work.

[bobandtorey]

Thanks for the post i don't have any answers to you Questions but am sure some one does Peace

[Marijuana Ranch]

420Peace friutloop.com

 

I enjoyed thinking about your observaions.

There are many new helpful features.

[Guest OxXGarfieldXxO]

First of all let me say that I think the new site is a significant improvement over the old site and for a work in progress it's very promising.

 

However I have made a couple of observations and have two quick questions...

 

1.) Why was the content from the old forums moved to a different URL or made inaccessible.

 

There was a significant amount of information on the old forums, countless thousands of pages worth of highly related content that was indexed in countless search engines. By making it no longer accessible at the old urls the search engines will have far less indexed, which will certainly cost you search engine rankings. Also many inbound links from other websites will be broken (people on other websites linking to the old forum posts) and you will lose many inbound links which are so important to search engine positioning and driving traffic.

 

Increased traffic could be monetized through ad revenue, and help to fund the activist functions of the 3MA, as well as go to pay a qualified website administrator, further strengthening the community and our cause.

 

It seems to me the best way the forum transition should have been done was by adding a second forum to the site (keeping the Drupal forum in place and adding the IPB forum), and then change the links to the forums to the new forums once in place. Then disable registration and posting on the forums, and post a sticky with a link to the new forums. That way all the old information and posts would still be available, and the search engines would rank you much higher because of it, and it would not break all of those all important imbound links from other websites.

 

This would have retained the same layout and functionality of the site we where used to, but would allow those involved in the forum discussions the many added new features of the new forums.

 

2.) Why no 404 error page with a redirect to the new site?

 

You should have a redirect to the new site on the 404 error page (Page Not Found), so those that do come to the new site through a link to an old forum post get sent to the new site instead of just getting a blank 404 page that never redirects them and with no links to the new site. If someone comes to the site though a broken link and you don't redirect them to the new site most will just click the back button and continue browsing other sites.

 

Thanks again for all the time you've put into getting the new site up and running. Keep up the great work.

 

1) The old site is a completely different format. The old "node" urls are proprietary to the Drupal system. The sites host has made a comment that many people are attempting to visit bookmarked threads. All of the old information is still here (with the exception of the last couple of weeks on the old site). As far as search engine rankings, this system is far more SEO friendly, and any drop is momentary. I'm sure we've all seen the Yahoo and Google bots listed in the active viewers panel in the footer. This system is far easier for the bots to crawl, so I wouldn't worry about the ranking.

 

On the drupal: No point in using that junk open source system for the static content, then use IPB for the forum. We would of still had the same problem. Drupals taxonomy system is all set up on this "node" system, and incomparable with every forum software on the planet. We would of still been left with a mess from the old post. So keeping a 2 system site isn't the best as you'd have to deal with multiple logins, and systems that aren't compatible. Making things easier for Mods and users alike was the plan, and this system far outshines drupal in every respect.

 

2)Like I mentioned above the host is aware of this. Any 404 displays and redirects take place on his level. This hosting situation is odd to say the very least. We have no access to error pages on this server.

[MI Compassion]

1) The old site is a completely different format. The old "node" urls are proprietary to the Drupal system. The sites host has made a comment that many people are attempting to visit bookmarked threads. All of the old information is still here (with the exception of the last couple of weeks on the old site). As far as search engine rankings, this system is far more SEO friendly, and any drop is momentary. I'm sure we've all seen the Yahoo and Google bots listed in the active viewers panel in the footer. This system is far easier for the bots to crawl, so I wouldn't worry about the ranking.

 

On the drupal: No point in using that junk open source system for the static content, then use IPB for the forum. We would of still had the same problem. Drupals taxonomy system is all set up on this "node" system, and incomparable with every forum software on the planet. We would of still been left with a mess from the old post. So keeping a 2 system site isn't the best as you'd have to deal with multiple logins, and systems that aren't compatible. Making things easier for Mods and users alike was the plan, and this system far outshines drupal in every respect.

 

2)Like I mentioned above the host is aware of this. Any 404 displays and redirects take place on his level. This hosting situation is odd to say the very least. We have no access to error pages on this server.

 

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. I agree with most of your response, though it will take awhile to regain the inbound links, though in time they will come back naturally.

 

It sucks not having complete control over the hosting environment, but it also sucks having to switch hosts... and a lot of effort to ask from a volunteer.

 

You have done a great job on the new site, hopefully the 3MA will decide you are worth paying.

 

Thanks again for all your hard work.

[christinax4]

was that conversation taking place on Tattooine?

[Guest OxXGarfieldXxO]

@Micompassion.com

I understand ya man. Believe me, I wish a professional state organization would of used a more "pro" system from the beginning. But they didn't. At least they recognized the fact they outgrew the Drupal and took care of it when they could.

 

Increased traffic could be monetized through ad revenue, and help to fund the activist functions of the 3MA, as well as go to pay a qualified website administrator, further strengthening the community and our cause.

 

I think the MMMA should sign up for google ads myself. I know everyone hates ads, but the revenue they could get would sure help out the cause. But of course that's on the boards shoulders to decide.

 

Best