Broken Links in older posts

Vern Graner

Recently, a friend of mine (who I have worked VERY hard to get to use the Propeller for dev purpose) has tried to use these forums to do basic research on objects. Unfortunately, after the update to the new forum software, the links in older posts are almost ALL broken! For example, Try the links included from eWizard shown here:

http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?t=104654

In fact, if you do an "advanced Search" for the keywords:

"default.aspx?f="

You find literally hundreds of orphaned links (the search I did above tops out at 500 hits and won't return more results).

This has made researching very difficult for my friend. Is there any way that Parallax can try to restore/translate these older links...? Maybe allow the old forum to be "visible" in a read-only manner so we don't lose this trove of knowledge..?

Vern

RobotWorkshop

Hello Vern,

The old forums are still online with a different URL:

http://forums.parallaxinc.com/forums/

This thread explains how to convert the links to pull up threads on the old forum:

http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?t=126139

Hope this helps,

Robert

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

Vern,

The "links" you cite are not really links, just plain text that happens to include URLs. The conversion program converted all the actual links in the old forum, but scanning all of the plain text for possible URL-looking patterns and converting them to links would have bogged down the conversion process immeasurably. It was a triage decision that I had to make early on and which I explained here:

http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?t=125472

Here's a post that will direct you to an online tool to convert any unconverted URLs:

http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=943996

-Phil

BrainBlank

How about this for an Idea.

Would it be possible to create a custom 404 page that has a link to that forum converter?

http://www.phipi.com/forum/convert.html

Vern Graner

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) wrote: »

Vern,

The "links" you cite are not really links, just plain text that happens to include URLs. The conversion program converted all the actual links in the old forum, but scanning all of the plain text for possible URL-looking patterns and converting them to links would have bogged down the conversion process immeasurably. It was a triage decision that I had to make early on and which I explained here:

http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?t=125472

Here's a post that will direct you to an online tool to convert any unconverted URLs:

http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=943996

-Phil

Thanks for the response - makes perfect sense. I can understand the need to let some things "give" when time is an issue. I do also see value in BrainBlank's suggestion to place the "translation" link in the 404 page, along with a short text explanation to help guide others..

Vern

Jim Ewald

BrainBlank wrote: »

How about this for an Idea.

Would it be possible to create a custom 404 page that has a link to that forum converter?

http://www.phipi.com/forum/convert.html

Well, we can certainly try that, but I think we should clear that with Phil first. I'll do that on email.

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

I just got back from biking and read Jim's email. I think it's not only a good idea but can be done in a way that minimizes keystrokes and mouse clicks. This should be fun to try!

-Phil