Forum software that generates easily spiderable URLs

[sugar2]

what forum sofware is using this site and where can i donwload it?. I like it because it generates new html pages for each topic so they can be indexed by search engines....

thanks!

[Robin_reala]

[webmasterworld.com ]

[sugar2]

actually i dont planning to use THIS sofware, my question is WHAT forum sofware creates friendly URL's
like:
www.example.com/forums/00015/88833.html

i dont like this kind:
www.example.com/thread.asp?aspd9fua0s98dfypuiashdfohasdf9p8ausdf89asdf=?

thanks

[edited by: tedster at 12:26 am (utc) on July 16, 2005]
[edit reason] use example.com [/edit]

[tedster]

"Off-the-shelf" forum software usually generates the query string type of url that you say you don't want. So what you need is another add-on to the software. A URL rewrite step, using different tech depending on whether you are hosted on an Apache Server or a Windows IIS server.

However, if there is only one variable in the query string, the top three search engines are indexing that type of url quite well these days. Just don't use?id= for the parameter, use anything else. "ID" looks like poison to the spiders, because on some sites it can easily trap them in an infinite information space, so they usually will not try. Google explicitly says that they wont spider "?id=nnnn" but will spider other query strings.

There are literally thousands of posts here about rewriting query string urls. Try this Google search [google.com] to get started.

[rogerd]

A few forums create spiderable URLs out of the box. vBulletin creates an "archive" of light, mostly text pages with static-looking URLs. Some perl-based programs like Discusware actually write static pages, though really busy forums may put pressure on this technique.

[linear]

I've been using Simple Machines Forum for a few months now, and its built-in SE friendly URL scheme seems to work well.

[sugar2]

let's say that my forum is hosted in a yah~o business web hosting, so i think i cannot access to the .httpaccess file

is there anoter way to rewrite the url's?

[sugar2]

i will try vBulletin and Simple Machines...
i wish i haven't to edit the .httpaccess file....!

[rogerd]

Sugar, I think the only way you'll get to static URLs without using .htaccess is to find a package that creates actual static pages. For smaller forums this isn't a horrible approach, and can actually provide speedy page delivery.

[sugar2]

thanks for the imput.

[linear]

SMF's out-of-the-box scheme doesn't need a .htaccess file--it uses arguments on the URL a la
[forums.example.org...]

It isn't static (index.php runs, and uses the stuff to the right as arguments), but it sort of looks that way. If "static" is the golden criterion, then no it isn't static, but it gets spidered pretty well for me.

(apologies if this seems like advocacy--I do use this software and am more than familar with the alternatives)