phpbb "fully modded" and Googlebot

implemented the Google mod, not working - session id issue

[icarus]

Hi all,

I was hoping someone could shed a little light on a issue we have with phpBB. It's the "fully modded" version which seems to have serious Google issues. Unfortunately the phpbbfm site is having a few, ahem, problems and I can't register to post my questions there.

We've implemented the standard Google mod for phpBB, which we know to be working very well on other sites, but we are seeing this kind of thing in the Google cache for the few pages that are listed:

phpBB : Critical Error

Error creating new session

DEBUG MODE

SQL Error : 1062 Duplicate entry 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' for key 1

INSERT INTO phpbb_sessions (session_id, session_user_id, session_start, session_time, session_ip, session_page, session_logged_in) VALUES ('xxxxxxx', -1, xxxxxxx, xxxxxx, 'xxxxx', 94, 0)

Line : 184
File : /usr/home/web/forums.site.com/docs/inc/sessions.php

This is way beyond me and even our experienced programmers who adjusted things a bit when it first occurred are scratching their heads.

Anyone struck this before? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[mosley700]

>>Error creating new session <<

That usually has to do with the bb_sessions being full.
However, you might want to re-think the Google-friendly MOD. I chose not to install it and we got top #1 position for the targeted search term, and the index page was indexed in under 2 months. And, people can write some weird stuff, and I'd rather not have Google looking at the posts themselves.
Another thing is, Google indexes the posts w/o having the Google-friendly MOD installed if the PR is high enough. The posts at phpBB are indexed, and the Google-friendly MOD isn't installed on that board.
Sorry if this isn't helpful.

[ruserious]

Sorry, Mosley. But the only threads indexed at phpbb.com are those which are directly linked from other sites. And they do not in any way get PR from the "Homepage" of the domain. So I wouldn't count on that, it's like playing lottery.

As for the problem: Sorry I don't think I have an answer for you... :-/

[mosley700]

ruserious,
No need to apologize. Many, many threads at phpBB without external links are cached. Sticky me if you'd like several examples. ;)

[mosley700]

ruserious
I'm counting hundreds of threads at phpBB.com that are indexed, without any links from other sites.
Not only that, they are giving PR. Several sites are getting PR from links dropped in the threads at phpBB.
That in way is comparable to any lottery I know of. Closer to a certainty than guesswork. Please check your facts before posting something as fact.
Thanks.

[icarus]

Hi Mosley,

We did try phpBB without the mod, but only the top levels of each category were spidered, not the posts themselves - we really want as many posts indexed as possible as there's a lot of good information in them.

You make an interesting point regarding high PR and phpBB. I was under the impression that phpBB.com did have the mod installed. I'll look into this further.

[mosley700]

>>I was under the impression that phpBB.com did have the mod installed. I'll look into this further.<<

I thought so too when I noticed how many posts are indexed. Then I asked the Admins and they replied that they are using a "Vanilla Copy", no MODs. But then they do have PR9, which I'm not likely to get anytime soon.

[ruserious]

I have inverstigated thoroughly. None of the pages you will in google from phpbb have a sessions-ID in the url. So there is no way that Google spidered them through the forums, because there is always (!) a session-ID in the url, unless google started experimenting with cookies. I'll gladly look at your examples though, as I always try to learn. Feel free to sticky me. :)

[mosley700]

Of the hundreds of threads that are indexed, did any of them show backlinks from anywhere? Of all the threads I checked, none show backlinks. I'm sure Google knows how to ignore the session ID portion of the URL.
>>So there is no way that Google spidered them through the forums<<

Why do you think so? If you saw the indexed threads in Google for yourself, all you need to know is right there.

Teoma has been able to index Infopop BBS for a while now. Google handles DevBB just fine, and is indexing phpBB fairly well. I'm guessing someday soon Google might get around to catching up with Teoma when it comes to Infopop forums.

>>I'll gladly look at your examples though, as I always try to learn. Feel free to sticky me. :)<<

All you need you've already seen in the Google SERPs. The posts are indexed w/o backlinks.

[ruserious]

Google only shows backlinks when the linking page has a PR higher than 3 or 4 AFAIR.

[mosley700]

Yes, we are aware of that. How is it related to this discussion?
Are you suggesting that some site with PR2 or below is linking to hundreds of threads at phpBB.com?
;)

[EliteWeb]

I have #1 without any mods installed. Sometimes I dont think there is a need for this mod. Google loves my site no matter what I do. We just get along well :)