Old Forums- Hey Dev Team

[Griglok]

So, as I've adjusted to using the new forums- there are many features that I really enjoy. I like the bell that notifies me whenever a new post happens in a thread I've commented in, I like the new format options, custom banner/avatar/title/etc.

The only thing that is a negative for me is the lack of accessibility to the old forums. I understand that we're supposed to just add "-old" to get the old links to work, but this quite often doesn't work and leads to a maintenance page. For all practical purposes, the old forums just don't exist anymore at all. In my opinion, this is bad given the trove of knowledge about the game that was stored there.

I'll do my part as I have time to transfer the builds/guides that I've personally created over the years, but it would be excellent if there was a way to restore some level of functionality to the old forums even if they are just for reference now.

 

[axel15810]

I'd also add that I strongly suggest to the devs that the "we are undergoing maintenance" page that appears for every broken link to the old forums should be updated with a link to the new forums and a message saying something along the lines of "hello, you're trying to access the old forums, here's a link to the new ones etc. etc." so people searching for info about the game don't just think the website is broken and can be redirected to the right place.

 

[Dude]

So, as I've adjusted to using the new forums- there are many features that I really enjoy. I like the bell that notifies me whenever a new post happens in a thread I've commented in, I like the new format options, custom banner/avatar/title/etc.

The only thing that is a negative for me is the lack of accessibility to the old forums. I understand that we're supposed to just add "-old" to get the old links to work, but this quite often doesn't work and leads to a maintenance page. For all practical purposes, the old forums just don't exist anymore at all. In my opinion, this is bad given the trove of knowledge about the game that was stored there.

I'll do my part as I have time to transfer the builds/guides that I've personally created over the years, but it would be excellent if there was a way to restore some level of functionality to the old forums even if they are just for reference now.

It's linked at the top of this same forum.

 

[Lag4Ever]

I'd also add that I strongly suggest to the devs that the "we are undergoing maintenance" page that appears for every broken link to the old forums should be updated with a link to the new forums and a message saying something along the lines of "hello, you're trying to access the old forums, here's a link to the new ones etc. etc." so people searching for info about the game don't just think the website is broken and can be redirected to the right place.

I would add that the "maintenance" landing page should have a link to the top level of the archived forums (in addition to the current forums) as well as an auto-generated link to the thread attempted to access (which would help immensely for those who click through a google search result or a static link from elsewhere).

For example:
It appears you are attempting to access a thread (forums.ddo.com/<threadlink>) on forums which have now been archived at forums-old.ddo.com
That specific thread should be available in read-only mode at forums-old.ddo.com/<threadlink> and you can also access the current forums at forums.ddo.com

 

[Kimbere]

So, as I've adjusted to using the new forums- there are many features that I really enjoy. I like the bell that notifies me whenever a new post happens in a thread I've commented in, I like the new format options, custom banner/avatar/title/etc.

The only thing that is a negative for me is the lack of accessibility to the old forums. I understand that we're supposed to just add "-old" to get the old links to work, but this quite often doesn't work and leads to a maintenance page. For all practical purposes, the old forums just don't exist anymore at all. In my opinion, this is bad given the trove of knowledge about the game that was stored there.

I'll do my part as I have time to transfer the builds/guides that I've personally created over the years, but it would be excellent if there was a way to restore some level of functionality to the old forums even if they are just for reference now.

Short version is this: Take any link to the old forums and replace the www.ddo.com or forums.ddo.com portion of the link with forums-old.ddo.com.

Doesn't matter if the original link started with www.ddo.com OR forums.ddo.com. Replace either one with forums-old.ddo.com and it will work.

Detailed instructions for accessing links to the old forums with either style of URL here:

https://forums.ddo.com/index.php?threads/bring-back-the-old-forums-or-at-least-pin-them.745/#post-6621

As usual, SSG just kind of phoned it in on the instructions they pinned to the top of the General forum. They could/should have just stickied the instructions I posted and been better off for it.

 

[Griglok]

Short version is this: Take any link to the old forums and replace the www.ddo.com or forums.ddo.com portion of the link with forums-old.ddo.com.

Doesn't matter if the original link started with www.ddo.com OR forums.ddo.com. Replace either one with forums-old.ddo.com and it will work.

Detailed instructions for accessing links to the old forums with either style of URL here:

https://forums.ddo.com/index.php?threads/bring-back-the-old-forums-or-at-least-pin-them.745/#post-6621

As usual, SSG just kind of phoned it in on the instructions they pinned to the top of the General forum. They could/should have just stickied the instructions I posted and been better off for it.

Correct, and I point this out in the OP here. However, this still often leads to the maintenance page. And yes, I'm aware that there is a link at the top of these forums. Many head to google to find a link, and won't bother updating the page but just assume the game is down.

Of course, if they make it here, they will benefit from all that is posted here over time.

 

[Kimbere]

Correct, and I point this out in the OP here. However, this still often leads to the maintenance page. And yes, I'm aware that there is a link at the top of these forums. Many head to google to find a link, and won't bother updating the page but just assume the game is down.

Of course, if they make it here, they will benefit from all that is posted here over time.

If you follow the instructions I posted, you can make ANY previously valid link to the old forums work. I tested it pretty extensively.

You can't just click on the old links. You have to right-click on the link, select "Copy Link", then paste that into the address bar, notepad, or whatever you prefer. Then edit the first part of the link after https:// to replace either www.ddo.com OR forums.ddo.com with forums-old.ddo.com.

You are correct in that SSG could/should have put up a more helpful maintenance page, but it's SSG so...

 

[Lag4Ever]

Short version is this: Take any link to the old forums and replace the www.ddo.com or forums.ddo.com portion of the link with forums-old.ddo.com.

Doesn't matter if the original link started with www.ddo.com OR forums.ddo.com. Replace either one with forums-old.ddo.com and it will work.

Detailed instructions for accessing links to the old forums with either style of URL here:

https://forums.ddo.com/index.php?threads/bring-back-the-old-forums-or-at-least-pin-them.745/#post-6621

As usual, SSG just kind of phoned it in on the instructions they pinned to the top of the General forum. They could/should have just stickied the instructions I posted and been better off for it.

One issue with this approach happens when you are searching for DDO info through google and get a result on the old forums. You can't just do an easy copy/replace for forums-old because the copied link is in a format with all sorts of tracking BS:
url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiAx5f86OP_AhVkIEQIHaUrCmEQFnoECCwQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ddo.com%2Fforums%2Fshowthread.php%2F517809-Invitation-to-Dinner-Key&usg=AOvVaw22xe72XxSKWr1Vp2VW4gyd&opi=89978449

Or maybe that's just because I'm just a dirty Mac user.

But this is why I suggested that the "maintenance" page autogenerate a friendly link to the archived forum link that was attempted to be accessed - in some cases it's not easy to copy a clean link, but SSG should be able to easily parse what the intended destination is.

 

[Kimbere]

One issue with this approach happens when you are searching for DDO info through google and get a result on the old forums. You can't just do an easy copy/replace for forums-old because the copied link is in a format with all sorts of tracking BS:
url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiAx5f86OP_AhVkIEQIHaUrCmEQFnoECCwQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ddo.com%2Fforums%2Fshowthread.php%2F517809-Invitation-to-Dinner-Key&usg=AOvVaw22xe72XxSKWr1Vp2VW4gyd&opi=89978449

Or maybe that's just because I'm just a dirty Mac user.

But this is why I suggested that the "maintenance" page autogenerate a friendly link to the archived forum link that was attempted to be accessed - in some cases it's not easy to copy a clean link, but SSG should be able to easily parse what the intended destination is.

This is true. Not much that can be done about links from search results if the searcher doesn't know about the forum changes. SSG probably should have put up an informative maintenance page at a minimum.

I would assume that the SEO rankings for URLs referencing the old forums will eventually drop low enough due to the broken links that they'll stop showing up in the first page or two of search results at some point soon.

I considered even throwing together a script together for the Greasemonkey browser extension to automatically rewrite the URLs but I channeled my inner SSG and didn't feel like putting that much effort in.

Edit:
I forgot to mention that there are sites that will decode the Google search result URLs to remove the non-plain-text encoding. Then you can grab the real URL from the end of Google's bs.

Search for "url decoder". Here's the one I use: https://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/dencoder/

 

[Falkor]

Adding a link to the old forums on the maintenance page would be smart and helpful.