Two-Step External Links for Link Weight Retention

[aspen0]

Two-Step External Links
Thought up by Chris Beasley, coded by Chris Bowyer, copyright Jalic Inc. 2009.

Compatibility
Tested on 3.7.x and 3.8.x, may work on older versions as well.

Description
With Google's recent change to nofollow calculations using nofollow on your user submitted external links will still harm your site by depriving your internal links of PageRank. (See here (http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/pagerank-sculpting/).)

Forums that had installed nofollow on signature or other such user contributed links thinking they were controlling this are in fact no longer doing so.

One solution is a two-step linking process presenting a disclaimer on a redirect page (filled
with your internal links) to mitigate link weight loss. For a full explanation of benefits and the math behind them see the official page (a wordpress plugin is also available there).

Two-Step External Linking (http://www.websitepublisher.net/two-step)

This method is also useful for sites needing a disclaimer before sending people to third party user contributed websites for legal or liability reasons.

Using this plugin can reduce the amount of pagerank sent through user contributed signature and other links by over 90%, for every post or thread on your forum. It also allows you to keep using nofollow to indicate to search engines that if the link is to a bad neighborhood you are not at fault, while not wasting link weight on the nofollow link.

Settings
The settings are located in vBulletin Options -> vBulletin Options -> All the way at the bottom. You can do the following:

1. Create a white list of domains or urls exempt from redirecting.
2. Decide to apply "nofollow" to the external link that shows on the redirect page or not.
3. Turn on two-step linking for signature links.
4. Turn on two-step linking for post/profile visitor message/blog links.
5. Turn on two-step linking for user profile/memberlist links.
6. Define your redirect warning disclaimer paragraph.
7. Decide to use an additional automated meta-redirect or not, and the second delay.


Statistics

New Files: 1
File Edits: 2
Products to Install: 1
Readme included

Additional Uses
Because the actual redirect page is fairly independent of vbulletin and easy to access, you can run any other external links from any software on your site through it simply with the format of example.com/forums/externalredirect.php?url=http://www.externalexample.com. So if you're able to edit your CMS or otherwise manually format your links as such, they will be run through the redirect as well.

Support

I'll do my best to provide support in this thread only for people who have it installed.

Version History

1.00 - Initial Release
1.01 - bug fixes
1.02 - bug fixes, added admin toggle to allow you to choose to only show redirects to guests.
1.03 - bug fixes
1.04 - bug fixes, non-www urls & sigpic problems fixed.
1.05 - Jan 25th 2011, small xss flaw fixed

[aspen0]

Documentation

Briefly, why this plugin is needed.

PageRank, or link weight, flows throughout your site like water, going from page to page, post to post, thread to blog to post to memberprofile through links. It flows in circles in a closed system.

When external links are added the system opens up, and water leaves your system to these third party websites. You now have less water.

On a forum page with a thread with 25 posts there can easily be over a hundred external links from signatures or post bodies. If you also have 100 internal links you're losing half of your water on that thread page. If such a situation is typical for your forum you're more or less losing half of your water for your entire site. Which means, simplistically, that if you implemented this plugin you could almost double your water (through conservation). That can have a large affect on both rankings and the depth to which Google will crawl your site.

The above is a simplistic explanation of a complicated process, but it should illustrate the drastic difference external link management can make. It is so important I believe vbulletin was officially going to code nofollow into 4.0, but now with nofollow not really helping you need something else, like this plugin.

Savings

The redirect page shows your forum template including header & footer for a reason. The amount of link weight this plugin will save your site is found by dividing 1 by the number of total links on the redirect page for a non-logged in user.

If you have 10 links on the page, 1/10 = 0.10. 10% is lost, you're saving 90% of what would have been lost without this plugin.
If you have 20 links on the page, 1/20 = 0.05. 5% is lost, you're saving 95% of what would have been lost without this plugin.
If you have 50 links on the page, 1/50 = 0.02. 2% is lost, you're saving 98% of what would have been lost without this plugin.

And again, if you merely use rel=nofollow on external links (like many sites have done before now) you're still losing that weight thanks to what Google recently changed as per their announcement in June 2009.

So, if you install this plugin and on a forum thread page you've got 50 internal links and 50 external links, you're losing 50% of the weight on that page to the redirect page from the plugin (the weight is split between all links). However, if you've got 50 links on the redirect page, the redirect page is then salvaging 98% of that 50% back to your site. So in the end you only lose 1% of the link weight that was present on the original thread page, and no matter how many users post, how many links they have in their signature, in such a situation it'll be impossible for you to ever lose more than 2% of the weight of that post. They could post a million links and you wouldn't lose more than 2% of your weight. That is the beauty of the system.

The other beauty is that because there are valid reasons to do this anyways, irregardless of search engines, someone would be hard pressed to describe this as anything but white hat seo. As opposed to cloaking or otherwise hiding your external links.

Install

Do the file edits described in the readme file.
Upload externalredirect.php to your forum root directory.
Install the plugin xml file using VB's plugin manager.
Visit vBulletin Options ==> vBulletin Options and scroll to the bottom of the global option list to turn on the plugin and edit settings.

nofollow settings
The nofollow setting in the admin is to set whether or not the external link on the redirect page will use nofollow. This is recommended to be on. This does not set nofollow to be applied to the external links where they are first visible on your post pages and within signatures, this is to be avoided as it can hurt you which is why this hack exists.

Whitelist Settings

To be safe you should add your domain to the whitelist after install.

The whitelist is a wildcard search just like VB's built in IP and EMAIL based banning.

Entering www.example.com in your whitelist would match "www.example.com" but not "example.com"

So, to add an entire domain to the whitelist, it is best to keep it in the format of "example.com" which will match to "www.example.com" and "example.com" and "blog.example.com" and any other such domains.

Caching

After installing you may need to reload various caches to get the redirects to show up, to test try making a new post that would not have yet been cached.

[TWTCommish]

Reserved here, too. :) This was aspen's idea and he asked me to develop it, so I thought it might be worth reserving a second post, in case I happen to come across any questions or common issues which I can answer. Enjoy the hack!

[Sweeks]

Do VBSeo users need this? :)

[aspen0]

I don't support or use VBseo (there are reasons), but Google made this announcement within the past month so I find it unlikely they have implemented anything like this.

If VBseo currently assigns nofollow to user signatures and other user contributed links, then yes, this would be an improvement. If VBseo currently does nothing to such links, then yes this would be an improvement. The only way this won't be an improvement really is if VBseo currently does this exact thing.

In fact, VBseo may be hurting you. Doing some Googling it looks like VBseo may be using rel=nofollow to block even some internal site navigation, such as to printthread.php, this will result in that link weight being lost now, not retained as it was until recently. The proper solution is to use the new canonical link element to define the canonical URL for the same content source (ie, showthread.php for all printthread.php locations). Ever since the announcement webmasters have been scrambling to remove nofollow from any and all internal links that had it, it can only hurt you to use it in that fashion now.

[TimberFloorAu]

Sounds very plausible.

I would like more information please, on the different link types you mention. I must confess I have never really understood the different link terms.

My expertise ends at "_new" and "_blank"

Could you explain more, and provide some example of a typical setup, to increase our "water retention" as you imply.

Regards Ste

[Alfa1]

Thank you. Tagged for installation after vb4 comes out. I hope you will upgrade this to be compatible with vb4.

[kkingg]

thanks but I cant installed

[kawe]

isnt work for me :(
already follow readme.txt

[relaxiha]

WARNING: you are about to leave this web site and proceed to an external address. This link was submitted by a user and we cannot guarantee the appropriateness of the content it contains.

Continue to http://www.xxxxxxxxxxxx.com


Hello. This message will show. Whether is true? Please help me to.

[aspen0]

Sounds very plausible.

I would like more information please, on the different link types you mention. I must confess I have never really understood the different link terms.

My expertise ends at "_new" and "_blank"

Could you explain more, and provide some example of a typical setup, to increase our "water retention" as you imply.

Regards Ste
Assuming you've read the linked to page already ( http://www.websitepublisher.net/two-step/ ), you can find out more about PageRank or Link Weight here:

http://www.websitepublisher.net/article/link_popularity/
especially here:
http://www.websitepublisher.net/article/link_popularity/7 which is the page that covers this specific issue - just ignore what is said about nofollow, the article hasn't been updated yet

This article here: http://www.websitepublisher.net/article/optimizing-internal-links/ covers this topic specifically for your internal links, rather than external links, but may help you understand the concept more.

[aspen0]

WARNING: you are about to leave this web site and proceed to an external address. This link was submitted by a user and we cannot guarantee the appropriateness of the content it contains.

Continue to http://www.xxxxxxxxxxxx.com


Hello. This message will show. Whether is true? Please help me to.
That is the default message, to change that message in your AdminCP go to vbulletin options > vbulletin options, and then scroll down the list to Two-Step External Links, and select it, and you can edit the paragraph there.

[smirkley]

After some study on the subject I can plainly see the use for this feature.

A question if you would,...

Since all of my sig and post-external (as well as post-internal links), open in a new browser instance, and since this modification mearly provides a go-between page for the purposes defined, would it not be a good idea to just use a redirect page similar to stock vB?

IE - no header, navbar, footer, nor ad spots,... just the simple box stating the specific redirect?

I have reviewed your forum to get a feel of how it works, and the redirect page seems confusing with all the normal templated forum hotspots used in it.

Is this something that can be edited within a template for the mod?

(I know I havent clicked installed, I am trying to decide if this will work as defined and be customizable as I described) Thanks in advance.

[aspen0]

I'll need more details to help you troubleshoot guys. Did you do the file edits?

[aspen0]

After some study on the subject I can plainly see the use for this feature.

A question if you would,...

Since all of my sig and post-external (as well as post-internal links), open in a new browser instance, and since this modification mearly provides a go-between page for the purposes defined, would it not be a good idea to just use a redirect page similar to stock vB?

IE - no header, navbar, footer, nor ad spots,... just the simple box stating the specific redirect?

I have reviewed your forum to get a feel of how it works, and the redirect page seems confusing with all the normal templated forum hotspots used in it.

Is this something that can be edited within a template for the mod?

(I know I havent clicked installed, I am trying to decide if this will work as defined and be customizable as I described) Thanks in advance.
That would defeat the purpose.

You NEED the menu/header/footer because that is what saves the link weight.

When link weight is transferred it is shared between all the links on a page, which is why long forum threads become so dangerous because they can add up a lot of links (or blog posts with lots of comments, hence the upcoming wordpress plugin).

So, what you're doing is increasing your odds by outnumbering the external links with internal ones. On the forum page the external links may outnumber the internal ones, but on the redirect page there will only ever be 1 external link.

To find out how much weight is lost to that external link divide 1 by the total number of links on the page. So, if you have 20 links on the page, 5% is lost through the external link.

If we removed all the headers and footers and everything then you'd be dividing 1/1 = 100%, 100% of the weight would be lost. You've gained nothing.

Otherwise we'd not do a visible redirect at all, just do an automated php redirect. The point is to provide a redirect page with lots of visible internal links, the more visible internal links, the better.

Does that help?

[smirkley]

Question answered and that makes complete sense.

Thank you.

I will be installing shortly.

You have a nice site and very informative btw.

[smirkley]

OK, nother question,..

I noted that at least on your site on the forums in showthread,..

The sig links are processed through the redirect regardless of their destination, internally or externally.

Does this also hold true for posts, blog entries, etc?

Does the modification have ability to recognise internal links vs external links and properly allow or disallow the redirect depending on the destination? (Just thinking it would be a headache for members to click an internal link embedded in either a post,sig,or vbblog, and have to review and go through the redirect page) (I dont mean any CMS, just stock vb products)

[TWTCommish]

I'll field that one. :) The script automatically leaves links from the site's own domain alone. There's also a "whitelist" setting where you can list other domains that you'd like the mod to ignore.

[smirkley]

I'll field that one. :) The script automatically leaves links from the site's own domain alone. There's also a "whitelist" setting where you can list other domains that you'd like the mod to ignore.

Thank you and that does answer my question. I will be installing this but havent yet as I am not at my main console. Had I installed it I would have known about the whitelist, so my bad, and thank you again.

That would defeat the purpose.

You NEED the menu/header/footer because that is what saves the link weight.



As I have further thought about this, I am left wondering a bit more on the purpose of all the internal links on the redirect page.

Since the redirect pages full purpose is to dilute the assumed pr points loss for pages with many external links in posts, than the redirect page is assumably doing this by virtue of pulling the link off the page as a single external link, and surrounding it with internal links that normally appear as a function of page view in the forums.

But the more I think about it, it wont matter anyway on the redirect page, as the original threadview page is the one we hold greater concern with in regards to pagerank, as that is the one we have indexed. The external links will be by virtue of this mod, already prevent the pr points from being leaked away, and the redirect page, which is never spidered anyway as it is nofollow (I believe), will hold no concern nor effect of the pr points of the original indexed thread page.

Basically, I am seeing that a simple no-header/no-footer redirect box/page would suffice in protecting the pr points of the original thread, provided the original thread external links are reformatted to appear internal, as I believe this modification does already, to the search engines.

Is my thinking flawed in this?

Thanks again.

[aspen0]

Thank you and that does answer my question. I will be installing this but havent yet as I am not at my main console. Had I installed it I would have known about the whitelist, so my bad, and thank you again.



As I have further thought about this, I am left wondering a bit more on the purpose of all the internal links on the redirect page.

Since the redirect pages full purpose is to dilute the assumed pr points loss for pages with many external links in posts, than the redirect page is assumably doing this by virtue of pulling the link off the page as a single external link, and surrounding it with internal links that normally appear as a function of page view in the forums.

But the more I think about it, it wont matter anyway on the redirect page, as the original threadview page is the one we hold greater concern with in regards to pagerank, as that is the one we have indexed. The external links will be by virtue of this mod, already prevent the pr points from being leaked away, and the redirect page, which is never spidered anyway as it is nofollow (I believe), will hold no concern nor effect of the pr points of the original indexed thread page.

Basically, I am seeing that a simple no-header/no-footer redirect box/page would suffice in protecting the pr points of the original thread, provided the original thread external links are reformatted to appear internal, as I believe this modification does already, to the search engines.

Is my thinking flawed in this?

Thanks again.

Yes, you're not understanding, I'm not sure where exactly you're going wrong, but you are.

The redirect pages WILL be indexed by search engines, they have to be.

And the redirect links cannot be nofollowed, or you still lose the PageRank. That is what Google changed. Prior to this change using nofollow removed the links from the equation that figured how much weight would be given to each link. They changed it so the links are included, they just don't get delivery of their weight.

Let me try to explain as simply as possible.

Normally you would send all your weight to the external links, or, if they were nofollowed, the weight would simply be removed from circulation. In either case, you do not get to keep it.

By using this plugin instead of sending your weight to the abyss or to external sites, you're sending your weight to the redirect page.

The redirect page then sends most of your weight back through your site through your menu/header/footer. The small fraction that is left is all that ends up being lost.

[aspen0]

I wanted to let you know I found a small bug in the whitelist function, a new version will be uploaded soon.

[mindhunter77]

ok, so if we use this mod is it safe to remove all nofollows? I also use the nofollow attrib to stop the spidering of sorting links, things that could be considered dup content, should I still use that?

[aspen0]

ok, so if we use this mod is it safe to remove all nofollows? I also use the nofollow attrib to stop the spidering of sorting links, things that could be considered dup content, should I still use that?

I would remove it regardless of installing this link or not.

Google's change means it is never a good idea to use nofollow on an internal link. and I mean never.

Instead to control duplicate content use rel canonical

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/02/specify-your-canonical.html

vbulletin will hopefully include rel canonical for internal duplicate content management in a future update.

[mindhunter77]

ok thanks, =)

Do you think removing nofollow from external links is a good idea as well or will it make no difference..

[smirkley]

The redirect pages WILL be indexed by search engines, they have to be.

And the redirect links cannot be nofollowed, or you still lose the PageRank. That is what Google changed. Prior to this change using nofollow removed the links from the equation that figured how much weight would be given to each link. They changed it so the links are included, they just don't get delivery of their weight.

Let me try to explain as simply as possible.

Normally you would send all your weight to the external links, or, if they were nofollowed, the weight would simply be removed from circulation. In either case, you do not get to keep it.

By using this plugin instead of sending your weight to the abyss or to external sites, you're sending your weight to the redirect page.

The redirect page then sends most of your weight back through your site through your menu/header/footer. The small fraction that is left is all that ends up being lost.

Ok, I do understand now. After reading the links you provided, plus your explanation, it makes much more sense and I apologise for being a bit thick headed in this, but I have been focusing alot lately on improving my seo as of late, and the more I learn, the more I dont understand lol.

But yes, the point is to lose as little as possible points via the redirect link dilution.



I currently use the old mod posted earlier in this thread, to add nofollow only to external links in posts, etc.
Should that mod be removed in leu of your modification?,... left in to enhance functionality?... or doesnt matter?

edit to add - ( The bolded text in my quote in this post apparently answers my last question.)

Thanks again for your help and I appreciate sincerely your input and advice.

[aspen0]

Yes, remove it, and this answers mindhunter's question as well.

I just uploaded a new file with a new version that fixes the small bug in the whitelist. Just reinstall (allow overwrite) the new product.xml file, no other updates are needed.

[Alfa1]

On second thought: i decided to install this hack right away. Many thanks.

Since SE are guests anyway, why not make this dependant upon member groups? There seems no use of activating this functionality for anyone other than guests.

EDIT: since a link to your site is on the redirect page, this defeats the purpose of link weight retention.

Now the page rank is no longer flowing to content relevant sites, but leaking to your site. The link to your site is defined in the template EXTERNAL_LINK. Please change this.

When clicking on an external link, a member is logged out. Could you please resolve this?

[aspen0]

You mean show different content to search engines than you show to other guests Alfa1 for the purposes of SEO? That'd technically be cloaking Alfa1 and is against guidelines and while it is a minor offense and probably wouldn't result in a penalty or ban, it is not really that worth it.

I could see offering that as a toggle in a future release, allowing you to set that in admin, leaving the choice up to you. It is actually a fairly good idea for a toggle.

I have no idea why someone would become logged out, the external link does nothing with cookies. Perhaps it is a browser issue? No one else has reported that, perhaps that user's cookies got corrupted or overwritten randomly, just as they clicked the link.

As for the powered-by link. It doesn't defeat the purpose, a small amount of link weight does pass through it, very small, a couple percent. The link is how I hope to spread the word of this plugin. Not every webmaster visits vb.org, but as sites install this plugin they'll see the powered by link, click on it, and see the explanation for what the plugin does and how it works. Its in the template, I can't force you to keep it, but I'd rather you keep it. This plugin is free, with the powered link you're still saving an enormous amoung of the link weight you would be losing without this plugin. It seems a small price to pay, but it is on the honor system.

[mindhunter77]

Anyone try this on 3.7 ?

[aspen0]

yes, 3.7.2, it worked

[Saviour]

Are we to upload the externalredirect.php file? You didn't specify this in your instructions.

If so, to where...the forum root?

[Saviour]

I have this installed...yet I'm not receiving the redirect message when going to an external link.

[aspen0]

Yes, upload externalredirect.php to the forumroot.

Enable the plugin in Vboptions - > vboptions all the way at the bottom.

[Saviour]

There is no option to enable the plugin in Vboptions - > vboptions.

[mindhunter77]

set the buttons to yes,

I have nofollow set to no, then the rest to yes

[Saviour]

I do not currently have this marked as installed...since I can't get it to work.

I have made the file edits as posted in your readme file.
I have uploaded the externalredirect.php file to the forum root.
I have installed the product.
I found your product in vBoptions and have the following settings:

Use no follow attribute is set to "no"
All other settings are set to "yes"


I'm not getting any redirect message at all.

[mindhunter77]

I had this same issue, I eventually got it working by rebuilding post cache.

[aspen0]

If posts and things are cached then you would need to rebuild the caches for the edits to take place.

[Saviour]

I just rebuilt the post cache...guess what?

It's still not working...

[mindhunter77]

not sure then, wait for the mod author to respond I guess,.

[Saviour]

It's also opening internal links in a new window and I have http://glitchpc.com added to the Whitelist.

[Saviour]

Uninstalled...went back to using NuHit's mod...at least I know that's working as it should.

Thanks, anyway...for the help.

[saadessa]

thank you i will wait to see more tests
thank you

[aspen0]

It's also opening internal links in a new window and I have http://glitchpc.com added to the Whitelist.

So, you got it working?

The whitelist is wildcard based, just like VB's email or ip banning. If you add http://glitchpc.com and the link is to http://www.glitchpc.com it will not match.

I suggest adding to your whitelist as just "glitchpc.com"

[aspen0]

Uninstalled...went back to using NuHit's mod...at least I know that's working as it should.


Thanks, anyway...for the help.

If you mean this mod:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=145402

It hurts you, technically.

[Saviour]

So, you got it working?

The whitelist is wildcard based, just like VB's email or ip banning. If you add http://glitchpc.com and the link is to http://www.glitchpc.com it will not match.

I suggest adding to your whitelist as just "glitchpc.com"

When I first installed this mod...I uninstalled NuHit's mod first.

I followed the directions to install your mod. I used glitchpc.com and http://glitchpc.com in the whitelist and neither worked. By the way...my site is configured as http://glitchpc.com...without the "www". Even rebuilt the post cache. Still could not get your mod to work.

Also read your blog and the latest info from Google regarding "nofollow". I do not use no follow...so I can't see where using NuHit's mod is technically hurting my site.

The only difference, I can see, between these two mods is that NuHit's is working for me...and yours is not.

So...sorry to say...I have to use something that works...

Good luck with your mod...

[Smitty]

Also read your blog and the latest info from Google regarding "nofollow". I do not use no follow...so I can't see where using NuHit's mod is technically hurting my site. Doesn't the NuHit mod put in "rel=nofollow" tags? If you are you *are* using the "rel=nofollow".

As I understand it "rel=nofollow" is not looked at any more so one might as well not use them. If I'm not understanding this, please let me know.

I've never worry about outbound links because the moderators and I monitor them closely, but this mod sounds interesting. I'm always interested in vB forum SEO.

[Saviour]

Smitty...

NuHit's mod settings will allow you to turn "rel=nofollow" links on/off.

[Smitty]

Thanks for the info. I hadn't really looked at that NuHit mod. Probably because I bought the Mediawiki integration mod (which is still working on vB 3.8.3, but with an old version of Mediawiki) and the NuHit guy disappeared. I should have looked at that mod closer.

On the other hand, in my forums we monitor all external links very closely so we're not too worried about external links to 'bad neighborhoods'.

[aspen0]

Smitty...

NuHit's mod settings will allow you to turn "rel=nofollow" links on/off.
On or off, you'll lose linkweight either way. That was the change, used to be using nofollow would save linkweight, now it doesn't. It used to mean you kept the weight, and the linkee didn't get any. Now it means you lose the weight, but the linkee still doesn't get any.

I've a question for you though, if you couldn't get it installed, how is it you noticed the whitelist not working? If links were being redirected, it was obviously installed. This is where you confuse me.

[TWTCommish]

I didn't really follow how that would be possible, either. Either the mod didn't do anything, or it redirected all links and the whitelist didn't work. It can't be both.

Regardless, I'd be glad to take a look at the user's site, but he seems to have given up on it pretty quickly. If you change your mind, Saviour, I'm fairly certain we could find the problem.

[Alfa1]

You mean show different content to search engines than you show to other guests Alfa1 for the purposes of SEO? That'd technically be cloaking Alfa1 and is against guidelines and while it is a minor offense and probably wouldn't result in a penalty or ban, it is not really that worth it.
All vbulletin boards do this, because member groups have different permissions than others. Most boards restrict guests from posting or from various functionality. That's the nature of the permissions system.
Cloaking would be treating guests differently than SE bots.

I have no idea why someone would become logged out, the external link does nothing with cookies. Perhaps it is a browser issue? No one else has reported that, perhaps that user's cookies got corrupted or overwritten randomly, just as they clicked the link.
I am not sure either. I always have a fair amount of members online, so bugs tend to surface quickly.

After installing your hack, my members report the following issues:
- If a member has not listed a website in profile, then this dead link is displayed on profiles: http://www.mysite.com/forum/externalredirect.php?url=
I have about 40.000 of those dead links now.
- signature pictures that are on another site, no longer display.
- the link to a members home page from postbit dropdown does not work.

Please advise.

[TWTCommish]

The cloaking bit wasn't addressed to me, but restricting posting is a bit different than restricting content, since content is the issue here.

Anyway, I'm afraid I need some more information to debug these issues; a link to your site, for example, would help a great deal. Regarding these:

signature pictures that are on another site, no longer display.

Does this mean the images don't display, the images are broken, or the link is not directed?

the link to a members home page from postbit dropdown does not work.

How does it not work? Is it not redirected as it should be, redirected when it shouldn't, or does it something else? I can't see any of these things, obviously, so I need much more information in order to help debug these problems.

[TWTCommish]

- If a member has not listed a website in profile, then this dead link is displayed on profiles: http://www.mysite.com/forum/externalredirect.php?url=
I'm PMIng you a small patch now. Looks like this is caused because vBulletin is parsing this field even when it's blank, or something similar. Odd, but easily fixed. Check your PMs in a minute. :)

[aspen0]

Does this mean the images don't display, the images are broken, or the link is not directed?

I think I know what is happening here, the image URL is being rewritten as a redirect as well, causing the image to fail and be broken. That would be my guess anyways.

[TWTCommish]

That was my guess, as well, but the only part of the script that adds the URL rewrite is the function which handles bbCode links, which shouldn't effect the image tag's URL.

[aspen0]

Yes, it'd be best to see the exact examples, or a snippet of view source from the page.

[Alfa1]

signature pictures that are on another site, no longer display.

Does this mean the images don't display, the images are broken, or the link is not directed?
Images displayed with the bbcode are not displayed. Here is the source:
<!-- sig -->
<div>
__________________<br />
<div align="center">[SIGPIC]</div>

</div>
<!-- / sig -->

^ignore the noparse code please.

I think I know what is happening here, the image URL is being rewritten as a redirect as well, causing the image to fail and be broken. That would be my guess anyways.

That was my guess, as well, but the only part of the script that adds the URL rewrite is the function which handles bbCode links, which shouldn't effect the image tag's URL.
Please check if affects the [SIGPIC] bbcode.

the link to a members home page from postbit dropdown does not work.

How does it not work? Is it not redirected as it should be, redirected when it shouldn't, or does it something else?
Nothing happens when clicking the link. This is caused by this being added to the link:
rel=Now that i see it, I am not sure if this is related to this hack.

I'm PMIng you a small patch now. Looks like this is caused because vBulletin is parsing this field even when it's blank, or something similar. Odd, but easily fixed. Check your PMs in a minute. :)
Thank you. That works well.

[TWTCommish]

Glad that worked for you. :) We'll incorporate that change into the official release.

I've tried adding signature pictures to my test board without incident so far. I'll try a few more things and let you know if that helps me duplicate the problem.

I think you're correct about the homepage link and the rel= issue being related to another mod, as this particular hack doesn't add any rel attitributes, except in the EXTERNAL_LINK template.

[Saviour]

I didn't really follow how that would be possible, either. Either the mod didn't do anything, or it redirected all links and the whitelist didn't work. It can't be both.

Regardless, I'd be glad to take a look at the user's site, but he seems to have given up on it pretty quickly. If you change your mind, Saviour, I'm fairly certain we could find the problem.

Okay guys...

I'll try to describe the problem again...hopefully, this time, I won't lose you.

When your mod is installed...and a user clicks an external link, it's supposed to redirect them with a message that they are leaving the current site...correct? Your mod does not do this for me.

Your mod also opens internal links (from my site) in a new window or tab. I'm using Firefox 3.5. I included glitchpc.com in the whitelist. I had set "rel=nofollow" to off. All other settings were set to "yes".

Those are the issues I'm having with your mod. For the life of me, though, I don't see the difference between your mod and NuHit's mod. How is your mod any different than NuHit's...other than the fact there's supposed to be a redirect message that does not seem to be working for me...along with the fact that internal links are opened in a new window...which shouldn't be happening.

When I installed your mod...I made sure NuHit's mod was uninstalled, first. I tried several times to get your mod to work, but was unsuccessful. It's not that I had given up...I just decided to return to the previous mod I was using that worked fine. The only reason I wanted to try your mod was due to the fact a message was supposed to be displayed notifying the person who clicks an external link that they are being redirected to another site.

Again...I gave this mod every opportunity and it failed on every attempt to get the redirect message to display or to prevent internal links from opening in a new window...even after rebuilding the post cache. If it matters...I'm running vb 3.8.3, vba CMPS 3.2.0 and vba Links Directory 3.2.0. I use quite a few mods...so...I'm not sure if any of them are conflicting with your mod...but that could be a possibility. However...like I said...NuHit's mod is working flawlessly.

Also...aspen0 stated this:

If you mean this mod:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=145402

It hurts you, technically.

How? NuHit's mod gives you the ability to turn "rel=nofollow" on/off. It opens external links in a new window and you can choose whether to open internal links in the same (or a new) window. It also uses a whitelist. So tell me...how can using their mod technically have me at a disadvantage? Other than the fact if I'm using their mod, I'm not using yours.

Well...that's it...in a nutshell. I look forward to your replies.

[TWTCommish]

Nothing in this hack causes links to open in a new window, save for the one on the EXTERNAL_LINK template, which I believe has already been updated, and is easily modified. But it doesn't cause any of the links in signatures, posts, visitor comments, or anything else, to open in a new window/tab. That is vB's default behavior when parsing links in posts, etc.

Regarding differences between this hack and the other: I'm not familiar with the other one, so I couldn't tell you, but I notice you're asking for differences other than the redirect page. The redirect page may be the only major difference, but as aspen0 has explained, it's the entire point. I won't repeat his descriptions of how link weight is distributed, as they're still there for anyone to see and he explains it better than I can, but it bears mentioning.

I'd be glad to help you debug this hack if you'd like to contact me privately and give me some level of access. Suffice to say this has been tested on several different versions and the code itself is pretty straightforward, so I should be able to determine rather quickly if perhaps something went wrong during installation, or if some other mod is in conflict.

I am still somewhat curious about your reference to the whitelist, though. The whitelist exists to stop links from being run through the redirection page. Are you saying you added your URL to the whitelist even though this wasn't happening?

[Saviour]

TWTCommish...

I appreciate the offer...and hope my posting hasn't had an ill affect on others who may want to download it. However, I've just decided to stay with what I have.

If I do change my mind...I'll be back to ask for assistance. Thanks, again, for your offer to help.

All my best...

[aspen0]

Okay guys...

I'll try to describe the problem again...hopefully, this time, I won't lose you.

When your mod is installed...and a user clicks an external link, it's supposed to redirect them with a message that they are leaving the current site...correct? Your mod does not do this for me.

Your mod also opens internal links (from my site) in a new window or tab. I'm using Firefox 3.5. I included glitchpc.com in the whitelist. I had set "rel=nofollow" to off. All other settings were set to "yes".

Those are the issues I'm having with your mod. For the life of me, though, I don't see the difference between your mod and NuHit's mod. How is your mod any different than NuHit's...other than the fact there's supposed to be a redirect message that does not seem to be working for me...along with the fact that internal links are opened in a new window...which shouldn't be happening.

When I installed your mod...I made sure NuHit's mod was uninstalled, first. I tried several times to get your mod to work, but was unsuccessful. It's not that I had given up...I just decided to return to the previous mod I was using that worked fine. The only reason I wanted to try your mod was due to the fact a message was supposed to be displayed notifying the person who clicks an external link that they are being redirected to another site.

Again...I gave this mod every opportunity and it failed on every attempt to get the redirect message to display or to prevent internal links from opening in a new window...even after rebuilding the post cache. If it matters...I'm running vb 3.8.3, vba CMPS 3.2.0 and vba Links Directory 3.2.0. I use quite a few mods...so...I'm not sure if any of them are conflicting with your mod...but that could be a possibility. However...like I said...NuHit's mod is working flawlessly.

Also...aspen0 stated this:



How? NuHit's mod gives you the ability to turn "rel=nofollow" on/off. It opens external links in a new window and you can choose whether to open internal links in the same (or a new) window. It also uses a whitelist. So tell me...how can using their mod technically have me at a disadvantage? Other than the fact if I'm using their mod, I'm not using yours.

Well...that's it...in a nutshell. I look forward to your replies.
Our mod has nothing to do with links being opened in a new window, as the other Chris said. VB by default opens user posted links, anything generated by bbcode, in a new window. In fact, in the post I'm quoting you quote me where I post a link to another vb.org page, go click on that link. Notice the new window. VB default behavior.

It sounds to me like Nuhit's mod is malfunctioning for you actually. If Nuhit's mod is supposed to allow you to stop internal links from opening in a new window, it is malfunctioning.

Now, how is it hurting you? Hurting is perhaps the wrong word to use. It isn't helping you. It isn't helping you a lick with Google. It is doing nothing for your Google rankings. That was my point, if that is not why you use it, if you use it to stop VB's default behavior of opening links in new windows, then I misunderstood. I thought you were using it with the idea to help your search engine rankings.

As for why our mod doesn't work, I'm guess it was either installed incorrectly, or there is a conflict with one of your other mods, like nuhit's not being uninstalled fully or something.

I don't know how many forums the other chris runs, I've got about 10, and at least 9 other people have installed it so far too, so that is a lot of variation, in which it works, your forum might just be an oddity.

[aspen0]

updated with bug fixes and a toggle to allow you to set to only show it to unregistered users. No file changes are needed, just reinstall the new xml file.

[smirkley]

..., I've got about 10, and at least 9 other people have installed it so far too, so that is a lot of variation, in which it works, ....

I know it is probably too soon to tell yet, but when you can, is it possible to provide some statistics based on your experience, of the net improvements that this mod has provided, based on actual data?

[aspen0]

Unfortunately that is very hard to do. Google purposefully obfusicates the link weight reporting they provide to webmasters, we never know the actual score, and as well they only always show data thats usually 4 months out of date.

[dont.net]

installed :D

Thanks

[NLP-er]

Installed and after link clicking on my forum I got:

1||1246761650||88.199.62.36||url=http://www.wp.pl||http://www.forum.simple-nlp.pl/informacje/887-kolejny-test.html||Opera/9.61 (Windows NT 5.1; U; pl) Presto/2.1.1Access Denied, you have been logged.

[NLP-er]

Also going to externalredirect.php without url param generates normal page with message about invalid url.

So this error exists only when url is set - I have white page whit that communicate and nothing else.

[aspen0]

I'm sorry NLP'er, I'm not understanding your issue.

[NLP-er]

I'm sorry NLP'er, I'm not understanding your issue.
so look on this link:
http://www.forum.simple-nlp.pl/externalredirect.php?url=http://www.wp.pl

There is an error about aess denied. But thi is not access to externalredirect.php, because when you go here:
http://www.forum.simple-nlp.pl/externalredirect.php

It generates. So somesthing is wrong with externalredirect.php code. Whad to do to have it working?

[Sayid]

Hi,

First I want to thank you, I like seo mods btw .

I,m afraid now before installing about this ,

I think I know what is happening here, the image URL is being rewritten as a redirect as well, causing the image to fail and be broken. That would be my guess anyways.

Is it a bug ? I mean when install this mod , forums signatures that have external images will not displayed ??

[aspen0]

Hi,

First I want to thank you, I like seo mods btw .

I,m afraid now before installing about this ,



Is it a bug ? I mean when install this mod , forums signatures that have external images will not displayed ??
it was fixed in the last update I believe.

[aspen0]

so look on this link:
http://www.forum.simple-nlp.pl/externalredirect.php?url=http://www.wp.pl

There is an error about aess denied. But thi is not access to externalredirect.php, because when you go here:
http://www.forum.simple-nlp.pl/externalredirect.php

It generates. So somesthing is wrong with externalredirect.php code. Whad to do to have it working?
I have no idea, there is nothing in the mod that would print out a page like that. It has to be a conflict with something you have on your server. A setting that handles query strings for PHP pages, a security setting that disallows URLs from being in query strings, something like that.

[NLP-er]

I have no idea, there is nothing in the mod that would print out a page like that. It has to be a conflict with something you have on your server. A setting that handles query strings for PHP pages, a security setting that disallows URLs from being in query strings, something like that.

:/ Ok - till solution mod dissabled. I send query to my hosting company - see do they will find out somesthing. Thanks anyway :)

[Sayid]

It works :)

But as I said about signatures,

it shows the url of the image like this

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a58...o1ni0220-1.jpg

when I click on it, it redirects me as expected .. And if there is an image without extension like attachments of other forums, it give another message in redirect page which is "Invalid url"

http://localhost/123vb/externalredirect.php?url=http://i48.servimg.com/u/f48/11/38/19/72/110.jpg

Note: I installed it in localhost forum.

btw, I think vbanonymizer (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=184267&page=16&highlight=redirect) does redirect . Is there a difference ??

[Sayid]

another small bug

URL that contains '&' gives the same invalid message in redirect page

example:

http://localhost/123vb/externalredirect.php?url=http://www.external.com/vb/external.php?type=rss2&forumids=56

[NLP-er]

btw, I think vbanonymizer (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=184267&page=16&highlight=redirect) does redirect . Is there a difference ??

I just installed it - difference is that you don't have to make strange file edition which will disappear after next vb update like in this mod. Unfortunately i have same behavior like in this mod... So right now I'm sure that my problem is not with mod but something else...

[TWTCommish]

Is it a bug ? I mean when install this mod , forums signatures that have external images will not displayed ??
I used a signature picture on my test forum and it worked fine, so I've been unable to duplicate the problem in question. I'm not sure if it's limited to this one user, who seems to have many modifications installed.

It also, in theory, shouldn't change it, if only because it only modifies links passed through vB's link creation function. Can't imagine that vB would be passing image URLs through that by default.

[TWTCommish]

another small bug

URL that contains '&' gives the same invalid message in redirect page
I've attached an updated externalredirect.php file that relaxes the URL validating regular expression a bit. :) Thanks for bringing this to our attention!

[Sayid]

Second problem is solved

Try to post this url between [img] tags in your sig

http://i48.servimg.com/u/f48/11/38/19/72/110.jpg

do not forget to turn on redirect in sigs and tell me what happened

[NLP-er]

Installed and after link clicking on my forum I got:

1||1246761650||88.199.62.36||url=http://www.wp.pl||http://www.forum.simple-nlp.pl/informacje/887-kolejny-test.html||Opera/9.61 (Windows NT 5.1; U; pl) Presto/2.1.1Access Denied, you have been logged.


Got it - it was vbFirewall - this mod: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=196791

[TWTCommish]

Thanks for updating us, NLP-er. Much appreciated. :)

Sayid: thank you, that's extremely helpful. I believe I've pinpointed the problem; vBulletin has a setting to define the maxium height and width of even remotely-hosted signature images like that one. If an image is above these limits, vB treats it like a link, instead, hence the redirection.

I'll take a look at putting together a quick patch. Thanks again for the clarification. :)

[AdamJ2]

I don't know why, but all of our signature images, regardless of them being local or remote, are not showing up properly.

The remote ones just show up as a link, while the local ones just show up as SIGPIC (in brackets).

I have even set the option to enable this only for guests, yet it is still doing this for all the non-guests.

[AdamJ2]

Even with all of the options turned OFF in the settings page, the signature pics do not work.

They ONLY work when the product is disabled.

The only other modification installed is vMail. This is on a 3.8.3 install.

[Alfa1]

Thats the same as I am experiencing.

[ade5675]

I am getting a funny error message whenever you click on a member's username ..... saying


Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_IF, expecting T_FUNCTION in /...../..../public_html/naijadiscussion/naijaforum/includes/class_userprofile.php4 on line 158


http://www.naijadiscussion.com/naijaforum/index.php4

[Alfa1]

Links that have variables in them like this, result in an 'invalid url' error:
viewresource.asp?resourceID=145

[aspen0]

I am getting a funny error message whenever you click on a member's username ..... saying





http://www.naijadiscussion.com/naijaforum/index.php4
That is likely from an improperly done file edit.

[ade5675]

That is likely from an improperly done file edit.


Thanks, I will look into it and fix it.

[AdamJ2]

I applied the 1.03 update but it still kills all of my signature images regardless of they are local or external.

See attached for an example.

[TWTCommish]

I've got a fix worked out for some of the signature images which I'll have up shortly, though turning off verification for signatures should certainly stop the problem in the meantime; I've tested both uploaded signature pictures and remotely-hosted IMG tags this way, and both show up fine when the signature setting is set to "No."

[TWTCommish]

Links that have variables in them like this, result in an 'invalid url' error:
viewresource.asp?resourceID=145
Re-upload the latest externalredirect.php file; it has modified URL verification. :)

[TWTCommish]

I applied the 1.03 update but it still kills all of my signature images regardless of they are local or external.

See attached for an example.
Hard to diagnose from afar (though let me know if turning off signature verification fixes the issue).

If you're comfortable with giving me temporary admin/FTP access via PM, I'd be glad to take a look. :)

[AdamJ2]

Hard to diagnose from afar (though let me know if turning off signature verification fixes the issue).

If you're comfortable with giving me temporary admin/FTP access via PM, I'd be glad to take a look. :)

Unfortunately, even with signature verification turned off, the issue persists. I have to disable the product to prevent the error.

I'll send you a PM shortly, thank you.

[TWTCommish]

Not at all! Sorry to hear about the issues; I'll do what I can to pinpoint them, and I'll look forward to the PM. :)

[Alfa1]

This mod conflicts with Links and Download manager (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?p=1845415).
I am getting this weird error on various pages:
Warning: parse_url(http://javascript:AL_get(this) [function.parse-url]: Unable to parse URL in [path]/global.php(400) : eval()'d code on line 301When I turn Two-Step links off, they dissappear.

[ade5675]

Thanks, I will look into it and fix it.

Everything works fine now. It was the file edit that was not improperly done.

Thanks aspen0 .... great mod

installed and nominated :up:

[TWTCommish]

Okay, to anyone having issues with images in signatures: it appears there's a conflict only when a user is using an upload signature picture and an externally-linked image at the same time. I'm looking into how best to work around this, but for those of you who allow both of these things and want to keep using the rest of the hack (for posts, comments, blogs, etc.), here's a quick fix:

Just update the "Remove external link on postbit signature" plugin in the "in the "postbit_display_start" hook location. Replace it with this:

global $vbulletin;
if ($vbulletin->options['external_verify_sigs'] && (strpos($this->cache['sig'][$this->post['userid']], 'http') !== false || strpos($this->post['signature'], 'http') !== false)) {
$this->cache['sig'][$this->post['userid']] = $this->bbcode_parser->parse($this->post[signature]);
}
Set signature verification to "No" and your signature images should be left alone, and you can use the rest of the hack's functionality for the time being.

[Brandon Sheley]

I've yet to see how this would help at all with SEO
It's no different that adding a nofollow tag to external links IMO
Has anyone installed this and done nothing else and has seen positive results from it?

regards

[TWTCommish]

I'm not sure if you read aspen's initial posts, but they explain the SEO benefits. They also explain why adding nofollow tags to external links doesn't work the way it used to.

[aspen0]

I've yet to see how this would help at all with SEO
It's no different that adding a nofollow tag to external links IMO
Has anyone installed this and done nothing else and has seen positive results from it?

regards

Please see here:

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/pagerank-sculpting/

At least on Google for sure, nofollow no longer provides any SEO benefit. Zip zero zilch.

[dondavis]

Hello thank you for mod. But i cant make it work for me. I have done all file mods, put php file in forum root, installed product. But no effect :(. I have vbseo installed maybe that's the problem. Can you help me please with some advice?

[jawatkin]

Okay, to anyone having issues with images in signatures: it appears there's a conflict only when a user is using an upload signature picture and an externally-linked image at the same time.

The fix you posted does indeed work, but I only allow my users to use an upload signature and it happens to me, as well. It only happens on signatures that have an image that is linked. At least, as far as I can tell. This signature triggered the issue:


(http://www.myforum.com/forum/album.php?albumid=3125&pictureid=31032)
Now, what I did find was that... in the user's profile, in the "About Me" section, it works perfectly. But in showthread, it just displays the sigpic tags. HTH.

[aspen0]

Hello thank you for mod. But i cant make it work for me. I have done all file mods, put php file in forum root, installed product. But no effect :(. I have vbseo installed maybe that's the problem. Can you help me please with some advice?

There may be a conflict with VBseo. You could have also done the file edits incorrectly. Please doublecheck your work, they can be confusing, for instance one edit needs to go just inside a closing } in a line of 3 } and it can be easy to misread it and put it after all three, instead of after just the first two.

[ade5675]

I've yet to see how this would help at all with SEO
It's no different that adding a nofollow tag to external links IMO
Has anyone installed this and done nothing else and has seen positive results from it?

regards




Some sections on my forum are mostly driven by RSS feeds from other external sites so I have lots and lots of links to other sites. Trust me .. I am seeing a big positive difference in what the mod is doing already on my site. I had once used the rel="nofollow" anchor tag attribute without any value-added noticed so I say stay clear of it.

I am monitoring this mod on my site and will provide updates later. So far, it works well for me.

You can check for yourself > Naija Discussion Forum (http://www.naijadiscussion.com/naijaforum/forumdisplay.php4?f=136)


:up: :up: :up:

[dondavis]

There may be a conflict with VBseo. You could have also done the file edits incorrectly. Please doublecheck your work, they can be confusing, for instance one edit needs to go just inside a closing } in a line of 3 } and it can be easy to misread it and put it after all three, instead of after just the first two.

Yeah thank you. It was my mistake in file edits.

[Stefanus]

Hi,
The following link gives a invalid url:
http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Opinie/Rubrieke/0,,3-2085-66_2540963,00.html

This seems to be the case on all none www urls, any help on this?

Thanks

[aspen0]

if you've got it installed please mark it as such Stefanus.

I will look into that bug, should be an easy fix.

[TWTCommish]

Hi,
The following link gives a invalid url:
http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Opinie/Rubrieke/0,,3-2085-66_2540963,00.html

This seems to be the case on all none www urls, any help on this?

Thanks
Subdomains/non-www domains work fine; it's the commas that's causing the problem. I've modified the externalredirect.php file to allow for those, as well. Just uploaded the attached version over your existing one. :)

[aspen0]

Updated, the only new file is the externalredirect.php, you can just upload the new one.

The update is that we've seriously relaxed the URL verification. It was decided there really wasn't a need for security to make sure the url variable was actually a URL and people kept posting weird URLs that would break it, so its gone.

This is different from the one Chris just attached above.

[whizbox]

Please help - I get a 500 Internal Server Error when any link is clicked. externalredirect.php works as a page but the error comes if the outgoing url is included as ?=...

I also have the issue with images in signatures?. Was this ever resolved?

[TWTCommish]

Yes, just recently. :) If you're using both an embedded external image AND an uploaded signature image in signatures, find the "Remove external link on postbit signature" plugin and change its location from "postbit_display_start" to "postbit_display_complete" and populate it with the following code:

global $vbulletin;
if (!$vbulletin->options['external_verify_sigs']) {
$this->post[signature] = str_replace($vbulletin->options['bburl'].'/externalredirect.php?url=', '', $this->post[signature]);
}
You might have to empty your signature cache under Maintenance -> Update Counters, as well. Let me know if this works for you. :)

Regarding the 500 error; I'm afraid I don't quite understand that last part. Could you rephrase?

[Stefanus]

Subdomains/non-www domains work fine; it's the commas that's causing the problem. I've modified the externalredirect.php file to allow for those, as well. Just uploaded the attached version over your existing one. :)

Thanks

[Charles_1]

I just installed this and it works only for new posts for me :-(.

When I perform Rebuild Post Cache in Maintenance -> Update Counters, all external links change to normal - without externalredirect.php in address (even those which I just created and worked until rebuild of post cache).

When I have post with external link (without externalredirect.php in address) and I resave this post (only hit edit and just after it save), redirect appears.

Any ideas why process of rebuilding post cache is removing redirects on external links?

I also tried disable all hacks and install this on two separate forums - still the same result.

vBulletin 3.8.3

[aspen0]

It could be the postcache process doesn't call the same hooks as the normal posting process, I don't know though.

I know I noticed some inconsistencies as well, but they only lasted a few minutes. We'll see if the other Chris has any ideas.

[LifesGreatestGift]

Found a bug in 1.0.4

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2009/08/23.png

If you have RSS enabled on your site, it uses the external.php file and when a member visits an external link, they are directed to the WARNING page.

But it looks like that when Im looking at who's online.

The mod works fine, but just thought Id point out this little "incompatibility".

Maybe its just me :-P

The highlighted part of the link has nothing to do with the external page, its a link thats meant for my site.

[TWTCommish]

I just installed this and it works only for new posts for me :-(.

When I perform Rebuild Post Cache in Maintenance -> Update Counters, all external links change to normal - without externalredirect.php in address (even those which I just created and worked until rebuild of post cache).

When I have post with external link (without externalredirect.php in address) and I resave this post (only hit edit and just after it save), redirect appears.

Any ideas why process of rebuilding post cache is removing redirects on external links?

I also tried disable all hacks and install this on two separate forums - still the same result.

vBulletin 3.8.3
The post cache should use the standard bb code parsing functions. Are you sure the settings are all set to "Yes" before the rebuilding?

[squishi]

There's an automatic redirect on the external link page.
You think google does not detect this?

[sdavis2702]

This is great and I caught it at the perfect time. My most recent forum is brand new. It looks like this awesome hack doesn't go back and handle old post links. However, my site only had like 10 links so far. :)

Thank you for this. The only other option besides having horrible page rank was to disable live links... and that's a no-no!

[Alfa1]

Any help on this?

This mod conflicts with Links and Download manager (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?p=1845415).
I am getting this weird error on various pages:
Warning: parse_url(http://javascript:AL_get(this) [function.parse-url]: Unable to parse URL in [path]/global.php(400) : eval()'d code on line 301When I turn Two-Step links off, they dissappear.

Please add the option to disallow guest viewing for externalredirect.php

[aspen0]

Any help on this?



Please add the option to disallow guest viewing for externalredirect.php

I'll see about the bug, sorry, been busy. But again, we can't guarantee it'll work with every other mod, we can do our best to try, but sometimes there are just conflicts.

Disallow guest viewing? The mod already includes an option to turn off redirects for logged in users. Are you saying you want it on for logged in users but NOT guests? Why? There would be absolutely no search engine benefit for doing that, so you might as well not use it at all.

[aspen0]

There's an automatic redirect on the external link page.
You think google does not detect this?

The point is not to hide the external links, or to block them. Google's changes show that you only hurt yourself doing that.

The point is to bury them, and make sure they're outnumbered, so any loss of weight is minimal.

And that auto-redirect is an option you can leave on or off anyways.

[Charles_1]

The post cache should use the standard bb code parsing functions. Are you sure the settings are all set to "Yes" before the rebuilding?
If you mean settings in Admincp -> Help vBulletin Options -> Two-Step External Link Settings, then yes, I am sure.

And one more thing - this hack can not handle some URLs correctly (below is an example from forum based on phpBB3), after redirect appears page with error, becouse URL is cropped.

In post is:
http://www.website.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=500&start=50
...but this hack redirect page to this:
http://www.website.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3

[chris1979]

When I make the first change (in /includes/class_bbcode.php), it takes my whole site down. I just get a white page.

Perhaps this conflicts with vbseo or another mod?

[SamirDarji]

I want to use this just for external forum links, can I just skip the file edits and use it in the format like: example.com/forums/externalredirect.php?url=http://www.externalexample.com?

[pythonimp]

I tried it, did not work properly. When I would click a link it would say "Not allowed for phpredirect.php - 404 error" etc etc.

[SamirDarji]

Did you check permissions?

[animcentral]

what's the differ with Vbanonymizer (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=184267)?

[nomoreturn]

Hello evry one installed works great but want to know how we can redirect url automaticllay after some time because i saw on some forum they have this thing after showing warrning message link redirect after some seconds without clicking on Continue to http://www.********.ca
------
WARNING: you are about to leave ***.com and proceed to an external address. This link was submitted by a user and we cannot guarantee the appropriateness of the content it contains.
Continue to http://www.********.ca

[squishi]

Search for "meta refresh" on google. It's a simple meta tag that will redirect after some seconds.

[RedPoint]

I have installed this addon, has run maybe 2 weeks, but now dont run this :(
i have vb 3.8.4 - i uninstall it but i observe this topic, when this realy run

[cosy]

sry i dint read all the reply's on this thread
but whats the difference to this mod vbAnonymizer ( https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=184267)

[aspen0]

I want to use this just for external forum links, can I just skip the file edits and use it in the format like: example.com/forums/externalredirect.php?url=http://www.externalexample.com?


There is a setting in admin to put your own site (internal links) or any other site in a whitelist to not be redirected.

[aspen0]

sry i dint read all the reply's on this thread
but whats the difference to this mod vbAnonymizer ( https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=184267)

I believe their redirect doesn't have the intermediate bridge page which is absolutely crucial for link weight retention.

The redirect isn't what saves your weight, it is the intermediate page that sends most of it back through your site via your menu.

[aspen0]

Hello evry one installed works great but want to know how we can redirect url automaticllay after some time because i saw on some forum they have this thing after showing warrning message link redirect after some seconds without clicking on Continue to http://www.********.ca
------
WARNING: you are about to leave ***.com and proceed to an external address. This link was submitted by a user and we cannot guarantee the appropriateness of the content it contains.
Continue to http://www.********.ca

There is an admin setting to turn on meta refresh for the redirect page, which accomplishes this. You turn it on, and provide the delay in seconds you wish.

[Oria]

The mod not works on 3.8.5 :(

[cafeden]

The mod not works on 3.8.5

Me too :(

[ali7118]

i tried but not work..
thank you bro.

[ChopSuey]

If you we`re running 3.8.4 and upgraded to 3.8.5! Read the readme that is included lol.

Works fine :)

But with sub-domains its not working correctly, need to modify code!

[lebmedia]

does it work on vbulletin 4.0.x or 4.0.8 if not how can i make it work please

[aspen0]

I don't know of anyone who has tried it on 4.0, I may try it soon.

Small xss issue fixed today, new code uploaded. If you want, all you need to fix the error is upload the new externalredirect.php

[develop_827]

I don't know of anyone who has tried it on 4.0, I may try it soon.


And what results? Does it work on 4.x?

[BirdOPrey5]

And what results? Does it work on 4.x?

This mod will not work on 4.x.

It also looks like it will kill VigLink or Skimlinks or similar services if any forums are using them. They depend on direct external links.

[develop_827]

This mod will not work on 4.x.

It also looks like it will kill VigLink or Skimlinks or similar services if any forums are using them. They depend on direct external links.

I ported this mode to vb4 (4.1.4).
Someday I will create a complete public package, I hope )))

P.S. Skimlinks may not work - I don't use it.
Remember that you can add some domains to white-list or create simple login in externalredirect.php to make necessary 302 redirect instead of showing second-step page..

[Jay106n]

I installed this on 3.8.4, I'm not sure if it is working or not. When I click an external link I get a white page for a moment and then it goes directly to the destination without giving the redirect message. I rebuilt the cache after the edits and installing.
in vboptions i selected yes for all the options.

[indiawilds]

Hi,

I installed this on 3.8.7. It is working fien with external links. I have added my domain in the whitelist. But still any internal links are been shown as nofollow. They are not redirected but they are nofollow.

What can be done? Please help.

Thanks.

[Louva-Deus]

Had to remove this because of spammer sites abusing it. They send requests to the externalredirect.php file with their own urls. Now I have a lot of unwanted traffic to my site. Many of the referrers claim to be Google bots. Just felt like posting this so others can be aware of it. Spammers take advantage of redirect scripts to boost their page rankings and to score free traffic to their sites.

[SamirDarji]

Interesting. How did you discover this?

[Jack_B]

Had the same problem. I discovered it after a server change and reviewing the traffic log. MANY request went straight to the redirect file with different URLs.

I did put an htaccess rule in place to deny direct access to the file. However, for Google not getting massive 403 errors, I did put the file into robots.txt for denial too.

Still using the plugin with this configuration without any problems now.

[megroup]

Hello, it works fine for me except when external url contains windows-1251 characters it ends up to scrambled redirect. Any ideas?

[megroup]

What I think is that there needs to be a conversion function to UTF-8
for non-UTF-8 characters look like this:
%D0%90%D0%B2%D1%81%D1%82