Renaming forumdisplay.php & showthread.php
 

Is there a way in vb3.5RC2 to rename forumdisplay.php & showthread.php, and still have vb function properly using the new filenames?

Thanks

Is it possibly as simple as this:
1. Rename the files
2. Use a program to Search & Replace all instances of the old filenames with the new

Or are there some DB modifications that need to take place also?

You could use replacement variables to change the names without search and replace.

1) add the replacement variable.

2) change the file names.

I'm very curious as to why you would want to do this ?

You could use replacement Variables, however this is "dangerous" as it would break all URLs containing showthread.php/forumdisplay.php - even for external Links or just normal Text.
Furthermore, this would not work for Header Redirects.

Mostly, I'm looking to do this to get more targeted URLs. I run a few boards of varying genre's, and there has been an onslaught of new forums popping up here and there, so I'm looking for any small edge that I can have to put my ranking slightly higher.

such as:
board.php or article.php (or something of this nature)

It would be nice to have this feature in the Admin panel, maybe just after where you tell it what your Forumhome page is called. 2 more slots for forumdisplay & showthread, but I'll go with whatever works for now.

check out vbseo.com - there's another SEO hack on here vb.org too.

There are at least 2 SEO Hacks here (DC SEO and vBRanking).