[TigerC10]

The rewrite rule matches the . character as a wildcard for anything, the * matches 0 or more occurances of the character before it. That's why you're getting that result. It doesn't check for the directory existance at all, it just matches anything and sticks it where you tell it to go.

Honestly, I recommend just removing the /forum subdirectory all together. No muss no fuss, can you dig it? But if you absolutely want to have a subdirectory, then you can easily create an index.php file that redirects instead of using the htaccess.

PHP Code:

<?php
ob_start();
header("Location: http://www.mysite.com/forum");
ob_end_flush();
?>

I wouldn't advise using htaccess rewrite rules since you'd have to go crazy with manual definitions for any subdirectory you want to add in the future.