[Smitty]

Well.... I installed this about a month ago. For me it pings both Google and Bing. I did look at the output and the sitemap_index.xml.gz points to the sitemap files being located in my forum root rather than /forum/vbseo_sitemap/data/

I don't know enough to know what the scoop is, but after I run a sitemap, which I do about every 3 to 5 days, I *immediately* copy the sitemap files to my forum root with a 1 line "script" via ssh. This is an old mod and it hasn't been updated in a very long time so....

That said, I do not have vBSEO installed, so I may have missed something in the config. when I installed it.

I can not say whether a sitemap in a forum is important or not - I did it for the heck of it and haven't really noticed any difference. Google and Bing crawl either way.

A last thought is that many people argue (I believe correctly) that sitemaps are not of of significant value. Once a search engine "sniffs" your site it will crawl it. As long as you have laid out your site navigation well it should find everything. Maybe not as fast as you would like (and sitemaps do not give you a "magic" lift in the serps or a "faster" crawl), but I finally decided it can't (shouldn't?) hurt so I installed it and included it in my weekly schedule.

As always - YMMV

By the way - I decided to take a look at the index files. Despite what you set in the vBSEO preferences for the sitemap(s), it sets *yearly* as the update frequency. Not Good. After seeing that I may stop using it.

I think that right now, 20 September 2012, that this mod is seriously flawed.