[ShackMaster]

I feel pretty dumb right now.... only had our forum up for a month and I'm learning so please don't laugh at me, but I may as well ask a couple more questions.

I have a robot.txt file uploaded but I'm not sure I need it with this (your) product or not... can you tell me if this is going to interfere with it?

Contents of robot.txt:

# For domain: http://www.hometheatershack.com

# All robots will spider the domain
User-agent: *
Disallow:

# Disallow directory /images/
User-agent: *
Disallow: /admincp/
Disallow: /ajax.php
Disallow: /attachments/
Disallow: /clientscript/
Disallow: /cpstyles/
Disallow: /images/
Disallow: /includes/
Disallow: /install/
Disallow: /modcp/
Disallow: /subscriptions/
Disallow: /customavatars/
Disallow: /customprofilepics/
Disallow: /announcement.php
Disallow: /attachment.php
Disallow: /calendar.php
Disallow: /cron.php
Disallow: /editpost.php
Disallow: /external.php
Disallow: /faq.php
Disallow: /frm_attach
Disallow: /image.php
#Disallow: /index.php
Disallow: /inlinemod.php
Disallow: /joinrequests.php
Disallow: /login.php
Disallow: /member.php?
Disallow: /memberlist.php
Disallow: /misc.php
Disallow: /moderator.php
Disallow: /newattachment.php
Disallow: /newreply.php
Disallow: /newthread.php
Disallow: /online.php
Disallow: /payment_gateway.php
Disallow: /payments.php
Disallow: /poll.php
Disallow: /postings.php
Disallow: /printthread.php
Disallow: /private.php
Disallow: /profile.php
Disallow: /register.php
Disallow: /report.php
Disallow: /reputation.php
Disallow: /search.php
Disallow: /sendmessage.php
Disallow: /showgroups.php
Disallow: /showpost.php
Disallow: /subscription.php
Disallow: /usercp.php
Disallow: /threadrate.php
Disallow: /usercp.php
Disallow: /usernote.php

Next question... I do not have a .htaccess file on my server. Do I really need one if I use hotlink protection via my control panel? If I do need it can I simply upload the one you provided in this package and if so where do I need to upload it too?

My forum is located at http://www.mysite.com/forums

I don't know if it's appropriate to post a link to my site or not. vBSEO looks interesting too but I'm sure if I even need it or not.

I apologize for the ignorant questions and will really appreciate any help.