Miscellaneous Hacks - DCSEO Linkbacks (Refbacks implementation)

Introduction

Dear Friends,

After much thought I have decided to release part of my upcoming DCSEO modification to the community for free.

What does this modification do?

This modification offers you the facility to track URLs that link to threads on your forum. Instead of me trying to explain to you what a linkback actually is I'll link you to wikipedia's explanation of it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linkback

This modification implements refbacks, but not trackbacks or pingbacks (these will be included in the DCSEO modification). Any sites that the system *thinks* link to you, are put into an approval queue in the admincp which you will see in the left-hand nav after you install the mod. This moderation queue can be turned off, but I would strongly reccomend never turning it off!

The reason this will offer you a major benefit to your search engine rankings and PR (for google), is that it will create relevant inbound and outbound traffic to your forum which the search engines love.

Installation

Download the attached zip and open the readme.txt file, and follow the instructions within it.

Support

I will be around to offer support wherever possible, but please do not PM me asking for support, as I will not respond. If you have any bugs, report them in this thread and I'll fix them as soon as possible. I am rather busy at the moment with work during the day, and full-time development of the DCSEO product in the evenings, so please be patient with me if I take a little while responding to your posts.

[Dean C]

Changelog

v1.5 - Released 24/01/08
- * New: admins can moderate all linkbacks, or delete all linkbacks at once via the admincp.

v1.4 - Released 21/01/08
- Fixed: users could only choose to delete one linkback at a time.

v1.3 - Released 07/10/07
- Fixed: choosing to approve certain linkbacks and leave others in the moderation queue would result in all linkbacks being approved.
* New: admins can delete linkbacks directly from the showthread page

v1.2 - Released: 11/09/07
- Update to v1.1 whereby some code changes didn't make it through to the package.

v1.1 - Released: 05/09/07
- Fixed: users not using the www prefix for your domain would send duplicate linkbacks
- Fixed: SQL error in admincp if you're using a table prefix
- Fixed: PHP errors when trying to get the page titles of certain URLs
- Fixed: Blank linkbacks appearing on showthread page
* New: Added ability to blacklist certain URLs/domains from incoming linkbacks

[Dean C]

FAQs

Nothing is showing in any of my threads
Have you moderated any incoming refbacks in your admincp? If so, then did you approve them? If the answer to both of these questions is yes, then make sure you edited your templates correctly.

There's nothing to be approved in my admincp
Maybe no-one is linking to any of your threads Consider improving your content, or writing some content that people deem worthy of linking to.

[TheBlackPoet]

im testing now... I will be back

[Dean C]

Originally Posted by TheBlackPoet

im testing now... I will be back

Excellent. Please let me know if it all goes okay. To actually get the linkback to work, you'll have to place a link to one of your threads on a different domain, then click on it to take you to that thread. Then the linkback should appear in your moderation queue in the admincp You could always edit your post here and link to one of your threads!

[TheBlackPoet]

it works perfectly.... after i accept the linkback in the ACP.. it shows in that thread that was linked. for my members this will be great to know if other people are linking their work on other sites.. for me.., it will be good so i can know who is doing what!!

thanks.... installed, voted, and nominated..

[Dean C]

Originally Posted by TheBlackPoet

it works perfectly.... after i accept the linkback in the ACP.. it shows in that thread that was linked. for my members this will be great to know if other people are linking their work on other sites.. for me.., it will be good so i can know who is doing what!!

thanks.... installed, voted, and nominated..

Many thanks! Your link did raise a query in my head though. Your forums are closed to guests, so perhaps I should disable the logging of refbacks for threads that are not viewable to guests. I'll mull on that overnight and decide in the morning

[ragtek]

yes, my first idee was: wow, must have
but on the other side my site is not visible for the guests, so i don't need it

[TheBlackPoet]

no!! keep it..., actually it would be good to know if ANYONE is linking to a my site... that is a good thing..

[kaptanblack]

Thanks.. perfect mod