Standard View

[Harvey]

Sorry if this shouldn't be a new thread. I just don't know.  It's all about my quest to get a forum where every URL has a unique title tag and meta description.

What is the function of STANDARD view? If we remove it from my forum, what functionality do I loose?  Does it affect my ability to PIN topics?

[Hugo <Nabble>]

Harvey44 wrote

What is the function of STANDARD view?

The Standard view is the page that lists all topics under your sub-forums. Here is one example of this page:
http://forum.nyskiblog.com/The-Woodstove-f2185909.html

It resembles the Topics view, but it only displays topics from that specific sub-forum. Other sub-forums are displayed as folders (see the folder icons on our premium support front page). In your case, the Standard view isn't much different than the Topics view because your sub-forums don't have more sub-forums.

Harvey44 wrote

If we remove it from my forum, what functionality do I loose?

You would have to use the Topics view instead. Users can select which forum page they want (Standard/Topics) in the change appearance page (Options > Application > Change appearance | Preferences tab).

Harvey44 wrote

Does it affect my ability to PIN topics?

You can still pin topics in the Topics view, but you can only pin topics immediately under the forum. If the topic belongs to a sub-forum, you can only pin it in that specific sub-forum (not at the top level).

[Harvey]

Here's what I don't understand - what is the difference between these two pages:

http://forum.nyskiblog.com/The-Woodstove-f2185909.html

http://forum.nyskiblog.com/The-Woodstove-f2185909.standard.html

They are different URLs but I'm not sure why we need both.  I don't want to lose the standard view. It's great. But I don't see why I need to have both URLs.

This is my main URL:

http://forum.nyskiblog.com/

And not sure why I need these URLs:

http://forum.nyskiblog.com/NY-Ski-Forums-f932206i36.html
http://forum.nyskiblog.com/-f932206i36.standard.html

They are causing duplicate title tags too.

[Hugo <Nabble>]

We fixed this problem. We added "noindex, follow" meta tags for those duplicate pages. This should reduce the number of duplicate titles and meta descriptions. Please keep an eye on those numbers and let us know what changed.

[Harvey]

OK thanks.

I have been watching the dupes.  It seems like webmaster tools updates the numbers every three days or so. In the last update (9/19) the numbers actually dropped which is why I have been waiting. I want to see what happens the next time.

Hugo <Nabble> wrote

We fixed this problem. We added "noindex, follow" meta tags for those duplicate pages. This should reduce the number of duplicate titles and meta descriptions. Please keep an eye on those numbers and let us know what changed.

I hope this is the right thing to do. I think it is, but I just don't know.  Is this something that makes sense to you, or are you doing it because asked?

[Hugo <Nabble>]

Harvey44 wrote

Is this something that makes sense to you, or are you doing it because asked?

I think it makes sense and this is why we changed all Nabble apps, not only yours. We have some SEO metrics and I will keep and eye on them to make sure this was a good change.

[Harvey]

OK thanks for the info. I am still curious about why STANDARD is a separate URL from the URL with no designation. (Not Topics).

[Hugo <Nabble>]

It is not a separate URL. You can use any app type in that position: standard, topics, mixed, blog, gallery, news. ("standard" and "topics" are actually formats of the FORUM type, but they also work in the URL). This feature makes our NAML language more powerful because you can create different views for the same node and let the users explore them.

[Harvey]

Unfortunately Google sees these URL as duplicates in webmaster tools:

/NY-Ski-Forums-f932206i48.topics.html
/NY-Ski-Forum-f932206i48.standard.html

and these:

/Gear-X-f2194703.html
/Gear-X-f2194703.topics.html

Hugo <Nabble> wrote

 This feature makes our NAML language more powerful because you can create different views for the same node and let the users explore them.

Agreed.

[Hugo <Nabble>]

Yes, but the changes we released today will fix that duplication.