Brent W
Well-known member
Is that using Xenporta for the homepage as I couldnt see the copyright notice?
Maybe because he paid the branding fee?
CrazyEngineers Forum Migrates To XenForo
- Thread starter TheBigK
- Start date
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Maybe because he paid the branding fee?
tajhay
Well-known member
awesome nice work on your siteWE have the branding free version, yes it's Xenporta.
very nice!
Digital Doctor
Well-known member
Big News !
Exciting move.
Hopefully some SEO and Server Performance reports will follow.
TheBigK
Well-known member
Thanks. Frankly speaking, I've stopped caring about Google. XenPorta solves the integration problem for our users and that's what matters. The change in URL might affect our traffic, but building a business on pageviews is not a long term thing.
We're already working on setting up alternate business model and growth plan.
It'd be nice to have quick reviews of overall setup, SEO (
) and feedback on anything else that might help us grow.
Sheratan
Well-known member
This post... makes me want to use XenPorta too... How can I ask Jake for this?Update :
I'm happy to report that Xenforo now becomes the 'core' of our website. We ditched WordPress, moved all our articles to XF and now the site is 100% Xenforo.. Users have loved the move and now we'll enjoy all the benefits XF offers. We no longer have to worry about WP integration and will now avoid creating content at two places (WP and XF).
Jake Bunce Magic
This move was possible because of the ever amazing 'The Jake Bunce'. I have no words to thank and appreciate this guy. Jake handled import of posts from WordPress to Xenforo and even helped me move XF from subfolder to root and setup proper redirects. He also helped fixing few broken .htaccess rules and cleaned up the html that got carried over from WordPress. Jake's help saved me a ton of efforts, time, worries and possible downtimes. I was 1000% confident that with Jake handling the move, nothing would go wrong.
This also makes us ready for the next wave of interesting stuff we've planned. Thank you, Jake.
Kevin
Well-known member
TheBigK, is how you are displaying threads in the Engineering & Technology News an add-on available anywhere or is it bespoke?
I read above that you don't care about Google but what about the traffic from Google News? My understanding from reading the Google News documentation that the URLs had to confirm to a standard that, at the time, I didn't think XF conformed to?
I read above that you don't care about Google but what about the traffic from Google News? My understanding from reading the Google News documentation that the URLs had to confirm to a standard that, at the time, I didn't think XF conformed to?
TheBigK
Well-known member
We're currently out of Google News. We may not get and we don't know whether we're going to send them a notification about our changes (they want to be notified even when you make small layout changes). To answer your questions -
1. It's XenPorta that displays the threads in 'article' format. It's inbuilt functionality. I'm loving it.
2. Traffic from Google News rocks when you have a breaking news and that needs a 'sitemap' to notify Google whenever a fresh story is pushed out. The Xenforo URLs do stick to the Google News format. For example -
http://www.crazyengineers.com/threa...s-g-pro-tracks-eyes-for-video-playback.67160/
- Has a minimum 3-digit unique code in the URL.
- Does not have 'forum' or 'community'
The only concern is to display the article writer's real name as the thread creator. So I'm trying to setup a custom user field called 'Real Name' and replace the 'by <username>' with 'by <realname>'. I don't know how to do that with Xenporta though.
Plus, if we decide to notify Google of the changes, we'll have to create a separate category called 'Google News' and submit that URL to Google so that all the articles available through that URL will be 'News' only.
I've seen that those articles that feature in Google News don't get their natural organic ranking. Google hasn't confirmed this, but that's what my experience says. I might be completely wrong.
I'll however try and send them a notification to get into Google News again. Let's see if it works.
Deepmartini
Well-known member
I'm looking for a solution as well. Seems as though no developers are interested in a Wordpress INTO Xenforo bridge with sync and single sign on.
Brent W
Well-known member
Because it is messy.
Brent W
Well-known member
That was brave, making the switch and risking Google News. We had http://www.mustangevolution.com in Google News and it was fantastic for building traffic. Wouldn't have made that change.
TheBigK
Well-known member
Well, setting up redirects to relevant threads in XF was impossible because we used the cleanest url option: /%post_name%/ . There's no way to setup redirects, Jake confirmed it. But I'd have been a happier man if there was a way to have the redirects.
We're back to Google News
. All we did was create a separate category in Xenporta - ( See: http://www.crazyengineers.com/articles/news/ ) and informed Google about the changes. They reviewed it and let us in. Surprisingly they replied within 3 hours! The site doesn't look perfect in iPad and mobile phones. The problem - we use 1008px width (fixed) and that seems to mess with the screen. If there's a fix, please let me know.
Brent W
Well-known member
Well, setting up redirects to relevant threads in XF was impossible because we used the cleanest url option: /%post_name%/ . There's no way to setup redirects, Jake confirmed it. But I'd have been a happier man if there was a way to have the redirects.
We're back to Google News
The site doesn't look perfect in iPad and mobile phones. The problem - we use 1008px width (fixed) and that seems to mess with the screen. If there's a fix, please let me know.
Ah great. That is good to know. That is great then that you can have that setup and still be in Google News.
Renegade
Well-known member
We may not have that problem as we have kept the post number in the URL. Seems I need to bug Jake about it, he will be pissed.
How did you manage the migration, as in steps and scripts used?
TheBigK
Well-known member
---------Update---------
CrazyEngineers been through a ton of changes since I created this thread. Essentially, we had WordPress sitting in our root and community was in /community/ . In the last few weeks, we kicked out WordPress completely out (I never imagined I'd do that) and now the site is 100% Xenforo. So a *LOT* of things are new.
Those who have some free time may head over to http://www.crazyengineers.com and tell me what you think.
CrazyEngineers been through a ton of changes since I created this thread. Essentially, we had WordPress sitting in our root and community was in /community/ . In the last few weeks, we kicked out WordPress completely out (I never imagined I'd do that) and now the site is 100% Xenforo. So a *LOT* of things are new.
Those who have some free time may head over to http://www.crazyengineers.com and tell me what you think.
Digital Doctor
Well-known member
Hey TheBigK -
Can you ask your engineering friends if they have ever heard of of seen a power bar that will turn on power to it's outlets depending upon temperature ? I want my little space heater to turn on based on the temperature.
Seems like it should be easy ?
I saw someone do something like this ... but I want it to be easier !
http://www.flickr.com/photos/imager/4991240463/
Anything Off the Shelf ?
If not, tell them to make one.
Seems like a no-brainer product idea, likely to save energy by not over heating a room.
Thanks !
Heh. Looks like someone is making one now.
Found this today.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Lux-Products-WIN100-Programmable-Outlet-Thermostat/21799216
http://luxproducts.com/thermostats/win100.php
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