Online Fame | A 'blog written by Chris Rhee

I find myself accidentally typing in the wrong forum addresses sometimes — most people use either “TheirSite.com/forums/” or “TheirSite.com/forum/” (without the “S”) and I end up getting plenty of Not Found errors.

For each forum I’ve helped set up, I’ve also included a little bit of .htaccess code that redirects wrong forum address to the correct location. The idea is that people can type in a popular forum address and always be directed to the forum, rather than risk getting a Not Found error.

Here’s an example for people who have their forums located at TheirSite.com/forums/

##
## Frustration Free Forums by Chris Rhee
##

RewriteEngine On RewriteBase /

RewriteRule ^forum/?$ /forums/ [NC,R,L] RewriteRule ^board/?$ /forums/ [NC,R,L]
RewriteRule ^boards/?$ /forums/ [NC,R,L]

Throw that in a .htaccess file and upload it to your root folder and it’ll redirect people who type in those folders (”forum”, “board”, “boards”) to /forums/.

Don’t send your visitor’s to Not Found error pages if possible, people. Carry on!