Important: Ability to rename entire thread.

From an SEO standpoint this is important:

Right now if I edit the initial message title just that message title is changed.

One would need to manually edit each message titile to reflect the New Thread title.

Would be VERRRRRRRRY good for Admins to be able to just "Rename Entire Thread" and that is transferred to all messages in thread.

While on this topic---> the ability to assign H1 to Page Title and H2 to the Message titles and those tags would be defined via CSS.

The ability to make the style sheet External so that DOCTYPE can be very first thing in code.

Put HTML above JS code.

Basically, enhance the code structure to be more pleasing to Search Engines, and cut down on code per page.

Renaming the thread and ability to assign H1/H2 tags to page title and post titles are at top of my list.

One would need to manually edit each message titile to reflect the New Thread title.

This can't be done. Every message has its own subject that is independent from any other message's.

The ability to make the style sheet External

It was like this before but it is problematic with some servers and IE (with gzip enabled), so the CSS is now part of the HTML code. This will not be changed until all the bugs in IE and IIS regarding compression and CSS loading are resolved.

The software HTML and CSS in our software are completely legit and there are many more important things than just SEO when programming the software -> restructuring the existing, working, code is not something that I will do. Moving JS below body will break everything.

Moving JS below body will break everything.

Would moving the js to includes AND only writing the dynamic variables needed on a page (for the includes) work or provide a happy medium?

eg :
Instead of
<script language="JavaScript">
<!--#include file="js/somefile.asp"-->
</script>

Use
<script language="JavaScript">
Var DynamicVariable = 'xxxxxx'
Var DynamicVariable2 = 'xxxxxx'
</script>
<script language="JavaScript" src="js/somefile.js"></script>
(Somefile now uses variables)

Thanks Spooky for your demo but I really can't tell for now. Global variable name clash is a problem that should be prevented if the software is customizable (what if you use a JS script in the header that happens to be using the same variable naming as our software does?)

Plus, doing this type of modification still means restructuring existing code that may break a working logic. It is really not worth the effort unless such modification is absolutely necessary, for example, if there is a feature that needs restructuring of existing code in order to work (if it ain't broke, don't fix it).

Samuel,

OK. The Forum does pretty well 'as is'- was just interested in a few tweaks. This is the suggestion area.

You know- I only found you because of a specific recommend on webmasterworld.com

The SEO aspect of your software is crucial to me.

I'm not really sure what error you mean regarding the external style sheets.

I have quite a few products from Project Seven (these people are very thorough) and read their support forum including their CSS Forum often. Mako4CSS and Webmaster World CSS Forum are all great resources.

You probably know about them already.

I hear ya on the other issues, what about H1/H2 tags for Post name and post titles?

ORIGINAL: ChatAboutWeddings
The SEO aspect of your software is crucial to me.

It is to me too. But, it is not the top priority when I design the software. Things like: stability, performance, security, compatibility, etc. that are much more important than SEO (afterall, it is human being that is going to use the forum, not SE bots) and I can't risk breaking these crucial aspects just for SEO. In fact, as you have known, the software has been optimized for SE ranking (static URLs, meta tags, etc.) and I really doubt by moving js up/down or renaming thread titles can it improve SE ranking remarkably.

I'm not really sure what error you mean regarding the external style sheets.
:
:
You probably know about them already.

Yes, I already know these sites. Actually, the CSS error has nothing to do with the CSS syntax or compatibility or anything. It is a bug in the IE browser and a bug in some gzip HTTP compression software that prevent CSS definitions from loading properly. In other words, IE has big problems when CSS is loaded from an external file when gzip compression is enabled on the server, even with IE 6 sp1. Quite a few users of the Classic Edition reported this anomaly and I have no choice but to make CSS inline in the advanced edition in order to make the forum usable for these members. You can do a search in our forum and you will know.

H1/H2 on the other hand is doable.. but does it really make any difference?

I've heard that the H1/H2 thing does make a difference. However, if you implement that, please use a class attribute so that it can be styled separately from other H1/H2 elements that may exist elsewhere in the site. Or, just leave the whole thing as a user mod - it shouldn't be too difficult.

Regarding the CSS problem:

report 1:
http://www.aspplayground.net/forum/m_376199/mpage_1/key_css%252Cload/anchor/tm.htm#376215

report 2:
http://www.aspplayground.net/forum/m_376055/mpage_1/key_css%252Cproblem/anchor/tm.htm#376218

Solution I provided for the Classic Edition users:
http://www.aspplayground.net/forum/m_376231/mpage_1/key_css%252Cproblem/anchor/tm.htm#376231


To Paulwoods:

Yes, I know that too. SE bots seems to think that the Header tags improve relevance. However, it is just a line of sentence above 30-40 posts (can be as much as 1000 lines of sentences). Does it REALLY make that much of a difference if you take this into consideration? I dont think so. But, I will still make this H1/H2 improvement into version 2.2 with a couple of new CSS classes.