Some Questions About SMF

[michaelthomas86]

Hi , I just installed SMF after installing phpbb , mybb etc i am going to settle with smf as it seems to be the best what i am looking for, i just have a few questions i thought i may as well get them all out of the way in one post to save everyones time.

I am using the latest version 2.0.2 , hosted on a shared server with godaddy

1) How do i change the page title to H1 instead of h3? So if you highlight the topic title on this page and click view source it says its h3 i would like this to be h1

2) I do not want to remove the smf copyright i would like to remove the theme copyright, i would not mind if it was just a personal name but its not, its got 4 keywords which i would like to remove.

3) I understand its not allowed to remove the smf copyright but i know spammers use this as a footprint in scrapebox and xrumor so i just wanted to add a blank space or underscore to make the copyright slightly different so that i cannot be targeted by footprints

4) When uploading attachment images how would i make a field for alt tags for images? to allow the user to add alt tags to images they attach, also how does a user upload more than 1 attachment? i can only see one browse button? how do you add more?

5) captcha on pm messages for all users even after 25 posts?

6) no links allowed in posts until a minimum of 25 posts?

7) recaptcha for smf 2.02?

remove the "time to stay logged in" the part where you sign in i just want to remove the little drop down box where it asks how long you want to stay logged in for.

Thats everything i want some things i said me be standard or i may needs mods for some, if someone can expalin what is standard and what i would need mods for this would be great, also if you can direct me to the mods needed this would be a bonus.

Just to be clear about the h1 tag, i read that smf uses this tag already, but when i click view source it says h3, i just want this changing to h1 , so its the subject/post/page title i want i h1

[Arantor]

1. There is already an h1 on the page, used for the site name. There is no need to change it, and having multiple h1 tags on the page can actually hurt things. (In any case, for SEO purposes the topic's name is also in the <title> tag. You'd have to change a lot of code, not just the h3 to an h1, because you'd have to alter all the CSS to go with it)

2. You can't remove the theme copyright without permission from the theme author. Most will not allow you to remove it.

3. There are plenty of other ways for them to find you. I actually experimented with this a while ago and it really doesn't make a lot of difference.

4. You can add alt tags for images with bbcode, e.g. [img alt=My image]http://example.com/image.png[/img] but there's no way to do it for attachments, if you really feel this is important, you might want to use a gallery mod like Aeva Media. Note that most users do not bother with such things when uploading content to a forum.

5. If I remember rightly, Admin > Configuration > Security and Moderation > Anti-Spam can set that option. Though honestly, if you're that bothered about discouraging people to use PMs, you could just disable them.

6. See the 'Anti Spam Links' mod. You don't need to put the barrier so high to discourage spam. There are also other ways of discouraging spam, but I'll get on to that.

7. I really wouldn't recommend reCAPTCHA. Apart from the fact that bots get through almost as often as humans do, it's not actually that friendly. Instead, set a good question in Admin > Configuration > Security and Moderation > Anti-Spam instead, much much more effective (many people here, including team members, do not use CAPTCHA at all on their site)

What point would there be in removing it? What would you like it to be, forever for everyone? (Bad idea for security.)

[michaelthomas86]

I use wordpress mainly the forum is new to me but my wordpress page titles are set like this <h1>My example page</h1> this works very well for seo, i have done lots of tests and that format works the best since googles last updates. I use the same theme on all my wordpress blogs just for page titles it creates which is <h1>My example page</h1> if i change theme and the title format changes i start dropping in ranks.

I imagine this will be the same with forums as it is with blogs, i dont bother with meta tags and all that stuff anymore, normally the h1 title and a good post below is enough

on the page we are looking at now can i change this

<a href="http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=477497.msg3340482#msg3340482" rel="nofollow">Some Questions About SMF</a>

to this?

<h1>Some Questions About SMF</h1>

why is the rel="nofollow ? does this mean no pagerank will be passed onto any of those pages?

[Arantor]

As I already said, there is already an h1 tag on the page, and changing the content to make the h1 work the way you want will require more than merely changing the template - there are a LOT of styles attached to the h3 depending on where it is.

The nofollow there is because it's an inbound link. Considering that every single post links back to the page you're already on, the nofollow is actually to reduce link juice being spilled. On this page along, where there are 4 (once I've replied) posts, all linking back to this page. But they will all link back to this page differently which spreads link juice.

Honestly, speaking from experience, you are strongly recommended not to mess with that.