How To Access Forum Posts From Broken Links

O

odSteve

New member
Hi, This forum contains a wealth of information and knowledge. Unfortunately a few years ago when the server was updated many of the links in the forums that pointed to other forum pages were broken and no longer work.
So I thought I'd share the way it's possible to follow those broken forum links. This procedure has always worked for me but that is only for broken forum links. It usually does not work for bad picture links etc.
The best way to explain is with an actual simple example:

For example, under "Tech Forums" click "Basic Tech Questions" then click "Fluid and Filter Specs".
Then as you read along you will see a link for "Dipstick Oil Analysis". Perhaps you may want to click on that link to see what it has to say.
That link looks like this: http://www.forums.IHPartsAmerica.com/oil-tech/4504-dipstick-oil-analysis.html
But then you get the dreaded "This site can't be reached" error message.
The way to get around that error page is the following:

Step 1:
Copy the url from that error page into a new browser window. Don't copy the url from the original forum page. Sometimes the forum link resolves into something a bit different on the error page. That error page url should look like this:
http://www.forums.IHPartsAmerica.com/oil-tech/4504-dipstick-oil-analysis.html

Step 2:
Delete from that copied url the following: " http://www. " at the beginning of the url, and " html " at the end of the url and any words between the two " / " marks immediately following the words: " forums.IHPartsAmerica.com " and insert the word " threads " So at this point the url link should look like this " forums.IHPartsAmerica.com/threads/4504-dipstick-oil-analysis. "

Step 3:
Move the link number and dash to the end of the url and delete the dash at the end of the url.
In this example the link number is " 4504- "
At this point the url should look like this: " forums.IHPartsAmerica.com/threads/dipstick-oil-analysis.4504 "
Hit enter and that should bring up the broken forum page.

Once you've done it a few times it becomes easy. And you may find shortcuts to this 3-step procedure but those short cuts don't always work. And I suggest you practice with simple links that don't have a lot of other numbers in it until you become familiar with how this all works.

So there it is - how to access forum posts from broken forum links.

For your practice here is one more broken link from that page and how it should look after you modify it to work:

http://www.forums.IHPartsAmerica.com/engine-cooling-mobile-hvac-tech/3236-cooling-system-101-a.html

forums.ihpartsamerica.com/threads/cooling-system-101-a.3236
 
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If Jeff wants I can write a query to fix all those broken links. I will need access to the server to do this.
 
Thank you guys for bringing this up to my attention. @FDChappie thanks for the offer. Let me see if our webmaster @ToddW can get a fix on this first. Might be a few days before he can get to this though as he lives a little higher up in the mountains and is still digging out from all the snow.
 
Hi, It's been a few months now. How are the repairs coming along? Any idea when we will be able to follow broken links by directly clicking on them?
Anything I can do to help?
Thanks.
 
Hi Todd, Here's an icon for the website, so we can see something other than the generic one. Let me know if you need help implementing it.
favicon.png
 
Hi All - We've updated the redirects, it looks like an update broke the ones we made originally.

Attachments like the PDF in this post here are fixed and working:

and posts like mentioned originally are fixed and working.

NOTE: We never used www.Forums.ihpartsamerica.com
So there's no redirects, or domain subdomains setup \ matching this, and thus should not be any old links from the forum only a user mistake if the www. is utilized.
 
hi Todd,
I don't know what to tell you. I went to this page in Basic Tech Questions: https://forums.ihpartsamerica.com/threads/fluid-and-filter-specs.4480/

Almost every link on that page is not good or does not work. Sad as there is so much good info lost or not available to the average person scanning the page. One of my links is on that page. It worked for a long time until the very first upgrade or change in server added the WWW to the link and it has never worked since. Same with most links on that page. Apparently the first server change added www to a lot of the links. Using my little procedure at the top of this thread makes these links work so I know the info is still in this server. But making my link work is not the point. The point is all links that can be made to work should be made to work for the benefit of new people looking for insight into these products. I often refer people from facebook to this company and its web site for information. So often I find people asking questions on facebook that have the answers here if only the links worked. I doubt most people use the process above to access the broken links when scanning this forum for information. I'm sure if a link doesn't work, they just ignore it and lose out on any information it may have contained.

I only want the best for Jeff's business and this hobby. And to bring back and make accessible again all the knowledge of Mr. Michael Mayben and others I think will only help with that goal.
So if you and Jeff agree that this forum is still a good tool to promote his business, I suggest you take another look at getting the links in the forum to work, including those that now have the www added from the first time the server was changed.

Thank you Todd for your help, and Jeff for the promotion of the hobby by making the parts available.
I wish you all good health, and a very happy and prosperous future.
 
@odSteve thanks for the feedback, much appreciated... for context there are approximately 1400 messages that use www.forums.ihpartsamerica.com out of a total of over 100,000 -- so it's a very very small % affected. Out of those 1400 maybe 20-30% are old forum emoticons\icons -- and the rest are links in posts, out of those I spot-checked some and some are valid working (without www) while others are very-very old forum links that haven't worked in many years and I won't be able to remedy.

I'll update those in the database, and it will fix most old\broken links but not 100%.

Thanks again!
 
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