WebCMS Posted December 12, 2023 Share Posted December 12, 2023 Cross-posting of articles as forum topics functionality currently has some issues - The entire article body along with a link to the original article is cross-posted into topic (the link to article will show the exact same full body content). Cross-posting the entire article body may get penalties from search engines for duplicated content. It is perfectly fine to post a link+snippet to another content in SEO terms. The content in the forum topic can also go out of sync if the original article is modified which is not graceful. A new option may be provided to post just an excerpt/snippet OR the full article body (current default) along with the link to the article. If possible, the link may be embedded in the topic so it will include an excerpt in the embedded box. If the article is posted by the Admin, it gets cross-posted as a forum topic automatically by the Admin user but the same Admin user is not able to edit the cross-posted forum topic (to convert its posted body content into an embedded link to the article). Cross-posted forum topic can only be edited if the original article was posted by a mod/user. However, this behavior of editability is inconsistent as it seems to be using some caching as it shows the Edit menu item at times but not always. Even if a user posted the article that got cross-posted to a forum as a topic, neither the user nor the admin are able edit the forum topic at times (but again, it works sometimes). Currently, it can cross-post every article to only "one" specified forum which is not optimal. The article posting form should have a Forum dropdown option to select to which forum the article should be cross-posted into. If the optional forum to cross-post is not chosen on the Article form, it should preferably not get cross-posted (this approach makes the cross-posting option dynamic per-article and the forum to cross-post setting at Articles level in ACP obsolete). Alternatively, if the forum to cross-post the article into is not chosen (in the optional forum dropdown on the Article form), it should cross-post to the default forum set in the Articles in ACP. TIA konon, Gill and Maxxius 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dreadknux Posted December 13, 2023 Share Posted December 13, 2023 Good ideas, some of this could be included in my previous Feedback topics on Pages Improvements here: https://invisioncommunity.com/forums/topic/462054-pages-copy-to-database-improvement-suggestions/ https://invisioncommunity.com/forums/topic/474203-ips-v5-topics-pages-improvement-suggestions/#comment-2944230 For Point 1, I can see the case for adding an option in ACP to allow for either full article copy or a snippet to display on-forum (I prefer the former for what I'm doing, but can definitely see why the latter would be useful - although I'm not sure if Google really penalises the dupe copy given it's on the same community/site in a different node?). I haven't seen any Topic content go out of sync upon editing the original Pages Record though, maybe there's a permissions issue confusing the system? Agree with Point 2 for sure, I'm not entirely sure why synced topics are locked out from editing entirely. There might be reasons why an admin may wish to have different content display on the topic versus the Page record. Regarding Point 3, I've noticed there is a per-category setting that allows you to post Page records into different forums besides the default one set on the database level. If you go to ACP > Pages > Page Database Name > Categories, and then edit the Category, there's a tab called 'Forum' that allows you to check an option "Override database forum options". You can then choose if any records you post to that category will deliver a topic to a different forum, or even not post a topic at all. This has been useful for me when sorting out a 'news' Page database. Unless there's something I'm missing there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sound Posted December 13, 2023 Share Posted December 13, 2023 (edited) Point #1 is already available see the 'topic field' option you can turn it off for the main content field (by removing it) and then add your own 'teaser' field with the 'topic field' filled in as per This setting controls whether the field will be included in the automatically generated topic, and how to format it. Use {title} for field title, and {value} for field value. Leave empty to not include in the automatically generated topic. Edited December 13, 2023 by sound Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
My Sharona Posted December 13, 2023 Share Posted December 13, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, Dreadknux said: I'm not sure if Google really penalises the dupe copy given it's on the same community/site in a different node?) Google claims to not penalize duplicate content on a site but regardless, it can still hurt your SEO practices. The problem lies in the fact that IPS places a <link rel="canonical" ...../" /> tag (which directs a search engine that this is the master copy) on both the page and the topic. You can easily see this by viewing the page source of both the page and topic. It should be line 171. You shouldn't have a canonical tag on both pages claiming to be the master. I have reported this previously but never followed up on it by placing the topic in the Feedback sub. Edited December 13, 2023 by My Sharona Dreadknux and Gill 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dreadknux Posted December 13, 2023 Share Posted December 13, 2023 1 hour ago, My Sharona said: Google claims to not penalize duplicate content on a site but regardless, it can still hurt your SEO practices. The problem lies in the fact that IPS places a <link rel="canonical" ...../" /> tag (which directs a search engine that this is the master copy) on both the page and the topic. You can easily see this by viewing the page source of both the page and topic. It should be line 171. You shouldn't have a canonical tag on both pages claiming to be the master. I have reported this previously but never followed up on it by placing the topic in the Feedback sub. Oh I see, thanks. So I guess the solution with that issue is to have a setting that allows the Admin to choose whether a topic or the page keeps the "canonical" tag and supersedes the other. That'd be nice to see. Might have a positive impact on how your community's content is displayed in Google search results too (although I'm obviously not holding my breath 😄) My Sharona 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joel R Posted December 13, 2023 Share Posted December 13, 2023 (edited) An observation on my end: one of the fundamental issues is that IPS has siloed the applications. And while IPS offers a feature to push Articles over to Forums, the reality is that we have the same content item in two different locations. Should you go to Articles to read?? Or should you go to Forums to read?? One approach that I've seen from a competitor is to offer a long form article layout directly in the Forums. So you're still in the Forums, but the layout of the topic is designed for articles. If you go to page 2 of comments, the Article is condensed. It's an elegant approach to consolidating everything in one hub (aka the forums). And I find that simplicity is more important than ever to offer a simple and easy navigation. Edited December 13, 2023 by Joel R konon 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WebCMS Posted January 9 Author Share Posted January 9 (edited) In the Article Syncing to Forum setting, when "Use forum for comments" is set to Off, the Comments on the cross-posted forum topic should not be rendered but can include a link to the Comments on the original article. Otherwise, comments would be scattered between article and forum topic. These links to the original article along with an excerpt/snippet of the article: View Full Article Comments On 12/13/2023 at 6:57 AM, sound said: Point #1 is already available see the 'topic field' option you can turn it off for the main content field (by removing it) and then add your own 'teaser' field with the 'topic field' filled in as per This setting controls whether the field will be included in the automatically generated topic, and how to format it. Use {title} for field title, and {value} for field value. Leave empty to not include in the automatically generated topic. This isn't clear. Does this involve editing of the templates? Please send full menu path in the ACP to the above. Edited January 9 by WebCMS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Management Matt Posted January 9 Management Share Posted January 9 We really want to improve this during v5's lifespan. WebCMS and SeNioR- 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sound Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 2 hours ago, WebCMS said: In the Article Syncing to Forum setting, when "Use forum for comments" is set to Off, the Comments on the cross-posted forum topic should not be rendered but can include a link to the Comments on the original article. Otherwise, comments would be scattered between article and forum topic. These links to the original article along with an excerpt/snippet of the article: View Full Article Comments This isn't clear. Does this involve editing of the templates? nope 2 hours ago, WebCMS said: Please send full menu path in the ACP to the above. can't do full path as the acp link depends on the database name/id so just use the link titled 'databases name' Fields then click on a field and you will see a field with the text underneath This setting controls whether the field will be included in the automatically generated topic, and how to format it. Use {title} for field title, and {value} for field value. Leave empty to not include in the automatically generated topic. more info and a screenshot here may help WebCMS 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dreadknux Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 (edited) On 12/13/2023 at 7:49 PM, Joel R said: An observation on my end: one of the fundamental issues is that IPS has siloed the applications. And while IPS offers a feature to push Articles over to Forums, the reality is that we have the same content item in two different locations. Should you go to Articles to read?? Or should you go to Forums to read?? One approach that I've seen from a competitor is to offer a long form article layout directly in the Forums. So you're still in the Forums, but the layout of the topic is designed for articles. If you go to page 2 of comments, the Article is condensed. It's an elegant approach to consolidating everything in one hub (aka the forums). And I find that simplicity is more important than ever to offer a simple and easy navigation. I like that approach - one major concern with it though, would be regarding custom fields and other bespoke customisations an admin might like to add to the news experience (for example, I have another Pages database that works like a wiki, on top of my News database, and I have a relationship field set up that can tie a News article to a related wiki page... that wouldn't be possible if the News database was replaced with a forum-with-news-like-design). Also, if an admin decides to have a forum dedicated to both news and organic UGC discussion, there would need to be some kind of flag to identify a "cross-posted" topic versus a non-cross-posted one, for design purposes (i.e. Topic 1 in the forum list is cross-posted, so needs to have the "look like a news article" layout, but Topic 2 in the same forum list is a standard discussion topic so should keep the standard forum/topic layout). Edited January 9 by Dreadknux Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WebCMS Posted January 9 Author Share Posted January 9 #1 & #2 above are resolved by this - #3 is still a feature request Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joel R Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 8 hours ago, Dreadknux said: I like that approach - one major concern with it though, would be regarding custom fields and other bespoke customisations an admin might like to add to the news experience (for example, I have another Pages database that works like a wiki, on top of my News database, and I have a relationship field set up that can tie a News article to a related wiki page... that wouldn't be possible if the News database was replaced with a forum-with-news-like-design). Also, if an admin decides to have a forum dedicated to both news and organic UGC discussion, there would need to be some kind of flag to identify a "cross-posted" topic versus a non-cross-posted one, for design purposes (i.e. Topic 1 in the forum list is cross-posted, so needs to have the "look like a news article" layout, but Topic 2 in the same forum list is a standard discussion topic so should keep the standard forum/topic layout). Custom fields for every content type. I don't know why IPS gave us custom fields for Downloads and Page Databases, but not for other content types. I can see real value in adding custom fields to Forum Boards, especially if you have certain boards that are highly-organized that can be filterable, searchable, indexable, etc. Maxxius, shahed and Dreadknux 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WebCMS Posted February 12 Author Share Posted February 12 (edited) On 1/9/2024 at 6:02 AM, WebCMS said: In the Article Syncing to Forum setting, when "Use forum for comments" is set to Off, the Comments on the cross-posted forum topic should not be rendered but can include a link to the Comments on the original article. Otherwise, comments would be scattered between article and forum topic. These links to the original article along with an excerpt/snippet of the article: View Full Article Comments "Use forum for comments" set to ON works just as expected. Using this setting, we can post comments on the topic or on the original article but they are all recorded as comments on the cross-posted topic and they are visible in the cross-posted forum topics and also on the original article. Slick! Edited February 12 by WebCMS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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