Changing a thread title does not change its URL?

I just noticed that while EvenBob's thread was changed to the title


that the thread URL remains
https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/gambling/betting-systems/37509-my-governor-changed-my-life/

with the original my-governor-changed-my-life title embedded in it.

Is this the way the forum works always when titles are changed, or was that title somehow changed in the wrong way, not at the friendly SEO URL level?

Noticed the same here
https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/gambling/blackjack/36672-the-doorman/
where the thread title was changed to "The Doorman & RIP Moses" but the SEO friendly URL does not reflect the change.

Here too
https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/questions-and-answers/las-vegas/36275-quietest-and-best-rooms-to-stay-in-las-vegas/
where title was changed to "QUIETEST AND BEST VEGAS ROOMS"

maybe something for the programmers to look into, to fix the discrepancy.

When we change the thread title, the moderators already have the option to change the URL. I tried to do that once to make the URL consistent with the revised thread title and the thread completely disappeared. I had to enlist our very capable IT person to recover the thread. Perhaps it was a mistake I made, but ever since I only revise the title.

The Quietest and Best Vegas Rooms thread cited in the previous post was changed by another moderator, so apparently I am not the only mod who leaves the URL unchanged.

I think this issue is most efficiently explored by the moderators in a private discussion.

Quote: MDawg

Noticed the same here
https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/gambling/blackjack/36672-the-doorman/
where the thread title was changed to "The Doorman & RIP Moses" but the SEO friendly URL does not reflect the change.

Here too
https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/questions-and-answers/las-vegas/36275-quietest-and-best-rooms-to-stay-in-las-vegas/
where title was changed to "QUIETEST AND BEST VEGAS ROOMS"

maybe something for the programmers to look into, to fix the discrepancy.
link to original post

To answer, as i understand it.....

Let's say a thread is started with Title of "Title A". It will be automatically assigned an SEO Friendy URL including the text "title-a". All capitals become lower case and all spaces become hyphens.
Let's further say that many posts within that thread get quoted. Remember that all quotes get a "Link to original post" which bears a link to that SEO Friendly URL. Also, all cached content on google and wayback machine and any other cache or external incoming link would capture the content with that friendly link.

Now, an admin comes along and changes the title but does not change the friendly URL. All pre-existing links everywhere should still work, ok.
But, what if a moderator changes the SEO friendly URL..... All those links would break. Been there got the T-shirt, and ended up slavishly working through all of the quotes fixing them. Google cache and wayback and inbound links are left to their own devices.

There are workarounds, involving splitting a thread and copying ALL content over, but that is unpredictable. Some threads do not split reliably under some circumstances that we are aware of.
There are minor fragilities within the forum software that we admins are aware of a few, but they are so insignificant that we do not bother the IT guys with them.

Acceptable Quality at Appropriate Cost.

Uhh, what they said, and it takes longer to change both the URL and the title.

Changing the URL can "break stuff"*, leaving it alone tends not to.


_{* a technical term of art.}

As I understand it, with WoV’s custom software, the part after the thread number is ignored.

For example, this goes to the doorman thread:

http://www.wizardofvegas.com/forum/gambling/blackjack/36672-test

Quote: DJTeddyBear

As I understand it, with WoV’s custom software, the part after the thread number is ignored.

For example, this goes to the doorman thread:

http://www.wizardofvegas.com/forum/gambling/blackjack/36672-test
link to original post

My quick test shows a URL ending with the thread number needs to have a dash appended. That form will not work if followed by an anchor to a specific post, aka permalink. Even if the URL could be changed to reflect a new title, the link using the previous title would have to continue working as well in order for historical references not to give HTTP 404 results. Such compounding of data used as a reference frequently leads to this type of problem when the data used in compounding changes. If the site design had used only the post index number without the title text this problem would not exist. Adding the title text is only of use to meat sacks.

Anyway it's something that could be updated to make the URL update automatically when the thread title is changed. I PM'ed Miroslavav and pointed out to him this thread.