Discover How To Find And Fix Broken Links In Your Forum Posts
I have yet to come across a forum that maintains 100% validity of old links in posts and topics. This remains the case regardless of whether they use a standalone PHP script, a WordPress-based plugin, or any other platform. The primary reason for this is the difficulty in tracing and rectifying invalid or dead links, especially in forums with a large number of posts.
Xenu’s Link Sleuth, also known as Xenu Link Checker, is a computer program that checks websites for broken hyperlinks. It is written by Tilman Hausherr and is proprietary software available at no charge. The program is named after Xenu, the galactic ruler from Scientology scripture. The tool is designed to gain visibility into broken links on website launches, so that you can know ahead of time whether you have completed a 1-to-1 mapping of old site URLs to new site URLs.
Xenu’s Link Sleuth has been praised for its effectiveness and efficiency. It requires a low-to-moderate quantity of CPU and system memory, so it shouldn’t burden the computer’s performance. It has a good response time and worked fine in tests, without hanging, crashing or popping up errors. It has been called the “fastest link-checking software” by PC Magazine, and “amazingly fast and very accurate” by a University of Wyoming newsletter. The software was used as a testing tool in a usability study at Grand Valley State University. It’s free, fast, and functional, making it an excellent tool for any Web developer’s toolkit.
The ONLY thing you MUST be carefull is not to overload your server and block your requests. Use a low Parallel Thread settings, something like 2 or 4 or 6. And wait, it will take a while to finish.
More details and downloads at https://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html. It is better to use the Beta (newer) version.
(While i mostly check Forum dead links with Xenu, you can use it for the whole website. Links are Links everywhere.)
