1 in 10 or 20 times, this forum generates blank pages when I visit. Something wasn’t happening before.
I’ve also seen the blank pages.
Returning to the 404 issue (and cross posting from https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/help-404-error-but-page-displays?replies=3#post-57822), it looks like WordPress is setting the 404 because it doesn’t recognize the bbPress page that is loading.
When the global WP object is constructed, the function WP->handle_404 calls “status_header( 404 )”.
As a workaround, I modified “handle_404” to lay off the 404 if “BB_PATH” is defined (i.e. when a bbPress page is loading). This seems to work ok.
Here’s the new “handle_404” at around line 445 in “wp-includes/classes.php”.
function handle_404() {
global $wp_query;
if ( !defined( 'BB_PATH' ) && (0 == count($wp_query->posts)) && !is_404() && !is_search() && ( $this->did_permalink || (!empty($_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']) && (false === strpos($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], '?'))) ) ) {
// Don't 404 for these queries if they matched an object.
if ( ( is_tag() || is_category() || is_author() ) && $wp_query->get_queried_object() ) {
if ( !is_404() )
status_header( 200 );
return;
}
$wp_query->set_404();
status_header( 404 );
nocache_headers();
} elseif ( !is_404() ) {
status_header( 200 );
}
}
This is really a WPMU issue, so I’ve posted it over there: https://mu.wordpress.org/forums/topic/14425?replies=1#post-83354
I think this issue will stop Google (and other search engines) from indexing your forum pages. So if you are using deep integration it might be a good idea to watch for a patch.
Use my little workaround at at your own risk.
I got some help on the bbPress forum and think I’ve sorted this out. I was loading “wp-blog-header.php” for deep integration, but loading “wp-load.php” seems to be better. No more 404 headers in the forum, and the RSS feed problem I had previously is also fixed.
I suspect buddypress.org is using “wp-blog-header.php” because it is showing the same symptoms. Perhaps the admin here would like to try “wp-load.php”.
Thread on bbPress forum:
https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/deep-integration-google-might-not-be-indexing-your-forum-pages?replies=9#post-57859
