htaccess help

I need help making the htaccess file readable here is the one that works on my server :

RewriteRule ^page/([^/]+)/?$ index.php?page=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^tag/([^/]+)/?$ index.php?tag=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^tag/([^/]+)/page/([^/]+)/?$ index.php?tag=$1&page=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^search/([^/]+)/page/([^/]+)/?$ index.php?action=search&keyword=$1&page=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^comment/?$ comment.php [L]
RewriteRule ^rss/?$ rss.php [L]
RewriteRule ^rss/time/([^/]+)?$ rss.php?time=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^suggest/?$ suggest.php [L]
RewriteRule ^term/?$ term.php [L]
RewriteRule ^advertising/?$ advertising.php
RewriteRule ^privacy/?$ privacy.php [L]
RewriteRule ^view/([^/]+)/?$ view.php?title=$1 [L]





here is the one that does not work on my linux server . . . and all this htaccess stuff does not make ANY sense to me so i appreciate your help !


RewriteRule ^index\.html$ /index\.php
RewriteRule ^view-(.*)-(.*).html /viewjokes.php?title=$1&id=$2
RewriteRule ^joke-archives-(.*)-(.*)-(.*).html /joke-archives.php?cat_name=$1&cat_id=$2&start=$3
RewriteRule ^links(.*).html /links.php?start=$1
RewriteRule ^help\.html$ /help\.php
RewriteRule ^links\.html$ /links\.php
RewriteRule ^privacy\.html$ /privacy\.php
RewriteRule ^refer_to_friend\.html$ /refer_to_friend\.php
RewriteRule ^feedback\.html$ /feedback\.php
RewriteRule ^disclaimer\.html$ /disclaimer\.php