digitalpoint vb uses no seo hacks and it ranks #1 for about any phrase you title a thread with. enough said.
Can I what is the best way for a forum to then spread its page rank through to its threads then? I run a phpBB forum and I find that virtually none of my threads are listed in search results but my index page is ranked quite well...
Get the following MOD and apply all except the mod_rewrite parts. You'll be indexed beyond your wildest dreams.
If you have removed the session id's for guests on your board, topics will eventually show up in the serp's
There is more to do for optimizing the board though. I can post the things i did on my site if anyone is interested. In a new topic of course to keep it tidy and people can find it easier.
There's more like removing quote buttons for guests, showing topic titles instead of previous and next topic, removing post buttons for guests. And some other minor things.