Thread:Project:Support desk/Optimal Short URL ruleset/reply (2)

There is one problem in particular: You're using the same path as virtual path and real path. This is problematic. Please see Manual:Short URL (in particular: Manual:Short URL/Apache).

The  part in your httpd.conf looks rather suspicious. Probably a hacky workaround you came up with to aid the conflict between the directory name and the article path.

You don't need to have both htaccess and httpd.conf. Choose ether one or the other (if you can choose, httpd.conf is better than htaccess). If you properly configure httpd.conf, the entire htaccess can (and should) be deleted.

I could point out what's wrong with every line, but I'd recommend starting over (remove all of it) and just read Manual:Short URL/Apache.

Why are you doing it differently? Your settings may or may not work, but whatever the case: they will be non-standard and unsupported. The settings in the manual have been perfected over a long time. They're probably the most efficient and they'll be supported.