I think a "thanks" Button would be very useful in this Forum. Something like this.



It could mainly be used in...
- the Improvement Suggestion Section, no more need for "+1" just thank the User if you like the Idea.
- The Programmers & Test patch Forum to thank a User for a Tool or Scawen for a Patch.
- The Skins Section, this way a Skinner can exactly see how many people like the Skin.

Of course this Function could be used almost anywhere else in the Forum but this would be the 3 Sections where it is most useful.

+1

I don't quite get what it does?? What does it accomplish?

+/-1

this is cool, reminds me of the metaforum

Quote from Shinanigans :

I don't quite get what it does?? What does it accomplish?

It's a button behind every post that you can press to say "+1" (or everything along the lines of "nice" "great" "well done" or "will you marry me?") without increasing your sadness rating (the number after "Posts: ").

+1

Vain

another reason for having a go at making my own forum software

I've come to conclude vb is nice, but there are downsides to all this complexity it has. It has too many options - how much functionality do we really need? (i mean, there are many options we don't use) It just makes it slow. And adding a feature like this isn't easily added i think, unless you know vb inside out - i don't. But if i'd have my own forum code .. it would be easy

anyway just blerting a bit ... it'd be a nice feature, but i don't think i'm going to dive into the entire code of vb.

Well, if you have the time, you could tackle writing a CSS based forum. Saves alot of bandwidth if you do it right.

Also to the suggestion: generally -1, because then I'd have less excuse to post +1.

Hacks like these for VB are spread all over http://www.vbulletin.org.

If you wanted... for now just use the thread RATING feature!

Quote from AndroidXP :

Well, if you have the time, you could tackle writing a CSS based forum. Saves alot of bandwidth if you do it right.

I can see what you're aiming at, but if you write any web software properly you can avoid this by following the MVC way of coding; that is separating the view from the control (i.e. templating things properly), which I believe vB supports. I think the problem is more along the lines of the amount of queries vB performs, etc. As Victor has said many times, bandwidth isn't a current issue, its queries and static content caching.

There is a bit of an issue with not using vB or similar existing solutions, and writing your own. I'll have to refer to ESR (twice in one year, and in the same place? What am I coming to?): "many eyes make all bugs shallow". Regardless of whether it's proprietory or open source, no matter how good you are, one person can miss a bug or loophole. It would be interesting to see a custom forum with some cool integration though

It could be really benefiting for users with slower connections, though. If you get rid of all that table nesting you have already much smaller html code that needs to be sent to the client. And even if bandwidth is not a problem, loading times would still be much faster for the users

But I see how this could be a security issue, especially in the regard of user licenses.

I think you've missed my point. Rewriting the forum isnt justified for the one reason of changing the interface. If vB follows the MVC approach (which I believe it does - feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), all you really need to do is change the View code, aka the templates, for vB; which is trivial. It saves the entire rewrite thats potentially proposed.

You're 100% spot on about the nested tables, and I 100% agree that CSS designs are almost generally lower on total bandwidth, but it isnt a good reason, by itself, to just write your own forum software from scratch (obviously there are other reasons as well in this situation). I'd really love to see a custom LFS-orientated forum, but I just worry Then again, we can't tell Victor, Scawen or Eric how to spend their time.

So perhaps my post and consequentially my opinion, is rather redundant?

Haha, no of course I didn't mean that one feature would justify a rewrite. Vic was just dreaming of writing an own one, and I said when he does it, it should be a CSS based one, for obvious reasons.

Actually I don't think this feature is useful enough to warrant any work on it at all

Quote from the_angry_angel :

I think you've missed my point. Rewriting the forum isnt justified for the one reason of changing the interface. If vB follows the MVC approach (which I believe it does - feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), all you really need to do is change the View code, aka the templates, for vB; which is trivial. It saves the entire rewrite thats potentially proposed.

You're 100% spot on about the nested tables, and I 100% agree that CSS designs are almost generally lower on total bandwidth, but it isnt a good reason, by itself, to just write your own forum software from scratch (obviously there are other reasons as well in this situation). I'd really love to see a custom LFS-orientated forum, but I just worry Then again, we can't tell Victor, Scawen or Eric how to spend their time.

So perhaps my post and consequentially my opinion, is rather redundant?

thing is, i've already started a little bit (verry slowly) on a new lfsworld. And that already has threaded messaging. Shouldn't be too hard to make a forum section as well. Of course there'll be a zillion (useful ) options and details, but that can be worked on.
Like you said, it would be nice to have 1 totally integrated LFS World That's besides my grudges written above and perhaps most important. If it means a good improvement for all, then why not
Anyway, we'll see if i think about that the same way tomorrow

Quote from Victor :

thing is, i've already started a little bit (verry slowly) on a new lfsworld. And that already has threaded messaging. Shouldn't be too hard to make a forum section as well.

if you can get it to (unlike vb) not mark threads as read just because youve been logged in after their creation i shall love you forever

Quote from Shotglass :

if you can get it to (unlike vb) not mark threads as read just because youve been logged in after their creation i shall love you forever

big -1 from me. The 'view new posts' button would become useless to me...

vb does have an option there though

but i think if i select one of the other two, all threads will go unread, so.. hmm and they say it uses more resource

the threaded messages work like pm's in that fashion though - they are only marked read when you actually read'm. Of course with a new post in it, they are marked unread again, so they'll show in bold at the top of your screen

A 'have read all threads' option would easily be added though.

Quote from Victor :

vb does have an option there though

but i think if i select one of the other two, all threads will go unread, so.. hmm and they say it uses more resource

I'll bet it does use more resources.

I still wish VB could ask a member what they will do upon revisiting once an option like this is turned on. Kind of complicated, but if all the threads were marked unread, and then we were all reset with "Mark Forums Read" from the bottom of the forum main page, then it could deal with it.

But still, people that only choose to view certain threads each day and not choose a large lump of other threads to view, it will just make a huge list of unread threads for them, and I think that is where it gets nasty. But I think there is someway to make the unread threads expire??? I know the very old VB 2.0 had that. (Wasn't the Thread Age - Show option)

Quote from Tweaker :

But still, people that only choose to view certain threads each day and not choose a large lump of other threads to view, it will just make a huge list of unread threads for them, and I think that is where it gets nasty.

how so ? youll just have a whole bunch of unread threads somewhere down the list (sorted by date)

the main advantage for this is that you can come and go at any time
currently after logging off youll have to wait for some arbitrary time untill the forum recognizes you as logged off ... if you log on again before that time is up youll have all the threads that you previously read marked as unread again
and on the other hand if your connections breaks while browsing the forum once your back online you often find yourself in a forum full of read threads

and yes it does use more resources (mainly space i guess) quite a lot actually

I am talking about the other option Victor has, and he knows it will not be a good idea. The way it is currently is different.

vic talking outta the sewing box hehe

Quote from Tweaker :

I am talking about the other option Victor has, and he knows it will not be a good idea. The way it is currently is different.

i was listing pros on the other option

Quote from Victor :

A 'have read all threads' option would easily be added though.

I thought, we already have that. Under the Off-Topic forum: "Mark forums read".

In a couple of forums I read, you can get a "karma" rating for each user.

Each user has their own count with a smite button to take minus 1 off their "karma" score and an applaud button to add 1.

Similar to a thank you button.