Like or "thank you" button

[Christian_K]

I know this from many other forums to have a "thank you" or "like" button under each persons forum post.
Also in Profile of everybody is then written something like:
"... Received 125 thank you from 35 posts"
"... Thanked other people 89 times"

I quite like this, because often certain posts are so important and contain so much valuable information that one really has to thanks for that post or parts of that post.

 

[gerryvz]

Yes, this can be implemented, I just have to download and install such a modification.

 

[szvook]

That will give this site a Facebook look and feel...if we go that route, I'll never visit this site again.

 

[Jelmer]

If a post contains very much and/or good information, it's probably worthwhile to make a wiki entry out of it.

We all know Dave and Gerry would get the most thanks and likes, but then what? A competition to see who can get 3rd place?

Also, just writing "Thanks!" in a reply does the same trick

 

[gerryvz]

I believe you can also "rate" posts using the drop-down menu at the top of each thread. Some people have done this. It's a 1-5 star rating system.

All that said, I don't believe ultimatums have a place on this board, and they certainly wouldn't influence any administrative decision. This board has, for many months now, a Facebook "Like" button enabled, as well as the ability to log-in using one's Facebook account. I have toyed with removing this as it is not highly used by members, but have decided to leave it as is. It can be disabled in about 30 seconds. I don't see the need to add any sort of further Facebook or Twitter or Google+ integration to this site at the present time.

I did look briefly for a MOD for better rating of threads, and there is a fair amount of this type of stuff out there. However, given the "star-rating" we already have that is built-in to the vBulletin system, I don't see a strong need to implement anything further. Let's use what we've got, and if it doesn't work, then we can consider further additions.

Another reason I am a bit hesitant to add mods to the board is that when intermediate or major versions of the software are released, often times these "MODs" become broken and non-functional. I have added several simple mods (such as the strikethrough text) and of course the Wiki package, the integrated CMS (what you see at 500Eboard.com) functionality, the Gallery capability, the rotating header image, and the "Who Has Visited Today" capability, but these are actively and well supported, and will keep up with changes to the vBulletin software. In fact, just in the past 10 minutes I updated the "Who has visited today" product.

So, I think I'll leave things "status quo" at this time.

I agree that highly rated / informative threads can and should be made into Wiki entries, and I believe searches and sorting can also be done on the more highly-rated threads.

Sticky threads (which we have also implemented in certain cases) are also an effective way to keep important posts prominent. In fact, some of the Sticky threads may well be transformed into Wiki entries. Over time, the Wiki will prove to be just as valuable as the forums.

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[Christian_K]

Ok, but you can only rate entire topics. "Thank you" is something else.
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=122944

It is informative to highlight single posts inside a thread/topic on its content of valuable information or a clarification of an issue. In some forums i'm in its used for instance this way:
Very long thread, countless of people posting true bullshit on the matter, one guy with knowledge comes, posts how it really is and then he receives a lot of thanks for that post.

Here it could look like this: A Topic about "chiptuning", countless people claiming and speculating about powergains and whatnot, then Dave comes, adds a post with clarification of the matter backed by his own countless testings with chips and different LH-modules and he will get a "thank you" for that from other users who read this post and find it informative/valuable.
Later on, when people watch his profile and see he received hundreds of "thank you" in fewer than hundred posts, it raises his reputation and people can see that this is a guy to trust. Etc.

 

[gerryvz]

OK, running an experiment here.

With a little bit of hacking I was able to install a "Thanks" capability that works with this version of the vBulletin software. This modification is a couple of years old and the author doesn't keep it up to date.

Below are some screen shots of the "Thanks" button as well as the "Thanks Removal" and it also shows in the user profile the number of thanks given.

This makes the site INCREDIBLY Facebook-like, nearly a carbon copy of Facebook, so the vookster will probably be vacating the premises rather quickly

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[szvook]

Bloody hell...

 

[Jimbo]

What are we? In elementary school? Please, thank yous and I like?...c'mon.

Tallying stuff like that separates us...it's like giving out awards at work; all it does is cause problems.

 

[gerryvz]

Like I said .. it's an EXPERIMENT. Personally I'm a big fan of the "star" rating system that comes installed with the vBulletin software.

We'll see how this goes, and if it's worthy or not. If not, it can be disabled/removed in seconds.

Life is all about trying new shit. Sometimes it works out, sometimes not. It's one benefit to being Site Honcho .... I get to decide on what's hot and what's not

 

[edcarls]

...Tallying stuff like that separates us....

I agree with Jimbo. This rating would limit my participation or comments for fear that my knowledge is not good enough. There is no point in joining a group of casual enthusiast if there is a threat that your comments would be rated low or useless. Please note: it is the dumb questions of the ignorant that opens up a discussion which shed light to useful and correct information.

Just my 2 cents. I'm confident Gerry knows what is best.
Ed

 

[edcarls]

I just noticed my profile and I feel bad because nobody thanked me and I thanked nobody. Now I know the meaning of the word, "thankless"!

 

[gsxr]

 

[Jelmer]

Besides the discussion about the use of the feature, I think having that bar that states (in screwed up capitals) how many users thank that poster is really disturbing and disrupts the flow of the thread.

 

[gsxr]

Besides the discussion about the use of the feature, I think having that bar that states (in screwed up capitals) how many users thank that poster is really disturbing and disrupts the flow of the thread.

+1.

 

[Christian_K]

Should be altered. Look how its done in the largest german motor & car forums:
http://www.motor-talk.de/forum/welches-motoroel-t230315.html

There is just a "Thumbs-up" Button with left of it the amount of "thanks" and right the word "Thanks". When you hover over it, a block text appear and it says "Klick Thanks if you find the post helpful".
Its fully anonymous over there and there is also no "Thanked X Times in X Posts" thing in your little profile overview on the left, which everybody immediately sees. Thats not how i meant it at the beginning. The amount how often someone thanked yourself could be either left-off entirely or it should be in the Profile overview when someone actually VISITS your Profile.

 

[Jelmer]

+1.

Could've "thank"ed me :-/

Should be altered. Look how its done in the largest german motor & car forums:

Actually that looks pretty good. If it could be integrated in the Edit post / reply / reply with quote bar, it would be less intrusive. People who care can read it, people who don't care ignore it.

 

[Christian_K]

Exactly... and shouldn't be to hard if you know basic xhtml, css, php and sql queries.
A decent coder on the Vbulletin forums would probably do it for free or at a very low charge (below 50$ i guess).

 

[gerryvz]

I made a couple of minor tweaks to the "Thanks" function:

- the number of thanks for each person only shows up if you look at their profile, but not in each post underneath their name
- I simplified the "thanks bar" so it doesn't say WHEN the thanks was made, only the names of the users who provided the thanks

This might take a little bit of the edge off. I will investigate more tweaking of this function over the weekend.

Let me know what you think of these small changes (you can see them in this same thread).

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[T-500]

I like it better in its toned-down form