Email features? Turning off polls?

[Kino]

Hello.

I have just spent some time using the admin demo for the full version of vBulletin. I have a need for a stable, fully featured php/MySQL driven bulletin board. It is imperative that I have this software for my use in the next 2 weeks.

I have some questions regarding functionality. If you can answer these to my satisfaction, it would help to assure a sale.

1. Can I send an email to all registered users? If so, how and what function would allow this? If not, can I export a list of all registered users easily to import into a proper mailing list program?

2. Is there a way to turn polls off so they are not available? Can polls be on in some forums and not in others?

Frankly, my only concern about this board program is that it is so feature rich that it might prove complicated for some to use. I'm setting up a board for someone in their 60s. I hope they will only have to read and post articles - I will be taking care of configuring all the options thankfully. But the readers will definitely be older too, so I don't want to scare them off with all the registration options and extra features like polling, URL parsing and file attaching.

I hope you appreciate this concern and have a response. If anyone who reads this can suggest a use of vBulletin that caters to older audiences that I could visit, I would appreciate the link.

Thanks very much.

K

[Chen]

1. Yes you can. There is a section in the Admin Control Panel that lets you build a mailing list or e-mail them directly from the server.
You can also only e-mail users with X posts or more, that haven't logged in for X days or more, etc.

2. This can be done from the permissions system. You can set it up so only admins can post polls, only in certain forums, etc.

Although I'm a bit biased, I think you can adapt to forum to fit the readers if you disable unneeded functions.

[Kino]

Thanks. I'll take another look and see if I can simplify the feature set. Re: email, I know this feature is disabled in the admin demo, so I'll have to take your word on it.

K

[Chen]

Attached is the screen taken from the Control Panel.
The mailing list builder is almost the same. :)

[Wayne Luke]

You can also generate a mailing list from your member list quite simply in the control panel.

[Kino]

I've had another look at the admin page, and I cannot see where I can turn off the options for posting. There is a section to turn off such options in signatures, i.e.

Allow vB IMG code in signatures? Yes No

But it's not available for posts themselves. I think I've missed it somehow, because I remember an option to turn off smilies.

I'm trying to keep things as simple for the users as possible. If I was running a board for gamers or something, I could see adding all the bells and whistles. But for older generations that stuff just confuses them.

Once again, am I able to turn off these posting options so users will not have to face them?

Thanks again.

K

[Mentor]

Dear Kino, to turn off posting of polls you must simply go to the User Groups and Permissions menu, edit the registered users by scroll down untill you find Poll Permissions and simply remove there ability to post polls. You can also do this with guests by instead of choosing registered users, choose unregistered.

[tubedogg]

vB code etc. is a per-forum setting (Forums > Modify) that you can change at any time.

[Fusion]

Originally posted by Mentor
Dear Kino, to turn off posting of polls you must simply go to the User Groups and Permissions menu, edit the registered users by scroll down untill you find Poll Permissions and simply remove there ability to post polls. You can also do this with guests by instead of choosing registered users, choose unregistered.

If I understood Kino right, the question was if the polling question would be removed if the ability to post polls were revoked as descibed. As far as I remember, the Post Poll question is still shown, and will only give an error if a poll is attempted. It will probably have to be removed from the code.

Maybe this should be part of a suggestion for V3, that if certain permissions are revoked, the related items onscreen is also removed/hidden to avoid confusion.

[Chen]

Originally posted by Fusion
If I understood Kino right, the question was if the polling question would be removed if the ability to post polls were revoked as descibed. As far as I remember, the Post Poll question is still shown, and will only give an error if a poll is attempted. It will probably have to be removed from the code.

Maybe this should be part of a suggestion for V3, that if certain permissions are revoked, the related items onscreen is also removed/hidden to avoid confusion.
Actually you are wrong Fusion.
The Post new poll option is only displayed if you can use it.
This is also the case for other items that only get displayed if you have permission to use them.

[Fusion]

Originally posted by FireFly

Actually you are wrong Fusion.
The Post new poll option is only displayed if you can use it.
This is also the case for other items that only get displayed if you have permission to use them.

Great! :D

[sarah]

it also mails each mailer one at a time, so they wont get that spam type mail. i used my mail feature to tell members about my site updates, and asked members how the mail worked, and they thought i mailed each one of them individually.

let me tell you, this script was made by a smart person!