Anything like a thanks button for vB 5.x

[tnedator]

Hi, after being on vBulletin for about eight years, I'm at a crossroads. I haven't upgraded to 5.x, because it seems the third party development pretty much dried up after 4.x and 5.x came out. There isn't a ton that we do special, but one thing that my users love and would struggle to live with out is a thanks button (we call it a hi five) where they can click a post and have all the names of the people that thanked/hi-fived that post.

I need to decide once and for all if I upgrade to 5.x or jump to Xenfero or another board.

I don't have a new topic button in the vB 5 support forum on here, so I've had no choice but to post this in presales. I've included a link to my forum below if you want to take a loot at how we are using the hi five (post thanks add on) and offer any suggestions. The rep button, which just adds the points/comment into the User CP isn't a viable alternative.

I do see the Like button, which if I can rename would go a long way, but is there a way to then list out all the names like the thanks button in xenfero or the Post Thanks addon, which is what they are going to want, vs. just seeing a number and having to click on it to see the names.

Thanks

http://www.broncosforums.com/forums/...3-Broncos-Talk

[glennrocksvb]

I've never used this but this might be the one you're looking for.

http://www.dragonbyte-tech.com/store/product/210-advanced-post-thanks-like-vb5-beta/

[Trevor Hannant]

I don't have a new topic button in the vB 5 support forum on here, so I've had no choice but to post this in presales.

On this, only those with a vB5 license have access to post in the vB5 forums. Technically, as this is a pre-sales question on you purchasing vB5, you're in the right forum

[fenderbob]

I would also like to know if there is anything available (or anything planned) to make vBulletin 5 a little more fun and interactive.

I think the biggest problem I have with vBulletin is that it doesn't seem to encourage user engagement above and beyond just posting messages. The forum as it stands now is fine if the forum's main purpose is to provide support to customers.

However, if someone wanted to use vBulletin 5 as a general discussion forum for politics or current events or weird news or something like that, there is no way for users to weed out good threads from bad ones.

For example, on some forums, users can "pin" certain topics so that thread is featured for a given time at the very top for maximum visibility. Users can earn "karma points" by making good posts in exchange for the ability to pin threads. Elsewhere I've seen forums where you can vote on thread topics, giving them a rating between 1 and 5 stars--allowing people to skip over any threads that received too many 1 stars. Or something like Reddit allows users to upvote and downvote threads.

I'm not saying vBulletin should offer all of these features out of the box, but it would be nice to see something like this in a mod or addon.

Here's my question with DragonByte though....

If you follow that link, there is a message on that page that says "Major feature updates are currently not possible due to design decisions taken by Internet Brands."

Can anyone comment on what this means? I have not ventured into even considering modding my site until I can be somewhat sure vBulletin 5 is going to be stable and there won't be any issues after upgrading to the newest versions.

[IggyP]

ya..basically...imho kinda gotta wait a bit longer for some basic functions to catch up and stabilize first. then you will see more like that

[BirdOPrey5]

VB5 does have the option to mark topics as "Featured" and they would show on the content slider which isn't in use on this site you can see it in action here: http://www.talknewsuk.com/testvb/ and more info on it: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forum...content-slider

The Like Button can be renamed to anything you want, VB5 uses Phrases like VB3 and VB4, you can change any text you want basically. Showing the names next to it would require custom coding however.

[fenderbob]

VB5 does have the option to mark topics as "Featured" and they would show on the content slider which isn't in use on this site you can see it in action here: http://www.talknewsuk.com/testvb/ and more info on it: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forum...content-slider

The "Featured" thread idea is ok...I've played around with it. However, this function is reserved for admins and mods. Giving this power to every registered member would encourage abuse, and creating a new user group to give certain people the power to do this is clumsy.

I'd like to give this power (not necessarily the OEM "feature topic" tool) to my regular users...but they would need to earn this privilege in some way (like making good posts).

It would be win/win. The forum admin gets high-quality and thought-provoking posts, the forum gives members an incentive to make interesting and thought-provoking posts AND an ego boost if they are continually praised by others for making good posts, and the users would be rewarded with an occasional 15 minutes of fame.

This is what I'd really like to see. I feel something like this would cause something of an addiction (in a good way) for forum visitors, thereby creating a loyal user base that you see on other places like Reddit. The key is the users get to participate in "thread publicity."

[Mark.B]

Unlikely that featured topics would ever be made available to ordinary users. On a busy site you would have utter chaos.
You're welcome to make a feature request in the fracker but I honestly cannot see that ever being done.