PDA

View Full Version : Make use of forumrules area


karlm
09-04-2006, 10:00 PM
Time to perform: 2Mins or less
Ease of use: Piece of cake (if i can do it, so can you)
Function: Makes use of wasted horizontal space at the bottom of thread & forum pages.


Hi all

This is my first release of anything that mildly implies a hack.

Anyway, here is what it does:

The standard 'forumrules' box is fairly small and wastes a lot of horizontal space that could be used in another way, for example ads or links - or both.
See attachments for the changes it makes to your threads & forum pages (not index).

Hopefully, as my first ever release, this will find itself of use to the community here. I've used many hacks from various folk and this is my little bit back to the community that I've taken from! I really hope those who use it find it enjoyable, useful and most importantly, easy to perform.

I've had this change performed (on my test & live forum) and it seems to work fine. It was also working well with vb3.5.4 but I'm now running 3.6 so hence it is released for 3.6 GOLD.

Just download the attached *.txt file and follow the instructions.

Many folks may consider the 'forum rules' section to be a less viewed area of their board. This may be true, but for those ads which pay per view, rather than per click, this is an ideal means of including an extra ad or two without burdening your viewers and forcing them to view.

*HINT: When adding content to the cells, try to avoid using terms which may lead to issues where SEO is concerned. Too many references to 'links' might have an adverse impact. Instead, opt for other choices such as 'friends sites', 'miscellaneous' and 'reciprocal sites'

Please click the 'install' button if you've made use of this little gadget

ps - all comments welcome (especially good ones :nervous:)
pps- Please remember, this is my first effort at a hack - so be gentle ;)

*Hint comes with gratitude to alkatraz for the SEO notes.

karlm
09-05-2006, 02:42 PM
-reserved post-

alkatraz
09-05-2006, 05:02 PM
Great to see you making use of that space!

Side note: From an SEO standpoint, having the word "links" apear a bunch of times at the bottom of every page is a very bad idea. If you were to retitle the areas to say "Sponsors" | "Friends" | "Blogs" you could easily avoid this potential search engine filter.

karlm
09-05-2006, 05:44 PM
Thank you kindly for the advice. I very much appreciate the input. I hadn't even given it a thought from an SEO potential.
I'll amend the above post to reflect your input, however, I left the actual content upto each user to add accordingly. This way they can put whatever they want into the titles and the content cells.
:D Thanks again.

MentaL
09-06-2006, 10:19 AM
not a good area for adverts.

karlm
09-06-2006, 12:58 PM
Agreed, MentaL, but i've left the content open for users to put whatever they want in it. As the images reflect, mine uses one google ad, one ad-link, recipricol links & blog links. I guess folks could put images in there, perhaps embed a media track of some description etc. The main concept was to make use of wasted space - which it does :)

^SuiCyde^
09-09-2006, 06:03 AM
looks good man, i've put this to use on my forums

karlm
09-13-2006, 03:41 AM
^suiCyde^,
thanks - i signed up to have a gander, looks well implemented and I saw by keeping it shorter, you managed to retain enough space to keep the forum-jump menu too. Nice work.

adwade
09-26-2006, 10:18 AM
...for those ads which pay per view, rather than per click, this is an ideal means of including an extra ad or two without burdening your viewers and forcing them to view.
BRILLIANT Idea! And perfect implementation too. :cool:

mrkhm
01-26-2007, 07:24 AM
thanks, works magnificently, for those in vb 3.6.4, although this hack is cool in column format, i wanted just one title tag e.g. Sponsors, with a cell that spanned the rest of the page rather than having mutliple columns, to do this, at the very top of the forumrules template, change the table width from "180" to 100% and specify the width of your spnsor cell when you paste it as directed in the instructions e.g. change "<td class="thead">title one</td>" (copied from instructions) to "<td class="thead" width="560">title one</td>" (for full page span) you won't need to copy anymore cells. after that. hope taht all makes some sort of sense.

Nice hack!!!!! :)

*installed

United32
02-06-2007, 02:22 AM
Nice hack! Thank you!

How can I disable dropdown box in CP? Are you talking about Forum Jump?

Mupetz
02-07-2007, 12:06 PM
not a good area for adverts.
Google referral buttons are just perfect for that area

Installed. Thanks

karlm
02-17-2007, 02:30 AM
Nice hack! Thank you!

How can I disable dropdown box in CP? Are you talking about Forum Jump?

My apologies for the delay in responding. Yes, I was referring to the 'forum jump' menu.
I'm glad this hack was to your liking. :D

GrendelKhan{TSU
06-29-2007, 08:08 PM
wow! great job!

how'd I miss this??! thank you! been wanting something this for a while (I can't stand that space. lol)

karlm
07-11-2007, 05:33 AM
Welcome, glad it serves well :)

trulylowcarb
08-29-2007, 09:32 PM
Oh I HATE wasted space, thanks a BUNCH for this. I may just use it for things like Member of the Month display and ads that push MY products .... can't wait to install, THANK YOU

Arrogant-One
09-21-2007, 03:32 AM
Setting the box up is easy enough, but how do you place links in the box. For instance, if I wanted to add this site as a recriprocal link, what what I type?

AO

karlm
01-25-2008, 03:40 PM
In the code, look for:
<td class="thead">title one</td>
<td class="thead">title two</td>

Change that to what ever you need for the title area, and then look for:
<td class="alt1" nowrap="nowrap">content one</td>
<td class="alt1" nowrap="nowrap">content two</td>
(and more respectively according to any extra added above)


Edit the 'content one' and 'content two' to what ever you need.

If you need a link, you'd use:
<a href="http://the-link.com/referall">MY FRIENDS WEBSITE</a>

HTH :)

ams3521
02-21-2008, 05:22 AM
Hi great mod. thanks.

Do you mean just add html code in that 'content one' (2 etc) instead of the text?

also would it be possible to remove

New posts
No new posts
Thread is closed

from just above the rules?

Thanks

Forum Lover
09-18-2008, 06:45 AM
You may post new threads
You may post replies
You may post new polls
You may post attachments
You may edit your posts



How can I add this line on my posting rules?

and another...

can we remove that minimizing thing from posting rules and put it back at most right corner of the table?

hope its working in 3.7.3.. didint try though.. the idea is cool...

karlm
09-18-2008, 07:05 PM
Sorry, this product isn't supported any longer. I honestly don't know the answer to both of those questions - but you can place any content you like within the forumrules.

Forum Lover
09-18-2008, 07:59 PM
Sure... thanks for the update. :)

SamirDarji
03-11-2011, 06:30 PM
Great idea! I'll have to look at this when I get time. :)