Promotion strategies

[Panzer Max]

So, let's say I want a promotion where new users who have been on the forum 3 days and longer but have 0 posts are moved to a usergroup SHY.

Would this work? Posts OR Reputation AND Date?

[kh99]

Strange that there's no strategies with just post and date, but I suppose someone who hasn't posted isn't going to have much change in reputation. But I think you'd want "post and reputation and date", or else check for a reputation level that would be impossible.

Anyway I'm not very familiar with promotions, but I tested this out and couldn't find a way to make to work using just "Registered Users" and "SHY" (assuming you want them promoted out of SHY when they post) because users will just "ping pong" back and forth between the two groups. I think you'd need another user group for users registered less than 3 days with 0 posts.

[Panzer Max]

I am not certain but I would think Posts OR Reputation AND Date with rep left blank would be the same as just post and date.
Yeah, we have a promotion to bump anyone with 1 post into Registered Users.

This way, if it works, a guy joins, after 3 days if he has not posted at least one post, then he is moved to the SHY category. His permissions are different.

When he posts a single time, then he is promoted back into Reg Users. Of course, after that, he will always be in Reg Users, because he has that 1 post.

Is there anyone here who can advise? I know there must be some promotion experts here :)

[CK]

Just stick the reputation as minus something and have the date and posts set at what you want.

[Panzer Max]

Really, and that will work? Thanks, will try that.

Should I use post and reputation and date

What would the Reputation Comparison Type be? Less than? Greater or equal?

[CK]

Really, and that will work? Thanks, will try that.

Yeah, I scratched my head for ages over not being able to promote based on post/join and excluding reputation.

I had negative reputation allowed at the time too which made it even more complicated in my mind too so I ended up sticking the rep at -10000 and everything else as I wanted and the promotions worked as desired. :)

--------------- Added 1308953282 at 1308953282 ---------------

Really, and that will work? Thanks, will try that.

Should I use post and reputation and date

What would the Reputation Comparison Type be? Less than? Greater or equal?

Greater to or equal with post and reputation and date.

So for example I want anyone, 3 days old with 5 posts to be promoted.

I choose "post and reputation and date" are greater to or equal

Posts 5
Join 3
Reputation -10000

Does that make sense?

[Panzer Max]

Ok, hmmm. Thanks big time for the feedback. Still, what would the Reputation Comparison Type be? Seems like it would need to be false, so the Days Registered part would need to be true to promote....;)



The vB Help window seems to say I can make it work regardless of rep, as long as the
Days Registered part is true:
Select which of the above conditions must be true for this promotion to be invoked. Conditions inside parenthesis are evaluated first.

For example, if these are your settings:

Reputation Comparison Type = Greater or Equal to
Reputation Level = 1000
Days Registered = 30
Posts = 100
Promotion Strategy = Posts and (Reputation or Date)

...and the user has 1100 reputation, has been registered for 20 days, and has 150 posts then they would be promoted because:

Posts: 150 >= 100 (true)
Reputation: 1100 >= 1000 (true)
Date: 20 >= 30 (false)

...and so using the "Posts and (Reputation or Date)" promotion strategy:

true and (true or false)
= true and (true)
= true


Edit: yes, I think I see what you mean, thanks!

It's funny, this is really a Demotion, not a Promotion, but it will do what we need to do, eh?

thanks, buddy

[CK]

Just use the settings dude. :)

Your question about Reputation Comparison Type - There's no "false" option on my board, I get greater to or equal. Hmm

I can assure you though that if you try the settings I suggest you will get your promotions. You can test them too, create a user account as of now, after the account has been created change the relevant values on the account to meet the specs for promotion in admincp. Then either run the promotion scheduled task or check back in a couple of hours, if everything is working grand. If not then try different settings.

[Panzer Max]

Just use the settings dude. :)

Your question about Reputation Comparison Type - There's no "false" option on my board, I get greater to or equal. Hmm

I can assure you though that if you try the settings I suggest you will get your promotions. You can test them too, create a user account as of now, after the account has been created change the relevant values on the account to meet the specs for promotion in admincp. Then either run the promotion scheduled task or check back in a couple of hours, if everything is working grand. If not then try different settings.



I meant "false" as in, the condition is false. Yeah, I have Greater than or Equal and Less than.

Well, I tried it,

Promotion: Registered Users (id: 4)

Usergroup: Registered Members
Rep: -10000
Days reg: 3
Posts: 0
Promo Strategy: Posts AND Rep AND Date
Promo Type: Primary
Rep Comparsion type: Greater than or Equal to
Mover to User group: Shy

Ran Task Scheduler, It moved ALL 19,425 user from Reg Users to Shy. :eek:
Ok, smelling salts still work. I ran Task Scheduler again, now Reg Users have about the normal number, 13,034 and SHY has the difference. So, I'll look around at the db and see if the records make sense.

Now, hopefully the next time the task scheduler runs, it does not move all the Reg Users back into Shy and on and on.

Like I said in the OP, this Promotional thing is very confusing, sure with vB had provided more examples.:D

[kh99]

Yeah, I found they went back and forth every time I ran the scheduled task. And just so you know, IIRC when the promotion scheduled task runs as scheduled it will only look at users who have been logged in in the last hour, whereas if you run it yourself from the ACP it will check all users.

[CK]

(Slightly tipsy BTW)

Right.

You have this promotion on "Registered Users".

You want to move anyone who has been registered for 3 days with 0 posts moved to a usergroup called "shy".

You used the settings above and A LOT of users were moved to that group(shy)? hehe well........ now knowing what you actually intend I believe you should have it less than or equal to, because what you're actually attempting is a demotion (essentially).

Sorry for confusing.

You in actual fact only want people with "equal to or less than" 3 posts or 0 days to be "promoted" (demoted).

To start back at the beginning just delete your "shy" usergroup and everyone in that group will be moved back to "registered users".

[kh99]

...... now knowing what you actually intend I believe you should have it less than or equal to, because what you're actually attempting is a demotion (essentially).

I don't think the reputation check is the problem. The problem is that the promotion rule basically says "all Registered Users > 3 days and >= 0 posts" which is pretty much all users. The problem is that there's no way to say "exactly 0 posts" or "<= 0 posts". You can of course add another rule to promote back to registered users if they have one post, but once they are there, they'll match the original rule again.

[Panzer Max]

I don't think the reputation check is the problem. The problem is that the promotion rule basically says "all Registered Users > 3 days and >= 0 posts" which is pretty much all users. The problem is that there's no way to say "exactly 0 posts" or "<= 0 posts". You can of course add another rule to promote back to registered users if they have one post, but once they are there, they'll match the original rule again.

Days reg: 3
Posts: 0


So, by default, it is

Days reg greater than or equal to?
Posts greater than or equal to?

Too bad there's not a Post Comparison Type and a Days Reg Comparison Type with operands, like there is a Reputation Comparison Type (we don't even use Reputation).

So, stupid question: is there some place where I can change the >= to simply = for this one promotion? Where does vB "store" the promo instructions? :)

[kh99]

The promotion logic is in includes/cron/promotion.php. The strategy is stored as a number, so there's no way to just modify the database to do what you want. But you could make up another strategy number, then modify promotion.php to look for it and do something different. You could also of course add it to the dropdown in the ACP (I can't rememeber what file off hand). I did this to add a promotion by age for our site and it worked out OK.

There's probably at least one mod out there that would do this.

[Panzer Max]

Yeah buddy, could it be in admin/usergroup.php ?

I can see that's too complicated for me to successfully find and add Post Comparison Type and a Days Reg Comparison Type with operands.

I'll see if there is a mod for this, it sure would be helpful. thanks!:up: