OttawaGolf - Look in your admincp -> vbulletin options -> itrader settings... sheesh...

mrderanged - It's not that it will be an option, it will be a separate file, so if someone wants to use it they can, if not then they don't even have to bother uploading it. However I will tell you now that it will not be maintained all that much as I personally do not see much value in it.

Sorry Jason I have not installed it yet. I thought I had seen that it was not an option.

When I go to itrader.php I get the following:
Hope you can help, Harry/Harpez

Did you configure permissions in Usergroup Manager to allow viewing and use of the rating system for the applicable groups you wish to have access?

Did you change all the permissions? In AdminCP, under Usergroups, go to Usergroup Manager, iTrader has its own setting in the "Edit Usergroup" section (at the very bottom). By default they're all disabled, even administrators. You have to enable the appropriate usergroups before you can use it.

If you've already done that, sorry, that's the only idea I have. lol.

Ryan

As I stated in the "Readme First" file...

I'm willing to bet money you did not configure your usergroup permissions properly, or you uploaded the product XML before uploading your files (which is a no-no)...

I've sorted it know, it was my own stupidity :p

Installed great on my forum. Thank you so much!

I have a few things I was hoping I could get feedback from everyone on...

First, if anyone would like to help with this I would be more than grateful. A *huge* help would be someone to write some thorough documentation / instructions / usage guide. (For both installation and also something to implement in vB for members to read).

Second, a person who could make some graphics would help out. I woud like to replace the pos/neg/neutral images with something a little nicer. Also the others can be changed if you are really good. ;)

Third, (this was something someone was asking me about via PM, but also an idea I had a while back). I was thinking rather than make it strictly rating, the code could be altered in such a way that a person could rate another, except omit the pos/neg/neu rating initially. That way they have a record of the intended transaction. Then once the deal is finally completed, they can rate it, which will also "finialize" the deal (thus no more comments or editing). A 4th icon can be created to signify "In-Progress" or "Pending", so the person knows how many deals they have going on.

Yea / nay?

Jason,

I was going to write up an iTrader how-to for my forum. I tend to get in depth with things because you'd be surprised at how many members can't just figure things out. So I was going to have a little information about what each icon meant, how to leave a rating, etc. If I get something in a timely manner I'll send it to you.

As for the graphics... I was hoping someone would use something similar to the online/offline ones here at vB.org... a green plus for positive, a red minus for negative, etc. So if anyone reads this and wants to take that into consideration... thanks :)

Ryan

When I try to installthe xml file it says "Invalid File Specified"

Any help?

Was a permissions issue, But how does one use this program..?

How does opne leave feedback for others and where does one go look for feedback for others?

Did you edit the templates and put in the code for iTrader? You have to manually edit the templates for postbit and/or postbit_legacy, MEMBERINFO, etc. Jason included two readme files in the zip and the one called Template Info should explain what the code is and examples of where to put it.

You have to do this step so that iTrader shows up in member profiles and postbits. Then you can click on their rating to view their score or leave them feedback.

Ryan

Bingo!

Is there a way to set it that only if you made a eal wiht the person on you can leave feedback? I see I am able to go to any user and leave feedback

Jason, thanks so much for reconsidering adding the home page...there is much rejoicing in the land of iTrader!

Thanks Jason!

well done Jason ;)

If that's true, then this script is useless!?!?!

Jason,

May be it can be implemented so "SUBMIT FEEDBACK FOR THIS USER" is ONLY shown on the actual URL the trade happened *AND* this would make the TRADING URL auto-filled in the LEAVE FEEDBACK form, *AND* the link for leaving feedback would only be visible for the 2 users who actually took part on the trade?

What about that?

I'd even be willing to pay to make this happen, if you don't wanna code it generally!

Maybe add a way for the thread starter to set a thread to "sold" and have to enter the buyers username. Then make it so the transaction thread is required, and feedback can only be left between the person who started the thread and the person who the thread author sets as the buyer. Wouldn't be too hard to do, and would fix a lot of potential problems.

Although I think in most communities people would respect the rules. There are always a few stinkers though.

Don't be an idiot. The old version was this way and I have over 11,000 pieces of feedback entered. My users love this system and there are plenty of vB admins who have held up on updating their forums to 3.5 because they were waiting for this update.

Speaking of useless, you should probably take advantage of the "Edit" post feature instead of double posting.

Hey m8, calm down, I do think this is a GREAT mod and I LOVE IT, but I'm asking if it is correct or not that anyone can feedback any user on the forum no matter if they dealed before or not.

In short, if i'm pissed of the forum, I'll begin leaving - feedback TO EVERYONE, even if it's 1 per 24h.

Dont get me wrong, i don't expect 100% automation, but I don't want to rely on a 24/7 admin team to look forward correct feedback being applied.

I'll EDIT what I consider I need to EDIT.

My first post was a reply and my second a message to jason.

Only 1 stinker can make you waste tons of minutes to fix things up, email upset users, etc. and the worst: recovering loyalty on the system.

Needless to say, if you plan to create a "fair system", what about 1 user with 2 accounts (1gmail, 1hotmail) and mutually leaving + fb between them so they have 200 feedbacks in a glimpse?

Excellent work jason, very well thought out!

GREAT MOD!!!

/me clicks install

YEA - that would be great

Thanks for the great mod Jason!

I want to show the total number of ratings in the postbit. I also want to show the percentage of positive ratings BUT ONLY IF the member has at least 1 rating or feedback. Otherwise, the Positive Feedback: 0% would be misleading as it would suggest no positive feedback.

I assume that the conditional to get this done would be if itrader_total DOES NOT EQUAL zero, then show [insert positive feedback percentage code]. I just don't know how to write the conditional for vB.

I would appreciate help from someone that knows.

Thanks in advance.

yup. sure did. still get it.

:(

hmm recently been getting
Fatal error: Unable to proceed with save while $errors array is not empty in class vb_datamanager_pm in /includes/class_dm.php on line 756

thats a bug i brought up a few pages back, Jason is aware of it, it happens to my users who have PMs turned off

I have granted permissin for registered users to access iTrader

Some are presented with "iTrader is closed" logged in or not.

Some have said "but in the upper right it had the log in box that was empty I put in my username and password and everything has been fine since. Not sure why it does not work for. At the time I was already logged into the regular section of the site."

Others have said "I only see a Log Out option. If I select this and re-enter my info I get logged back in but nothing changes, Itrader is still not available. Have tried using both IE and Firefox browsers."

and others "Worked ok for me. I just clicked on the numbers in the profile, and I didn't have to log in."

Any thoughts?

fiber cut - Yes you can rate anyone, to a certain extent. Because of the generic nature of the forum / threads, there is no "true" automated way to know if the person did engage in the deal with the other. That issue is somewhat overcome if you require a thread URL to the deal. Then a person viewing the deal can go and see if indeed they did as said.

Areku - If you think this is "useless", then by all means, DO NOT USE IT! Nobody is forcing this down your throat. If you want to overcome most problems, you can require the thread url, and turn on strict url checking, and set specific forum sections. When those are enabled then the thread in question must: 1. Be a valid thread on your forum, 2. One of the two people involved in the deal must be the thread creator, and 3. Must be in one of the forumid's specificed.

About 1 member with 2 accounts. Yes he can sign up on your forum and attempt to start rating himself, however he will run into an issue that his IPs will more than likely not change during that time frame, and thus an admin email will be sent to warn about the fruad. Also he can not rate the same person but once per day (or change it longer if you like in the admincp), so it would take a while, not to mention that several feedbacks all coming from the same inital person just throws up a red flag right there.

007 - I did have an idea like that initially, and even started to expand upon it more. However the one thing I found out is when you are working with threads and trying to integrate bits of code here and there, it gets ugly quick. vBulletin is designed to be a forum, not a classified / auction package. Trying to alter a thread to do as such causes too many headaches, and every time there is a big change in vB it pretty much makes author's like myself have to start back from square one and re-evaluate everything. Having to enter a name really accomplishes little if you really think deeply about it.

agiacosa - <if condition="$post[itrader_total]">$post[itrader_pcnt]%</if>

------------------------------------

Guys, as it is stated in the description, this add-on at the core relies mostly on the honor system, as does any rating system. I find members are very cautious and know when something doesn't look right, they do report suspicious ratings to a staff member (and now it's even easier with the "report rating" button). Also if someone gives them a bogus rating, they notice that too extremely quickly. Yes, more could be done to try and integrate stuff with threads, however IMO I do not think it will actually change the nature of anything. Anything that could be faked currently could be faked after making those changes. I don't care to go mucking around with thread/post code trying to alter how that works and having to edit a dozen vB templates, create a bunch of hooks, and god knows what else. The effort / complexity involved is not worth the minimal return in value. Issues arrise where say, one thread a person lists various items, and sells them to several people. Then what would you do if you only had 1 box to enter who bought stuff? If your thought about it is trying to prevent abuse, it still does nothing to stop a person with 2 accounts from rating himself.

Everyone runs their forum differently, and I'm not out to try and change how they do it, this system is meant to be as flexible as possible to try and accomidate everyone's needs and differences. If your goal or needs are so different than what is offered here, then either 1. Code your own, or 2. modify this code to suite your own forum's needs. But do NOT by any means complain about something that is offered free to the community out of my own (and other authors') kindness.

If you wanted to have something like a "rate this deal" link in a thread, you can accomplish it with a little fancy work using template conditionals. There's actually a lot you can do with the template conditionals and not have to code things in a file or use any hooks.

In the several years (since the original conception in vB 2.x) I have had *very* few reports of abuse / fradulent activity, and overall the system has worked out extremely excellent, especially to weed out the bad traders. Seeing a user with a good score & positive rating (just about everyone on my forum has 100% positive) gives other members a piece of mind & confidence in the deal they are engaging. The system gives a quick historical view of their past transactions, and if you force URLs & don't delete the threads, then they can go and visit each of those transactions should they wish. But seeing a person rated 20, 50, or even over 100 times from different members is usually evidence enough that they are legit.

There are a bunch of new anti-abuse / anti-fraud features (and I'm planning on adding more soon) in this version. I've seen cases in the past where a newbie decides to go bezerk and rate a person negative 100 times, or rate dozens and dozens of members negative. Now they simply can't do that with current limitations. In the past, catching a user registering multiple times had to be done looking at IPs of posts they made, now the iTrader system tracks all that so admins can (when I finish the admin pages) cross-check deal/comment IPs. Also new traders automatically get their IP dupe-checked and a warning email is sent to admins if they match. Yes, that does not prevent a person from using a proxy to access your forum, but if they are that hell-bent on ripping people off you have a bigger problem.

I could code things to make users jump through dozens of hoops before they can rate each other, but the BIGGEST problem isn't the code, it's the forum members. The more work / steps that a member has to do to rate someone, the less inclined they are to use the system, especially once they have established a decent rating. Making it overy-complex turns away people (especially who are unfamilliar with how it works) faster than you can say apple pie.

iTrader Closed only comes up if there is a version mismatch, or you have the iTrader system set to not active in your vBulletin Options.

Logging in / out issues might be related to people that do not use cookies, and you did not include the $session[sessionurl] in your URL strings that you created linking to iTrader pages.

Thanks Jason. It was not active. It is now working. As an admin I could see it and so could the mods. As for the login, that just added to the confusion. I duno but they are happy now.

My compliments to the chef. This is a great hack.

Any chance we can get a quick code change to make the Additonal Comments optional? I dont want to release the hack on the site with this as a required field.

great hack ! working great! thanks

My apologies if i sounded too rude! I've been waiting for your hack anxiously like many more and will definetly use it, but i was thinking it would be more strict...

I just tested it and i could leave several times a + fb to the same user more than once every 24h...

What I'll do is try to hack it a bit more so:

1) user A opens a new deal thread
2) users B, C, D "bid" or offer a trade on A
3) A chooses who to close deal with and then

a) thread closes, no1 else can reply
b) A and C recieve a PM stating they now finish to close the deal
c) A and C have now the option to rate each other wisely
d) once rated, it's over! No other can rate any other if they actually didnt engage on a deal, nor rerate more than once.

Much like ebay works.

On top of that

4) URL for the deal will be REQUIRED and will only be ACCEPTED if:

a) it is in the form of showthread (no more showpost URLs accepted)
b) has not been used before for other deals (aka u cant put the same URL deal to get several ratings from different users)
c) it belongs to desired irating enabled forums

5) Additional Notes made optional.


Once we test this out, we can share if you (or any1) need to!

Unfortunately I cannot upgrade, still getting some mysql erorrs:

???

In your advanced language settings, try to switch decimal and thousands punctuation...