Drumsy - Yeah, that happened to one other peson, because the indexes were missing beforehand.

You will need to manually run the following SQL statements to complete the upgrade:

Actually I just commented out those lines and refreshed the screen. Seems to have worked! :thumbup:

commented out? I hope you mean the code above the alter table lines I posted previously? You have to let it drop the old userdate table and rename the new one because of how time is stored and utilized in the new version.

Correct. I commented everything from the lines dropping those columns and above. All of the additions went through successfully.

HI

I just installed the trader rating hack, when I try to go to traderratings.php

I get this message

I made all the changes per instructions

This user has not registered and therefore does not have a profile to view.

Please advise

I fixed the first problem


he second problem I am having is the rating is above the forum post, how do I get it below the usertitle

please see this example

http://www.celebratingfathers.com/bo...hread.php?t=23

Move the traderratings code in your postbit to below the usertitle variable....

Okay, last night I couldn't sleep so I pondered on the part of making verified deals, and conceptually here's what I have come up with:

1. In your forum's FS/WTB section, whenever a user makes a new thread, the first post has an additional buton somewhere. Not sure of the name yet, maybe "Deal" or "Buy/Sell" or whatever...

2. Anyhow, people can reply to the thread as usual, however when someone agrees to purchase/sell said item, they click on the button in the first post. This does two things. First - it closes the thread and prepends the thread title with "SOLD -". Second - It creates a relationship between the user who clicked the button, and the person who posted the thread.

(Maybe have an intermediary page that confirms that they do indend to purchase/sell said item and must check a box before confirming.)

3. It will send a PM to both people, just as notification of the transaction. Also in each member's trader ratings page it will have a "pending transactions" link.

4. Under the pending transactions page it lists people who they have done the steps above. If neither person has rated each other, there will be a "cancel" button, however both parties much cancel for it to actually take place, then the original thread will automatically be reopend and title changed back. If one person rates the other, then neither can cancel the deal. They will also have a preset amount of time to rate the other person before the opportunity is lost.

5. The old rating still will still be in place, however they will be considered "unverified" deals. With the steps mentioned above, they will be considered "verified" deals, since there is a link back, they clicked the link with the knowledge of engaging in the transaction, etc...



Overall this shouldn't be too difficult to implement, and I think will enhance this hack a lot. Please give your feedback & suggestions as it's easier to make changes before I start writing/changing any code... ;)

I love it except for one minor detail that may create problems.

Say for example someone does in fact clicks the button and then decides they don't want to purchase the item. What will take place? I mean like eBay :) for example once you use Buy It Now, technically the same deal, if someone doesn't pay, they force being left negative feedback and the seller has to re-list or re-post the item.

So with this, are we making the buy/sell relationship that strict whereas the person buying will in turn have no choice after they hit the button and confirm, and they must purchase or have no choice but recieve negative feedback.

My main point is how strict in fact the button will be. I love the idea of after clicking the button it closes the thread and PMs both users but I just don't want people to be forced into deals as a result of clicking the button.

I guess actually maybe it won't matter and this whole post was meaningless because as long as you can be clear with how it will work to your forum members, it shouldn't be that much of a problem.

Ok nevermind. I decided to skip reading #4 and #5 and decided to just start typing without reading your whole post :)

That actually makes it alot better with those options and doesn't necessarily lock them into a deal.

the only problem i have with this is the fact that the thread is getting closed based on this unknown buyer.. forcing the seller into a transaction with a possible scammer... if anything when the buyer clicks the button it should send a pm to the seller (thread starter) and when he returns to the thread he see a butoon to confirm the transaction therupon closing the thread or deleting the transaction... just like you can on ebay with suspicious bidders... you .. as the seller choose to cancel this persons bid or not...

other than that... great idea

Hmm, that's a good idea, I like where the thread starter has to come back and verify the person's intent to purchase.... ;)

What about instances where a thread has multiple items for sale? This can get quite crazy for our members to be making multiple threads for a garage full of items they are wanting to sell.

Amazing hack... live and running on www.scubaboard.com (when I have soem free time I'll be sure to give you some feedback on the verrified idea as I've built similar systems in the past).

Well at my forum the FS section is divided up into subsections, so each post is pretty much one item (or combo) for sale. It has worked well this way thus far... and thread titles have become much more descriptive (instead of "just a lot of stuff I'm sellin")...

When the classified/auction system is written, you can only list one item (or multiplies of the same items) anyhow... (like ebay)...

Yeah, that is how we do it on ours as well.

We limit people to selling a certain amount of items in regular sections so each member can only make a thread for one item, and another thread for another item. We limit our members to an x amt of items to sell per month then have another forum called Dealer Section for people that want to sell a vast quantity of items and have to pay the site a certain monthly or yearly fee to be able to sell in the Dealer Section (We give them their own subforum).

A auction system for Vb would be awsome!

To be honest we just have a list of verified transactions by members with a "rating" next to their name. Currently all succesful sales are repoirted to one moderator who tirelessly updates the ratings thread :surprised:

Therefore we have a list of user names with nuimeric number ratings and just need to add these to the Trader Rating rather than start them at (0)

Many thanks
Mike

CADguru - well the actual trader rating is based on unique userids... so even if you created dummy rankings, it would be most appropriate to set them to a uid of 0 (so no name is displayed as the buyer/seller)... In theory you could modify the SQL code so that userid 0 would not be distinct, but the rest would be...

Everyone Else - So do you think it would be more worthwhile to just start working on a classifieds / auction hack (with the trader ratings system of course) rather than just try to bodge together this "buy/sell" button concept thing? I think there could be potentially 3 listing types, 1. classfieds (listings with no time limit till the user removes it), 2. auctions & 3. buy it now (time-limited listings)....

I think it would still be worthwhile to continue developing this hack, adding things like the rebuttal / followup comments, and a stats page...

Please let me know what you guys think...

i dont believe everyone needs an auction/classified system i wouldlike to see further developement of theis hack as far as the connection between the buyer/seller and rebuttal

i did everything on the read me file... but now i get a BLANK PAGE when i click on the "trader rating" links? any reason?

did you upload the traderratings.php file?

can you give the url to your forum?

also are u using more tha one style... if so did u apply the changes to both styles...
i had the same problem on my second style

Oh yeah, I didn't think about that, thx for mentioning it sketch... ;)

well this was my Default style... it said it got this one in the install?

yeah Jason i uploaded the file three times actually. That's what i thought was wrong lol but it shows it's there...?

http://illicitrap.com/board/

and if you go to the straight link it shows up perfectly... although im the admin and it gives me the page that says "you are either not logged in or banned" ya know?

http://illicitrap.com/board/traderratings.php

hmmmm... now when i click that last link i get the following: any ideas?

thanks

Seems to be working for me? --> http://illicitrap.com/board/traderratings.php?u=376

You have to have a userid to view... lol. There is no "default" page...

^ i still get a blank white page man?

since i can't take a screen shot... i'll show you the source of the page

im confused... :ermm:

I think the best way to insure the system is both effective and accurate is to build in a classified type module as per your description. Every site may not need this feature but the hack would not be for every site. At ScubaBoard our marketplace is just starting to grow and while we have a few listings a day, things aren't huge. If however we had a full on classified buy/trade system it would only help to grow things out. To say you can ever have an ebay quality feedback program without actually charging for transactions is pretty much impossible but you can make it better. I don't think you need to take it to the full auction level although that would be pretty cool, simply allowing for classified postings with responses and perhaps offers would be more than enough....

Here's my main idea for a classifieds system:
1) Buyer posts their offer/request
2) People post followups which can be either public questions or offers (or private ones)
3) Once the seller/poster finds an offer they like they click "accept offer" and then they can do their whole feedback thing.

This is a simple system yet much more effective then trying to hack some portion of the forum system to make it work for certain categories but not others and so forth. Again there would be an easy way to inflate #s but you know what, that's ok, people can always chat... having a recorded history of their purchases/transactions in a public forum is more than enough to let people understand the true history of any "trader".

I'd naturally choose a classifieds / auction hack (with the trader ratings system of course). I for one would be willing to pay $$$ for it as long as it is reasonable and supported. I'd be willing to perhaps pay in the range $50 - $125. The final amount would depend upon on quality and support quite naturally.

Some Suggestions

1) When someone leaves you feedback it emails you letting you know someone has left you feedback

2) When you leave someone feedback it displays to the other person a message reminding them to also leave feedback for the person who gave them feedback. Like Ebay does when you buy something.

3) Have the Trader Rating (4) in Postbit color coded for postive and Negative Feedback. If they have Postive Numbers it will be green and red for negative.

1. I thought about that, and will probably add an option choice for PM/email, however most people notice when their rating changes pretty quick.

2. It *could* be done, but with no way to tie a transaction together, it's tough to know if the person has already rated them for that specific transaction or not. Read a few posts back about the verified transaction idea.

3. This would be done with conditionals in the postbit & memberinfo templates. it would be like <if condition="$... >= 0">one color<else />another color</if>

you sure you aren't viewing a non-standard styleid (since admins can and regular users can't)? Cuz if I can see it as a guest, then that's about the only reason I can think that you wouldn't see it...

Well, the good thing about vB3 is you can create a forum section, but place it a manual link for it, so the whole classified/auction system could be self-contained and wouldn't require hacking a bunch of vB3 files. (I'm a minimalist as-is because I like to do quick upgrades).

Your idea kind of seems like the discussion that I first mentioned about just the extra link in a thread. However I think a full categorized classifieds/auction section would be the way to go for most forums that have moderate commerce going on. Also, it would draw in more people since it would bring a site to a whole new level. I guess the classifieds could also be considerd maybe a vendor section, and allow "stores" for individuals to group all their items they are selling and whatnot.

Conceptually I imagined having montly "credits" for each user, so they could post X amount of items free of charge, however people who conduct a lot of business would then need to purchase additional "credits". (Completely optional, but I think it's a good idea.)

I really can't give an ETA for anything right now, I'm currently unemployed, which I'm looking for a job (which everyone knows how time consuming that is), I also run my forum and a couple websites (also extremely time consuming), but I try to code in my spare time, I like to do general PHP/MySQL stuff, things for vB, and also my Stats Page for Folding@Home.

OK Im not sure where to begin but Im a little confused with this hack. We have vb 3.0.1 installed and we installed the hack now all we are seeing is below every post there is Trader Rating (0). We have fond no where to actually enter the rating you can click on the 0 but it just goes to a blank page.

eoc_Jason, thanks for the excellent hack. I can't believe how easy it was to install!

Just touching on the idea of one sale item per post being manditory in a future version, that might not be a good idea for some forums, especially those that trade CDs or DVDs. Usually people put up a list of 20 DVDs or so they are looking to swap, and if they had to create a single post per DVD, it could get ugly.

I love this hack, and wanted to express my thanks again! Cheers!

Check the posts above with the discussion about which styleid the templates are on vs. the ones you are using. If the templates on not on the styleid you are using (or a parent style) then a blank page is displayed....

Thanks Jason got it going great hack.

Is there anyway I can get the user rating to dissapear from above the usernames in my forums, and have it in beside the posts, and the reputation

Allowing it still to be clickable.

http://forums.bootleg.org.uk

Also I am looking for a way to admin it better, am I able to edit every single comment that is made by people to other people? Cause mine will be done solely on a trust thing, as alot of stuff will be done via pm, as I have alot of traders, and they prefer not to disclose their address via forums.

But I imagine some people will start to sign up and give themselves good ratings, or give others bad ratings for a laugh.

Also looking for some way so that the user has to have a certain amount of rep points before they can actually give someone a rating, so its the trusted people that use the forums that are able to do this.

And great hack, just what I needed for my bootleg trading forums.

[high]* Watson installs
[/high]

www.bootleg.org.uk to add to the list.

And hope my post helps some for the admin menu bit. Really needing some security done on it :D

***edit*** Managed to get the User Rating in the Wee bit under me post count etc :D

Edit: Nevermind, I saw your edit.

Also, I don't see how letting them allow to discuss transaction addresses etc in PM would be a bad thing.

You can have them discuss all their trades, prices, negotiations, etc in their threads, but just have them send each other addresses etc via PM.

As for someone signing up and giving themself a rating, if you use the conditionals he provided for only being threads that are in x forums, then use a promotion allowing people after x amt of days registered or x amt of psots to be able to see the buy/sell/trade areas that stops people from signing up to boost their feedback.

Without using that option, the best you can do to prevent people to do that, is just make examples out of people and ban everyone who does it.

I have moderators that will be checking ratings whenever they feel like looking, and if they see a fake thread or fake feedback, that user will be banned permanently on the spot.