Zoints Private Thread Comments for Staff
 

This modification is a fantastic means for staff members to efficiently communicate within a thread without normal members being able to see what is said. It has been tested extensively by quite a few different forums.

This box appears in showthread.php for staff members. Only staff can see it.

http://img3.zoints.com/forums/thread-comments2.png


The admincp options:

http://img3.zoints.com/forums/thread-comments.png


Official support for this modification will take place at http://network.zoints.com in this specific forum.

Enjoy and be sure to check out our other modifications :)

CHANGELOG:

2008/05/01 - 1.2.1
- Compatible with vB's CSRF protocol

Reserved for FAQ and troubleshooting.

Wow, you never fail to provide the community with access to awesome, usable mods!

Good work Mr. DC.

Excellent, may be a good idea to have the date and time shown so people know when it was posted.

EDIT: It has that option, brilliant

Does it work with 3.6 as well? this looks alot better then the current method we use

No, I posted it in the 3.6.x area just to be tricky.



I tease, I tease. Yes, it works fine :)

lol !

wow great mod thanks

Have used this for a while, it's a great hack that helps keep you and your staff on the same page. Very very helpful for a lot of reasons. :) I'm glad to see Zoints sharing so many great hacks with the org.

*Clicked Install*

Oh ho!

So *thats* where it came from!

Nice one David. :)

A suggestion: I have found that it is nigh-impossible to reference what is said in the Thread proper...as it is with Hidden Posts. Perhaps a method of 'quoting' a specific post inside the Zoints Box would be doable?

BB code does work within the box. I assume that's not what you want though? Can you elaborate a little please :)

has anyone tried this with GARS? technically it should work with it right ?

Benj- it should work with GARS fine, since that's just a template mod. At least, that's what I think- I haven't used GARS much.

David- god damn, you're making every hack that I always wanted for my forum but never had! You're brilliant- all I gotta say.

Does that involve quotes? Maybe a button to auto-quote a post in the Mod Comments section would be a useful addition.

Also, perhaps letting users hide the mod comments box would be nice.

lnstalled very handy thanks

Well, with the existing method (using 'Hidden posts' modification), the post appears as normal, but is in Moderated Status.

It makes it easier to see what the person posting the Staff Post is talking about, as it has a heirarchy...like a normal discussion.

Also, quotes can now have linkbacks to the specific post.

With your Modification, the discussion can only reference to the Thread itself through careful matching up of Datestamps..or manually copying and pasting and using Quote tags.

Perhaps a 'Send to Staff Box' button in posts/text link in dropdown?

Makes sense Kall. I'll see what we can do :)

Anyway the entry box can have a space added below it. It sits right on top my forums, looks silly.

Can this be made so that ADMINS/MODS that can see it see a notice that the thread has notes, meaning as STAFF cruises the site and if there is a thread that has notes it can be flagged in some that to get the STAFFERS attn to read it.

I'm not getting Moderators to see the Comments?

Only getting Admin to see comments?

There should be a setting in the admincp options that allow mods to see it :)

Tx.. I got the Moderators to see it.

I would like to have a specific group be able to view these... it is possible?

I don't want the all staff to be moderators, just to be able to view / add to these comments.

Excellent *installed*. Thank you very much. :)

My wish is to edit my comment (inline edit), so i don't need to delete and add my comment again.


Regards, Stoebi

How about it making leave a notice icon like a thread that has, say an attch or poll. From the list of threads in a forum have anything using this EDITOR thing have a icone that the mod/admin only can see alerting them that the thread has inline notes.

Nominated for Hack o.t. Month ! ;)

Thank you for the suggestions for improvements folks. They will all be taken into account as we improve the modification over time.

Thanks :)

Thank you DChapman

cool :)

Install

Any quick mod that can be done NOW to help show the staff when this is being used. AS it stands now you do not know if it is being used unless you happen to go across a thread it is being used in. On a large site, that may not happen. Right now this is on my site but not real user friendly since it gets buried in daily life of my site.
No way to activate a icon or the like that alerts the staff that a forum has a thread that has this mod in use?

Thanksss install. This is perfect hack...

That type of stuff can be added in later builds. :) The design of this wasn't really one where it was to be used as an alert system, just a means to communicate with other staff within a thread. I can see how what you state would be useful though :)

The mod is great, I'm installing it soon. also hoping that you add more features in the upcoming versions.

Maybe adding an indication or icon in FORUMDISPLAY to indicate there is a new comment, with indication of read and unread..

This hack is a great idea, but I think it would be better if this mod used BB code and it was coded in a way which only admin/mods could see. This way, you can add comments to posts, which only the site staff can see, instead of saying something above the first post, which imo, is quite inconvenient. I'm not sure if it's possible to create, but it would be a great hack :D

Just my 2c :)

Can you set it so that it only shows up in select forums? That'd be useful.

I have installed this and it installed beautifully, no template hacking, nadda. Excellent plugin, thank you :D

How bout an option so that the actual input box could be user defined as far as its location within the thread. With either both at the top both at the end or the posted comments at the top with the actual editer at the end. (by the end i mean by the quick reply)
some options as to where these appear would be supurb.
Also having a per forum option would be great. I know that my site we will only really need it in 4 or so of the 49 dif forum and subforums and that it would make it easier to manage.
Also having an icon/image show in the thread header just like if there has been a deleted post would be supurb.

Installed

I agree!

I don't want it on top but I want it under the thread. I can't find the code to do it myself but that is my fault.

Can you please add this option or can someone lead me the way to do this?

Thanks!

I just installed this. Well is there a way to get the input boxes to the bottom of the page and also I have two input boxes for some reason and when I add a comment it adds it twice. Can you help please.

the plugin automatically attempts to add the thread comments option. you might have done what i did which is add the $threadcomments to the relevant template when it wasn't necessary. Removing it fixed it.

If someone would like to make a small icon for forumdisplay.php that signifies that there is a staff comment in the thread, we'll look into making that request happen this weekend. Our graphic guy is on vacation.

We're also going to look into adding the option to make the box appear at the bottom of the thread.

Is there any way we could have a little text above the box saying 'Moderator Notes:" or something?