Zoints Thread Tags - GREAT for SEO
 

Demo:

http://network.zoints.com/tags

If you choose to send tags to Zoints (optional) you can see what we do with them and how we send you traffic and nice inbound links: http://zoints.com

A great article on the importance of tagging can be read here.

The Zoints Thread Tags System will improve forum side search, SEO, and traffic for forums that choose to utilize it. And in my opinion, it's just plain cool :)

When a member creates a new thread, they can now input a series of "tags". Tags are simply keywords that describe the thread.
http://img3.zoints.com/forums/tags/new-thread.png


If you then go to your-forum.com/tags you will be presented with what is called a "tag cloud". The more times a tag is used, the larger the text grows. As you can see, the tags are also searchable.
http://img3.zoints.com/forums/tags/tag-cloud.png


Clicking on one of the tags in the cloud then lists all of the threads that are tagged with that particular keyword. The default option lists tags in a forumdisplay format. There is an option in the admincp to use a simple format.
http://img3.zoints.com/forums/tags/t1.png


Clicking on the thread title of one of the above threads then takes you to the thread. If you have the option on, the tags the thread are tagged with are also listed above the thread. Clicking one of those tags takes you to all the threads on the forum tagged with the same tag. Search engine spiders are going to have a field day with this :)
http://img3.zoints.com/forums/tags/t...ag-display.png


The thread starter and moderation staff have a slightly different view which allows for administration of tags:
http://img3.zoints.com/forums/tag-admin.png


The forum's tags are also searchable via the search dropdown. The advanced search option allows for a variety of additional criteria to be seached for. Your members create a whole new (and highly efficient) forum search engine!
http://img3.zoints.com/forums/tags/t3.png


If you have the option on in the admincp and register your forum, once every hour, your tagged threads in publically viewable forums are linked via the corresponding interest tag on the Zoints Forum Network. For example, if you go to http://zoints.com/tag/children you will see what is pictured below. Not only is this a great relevant inbound link for SEO, but you will get traffic from Zoints direct to these threads!

Another example of this in action: http://zoints.com/tag/music

http://img3.zoints.com/forums/tags/z...ag-results.png


The admincp options
http://img3.zoints.com/forums/tags/at1.png


http://img3.zoints.com/forums/tags/at2.png


http://img3.zoints.com/forums/tags/at3.png


http://img3.zoints.com/forums/tags/at4.png


http://img3.zoints.com/forums/tags/at5.png


http://img3.zoints.com/forums/tags/at6.png

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


Change log:
2008/06/31 - 1.2.3
* AJAX Now Compatible with 3.7
* vBulletin CSRF Protocol Compatible
2007/12/24 - 1.2.2
* Security patch

2006/10/24 - 1.2.1
* Bugfix: breaking inline moderation when tag cloud below posts
* Bugfix: ajax input not working when tag cloud below posts
* Bugfix: seo hook effective for "results as threads" option
* Bugfix: Autogenerated tags have "quot" removed
* Bugfix: Automated template edit screwing up styles
* Improved instructions for manual template edits

2006/10/19 - 1.2.0
* Option to display results as threads
* Advanced search page
* Popular tag cloud pagination
* Popular tags displayed in forums
* Option to display tags in showthread at the top/bottom
* Fix for vbadvanced products navbar links
* Other minor fixes and tweaks

2006/10/02 - 1.1.2
* Bugfix: Foreign language characters in thread description
* Bugfix: Commas showing up when removing first tag in showthread via ajax
* Removing some redundancy in the tags AJAX removal

2006/09/30 - 1.1.1
* Bugfix: Preventing all HTML from being parsed inside tag descriptions

2006/09/30 - 1.1.0
* Adding and deleting tags from showthread via AJAX
* Mass-deleting single tags from entire cloud for admins
* Automatically generate tags for older threads (with option to show or hide on main cloud)
* Automatically stripping out tiny (2 or less characters) tags

2006/09/28 - 1.0.8
* Minor bugfix

2006/09/28 - 1.0.7
* Bugfix for required tagging

2006/09/28 - 1.0.6
* Character replacements
* Tag limit per thread
* Option to require tags for a thread
* Bugfix where stopwords may not have worked properly
* Bugfix for vBSEO / main cloud not showing up

2006/09/xx - 1.0.5
* Unreleased dev build

2006/09/23 - 1.0.4
* Ability to add multiple tags via showthread.php
* Ability to exclude certain forums from utilizing tags
* Addition of custom hook for developers to change thread urls

2006/09/21 - 1.0.3
* Ability to add and remove tags from showthread.php
* Bugfix for older versions of mysql

2006/09/21 - 1.0.2
* Small bugfix

2006/09/20 - 1.0.1
* Showing tags list on showthread.php

2006/09/20 - 1.0.0
* Initial release

This 3.7 version is only a port of the 3.6.x version, and is compatible with the 3.7 changes to the AJAX protocol. If you have any problems please post here or at our network forums. Sorry for the delay!

To Upgrade:

Just upload the next product.xml via the AdminCP and upload the new version of zointstags.js to the /tags/ directory.

sweet does this integrate with the regular 3.7 tags , and please please update zoints seo too

works for 3.6.10???

important question!

No, this does not integrate with the regular tags - as stated above, this is currently just a port of the 3.6.x mod.

@iogames, there will be a 3.6.10 compatible version later tonight uploaded in the 3.6 thread.

Uff! :rolleyes: I was about to install :P

what about the zoints seo question :(

T?rk?e karakter sorununun ??z?m? burada

Thanks, i really prefer zoints to vb tags ^.^

Awesome, we love to hear that obmob. Thanks for installing.

- Reid

Ok...I have this asking these questions for about a year now....here and on zoints.com.....guess it won't hurt to try here either....

Issue #1:

Ok...so I am looking at the tags/index.php file looking for ways to edit the order posts are displayed. I want to display them in order by first post with the newest listed first. By default the threads are listed by last post. So I am looking at the code and find some places this can be edited in the file.....

This spot in the file:

Code:

---

                $count = $count['count'];
                $orderby = 'lastpost';
                $direction = 'DESC';

---

I bet if I change 'lastpost' it will pop out the results I am looking for....I just don't know what it needs to be changed to....and I am wondering if this is the file that I need to edit to display the correct post icons...

Issue #2:

What template does this page use?

http://gridironfans.com/forums/tags/index.php/49ers/

I am trying to edit it so it shows the correct post icon. What template needs to be edited?

So can anyone help with this? Thanks in advance.

****UPDATE****

I found a solution to the first Issue....

To display the tag results by date thread started simply replace all instances of 'lastpost' with 'firstpostid'. I found three instances of the code.

is there anyway i can get a tag cloud to show on a box on the left hand side of my website? I have seen this else where jsut cant find how to do it :

Hi chatz,

I have to imagine it was custom code as I have not seen that shared. We actually do have something like that in a version we'll release in the future. If you are handy with code, it would likely be possible to piece it together from what exists and by looking at the different templates and such, but I can't guarantee it.

- Reid

Yeah I would like that very much too. I have also seen it.

And to be able to custom nominate 'top 10 tags' in a side column would be an EXCELLENT way to steer the direction of a forum and to educate newbies (and thus keep regulars happy)

Are Zoints tags going to get some love in the future? They have been neglected for FAR too long now..

just wondering why we would add a thread tag mod when one is built into 3.7?

It's for those of us who already had Zoints tags on 3.6 and who wish to remain on it for 3.7, instead of using the vB tagging system which is missing some important features. The AJAX on Zoints tags needed rebuilding for 3.7.

That is a cool idea Jah (the top 10 tags.) I'll tell the engineers about that.

And yes, we'll be working on an update to Thread Tags in the future. We just put out ZL which was a pretty big release and have some work to do on that, but in terms of products, Thread Tags was the next one we wanted to give some attention to in the future.

Hi Loco,

For many of the reasons Mark mentioned is why you might. Now if you have vBulletin default tags and see no problem with it, then it might be the right choice for you and your forum and we understand that. But we do provide some neat things that the default tags do not (and vice versa.) From what we can tell, its a bit like Coke vs Pepsi, some prefer one and others prefer the alternative.... it just depends on your taste. We have some who really like Thread Tags and really wanted an update so we made sure we got a fix out for 3.7x with the rewritten AJAX so they could continue using it.

Also, Zoints Thread Tags are needed for users of Zoints Local 2 who use the Community Central feature.

By the way, I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. Sorry about not getting to these sooner.

- Reid

Using this thread since it has fewer responses.

But in either version 3.6 or 3.7, can we move the Tag Cloud onto the forum home below the Whats Going On Box Perhaps, and within the Show Thread Template, so the Tag Cloud is basically on every page of the forum?

Is there a section of your Tags, much like Wordpress where I can see the total list of Tags on the whole forum, and delete whatever one's I want to?

Thanks for your response Zoints team,

Patrick

What template does this page use?

http://gridironfans.com/forums/tags/index.php/49ers/

I am trying to edit it so it shows the correct post icon. What template needs to be edited?

So can anyone help with this? Thanks in advance.

Also....does anyone know how a RSS feed can be created for each topic tag?

Question #3

Can we go into old threads after installing this and add tags to them, having them count towards the total amount in relation to the tag cloud?

I would imagine this is yes as I cannot believe that anyone just starting out a board would not already have threads on there forums with this installed.

Basically this is a "does this affect only new threads from the date/time of installation" or can we add tags to old threads.

Hi Patrick,

Tag clouds on forumhome, based on our versions, can only be done with a beta. As for the show thread template, are you speaking about having the forum's tag cloud (ie all popular tags) displayed on the thread? I would suppose it's possible but I don't believe that's an option out of the box.

As for a total list of tags, I would imagine it exists somewhere within your database but it's not something easily found through the product. It is a very needed thing though and one I would hope our engineers could do for a later release.

I have no idea about the RSS feed but again with your problem I would think the index.php file in the tags folder (search icon) and the viewtag template to be the only two sources. I am not a coder but I spent about an hour today trying to play around with it. I was able to remove the post icons column by editing the index.php file so I would have to imagine that it is that file where something is missing and it is not properly calling for the post icons. But... much of that code for post icons seems to be fairly common so I am not exactly sure as to what is the holdup.

(I know, not much help, but I'll keeping playing around with it.)

Oh certainly. You can go back into any thread, no matter how old it is, and tag it for it to display in the tags system and the other threads. You can also use the automatic thread tagger for old threads (although those tags won't be sent to zoints.com, if you use that feature.)

- Reid

If they can be put on the Showthread template, they should be able to go on FORUMHOME.

All we're talking about is a box with some code and data in it, are we not? So without me being extremely ignorant of the subject, how is it any different than me putting my What's Going On Box on a different Template/location of my forum and having it display in a different location/or multiple locations.

I imagine this can be done, very similar to putting a shoutbox or anything else on whatever template you want.

If it can be done, we'll probably be using this.

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

If you don't have total list, you do offer inline moderation it appears where if someone is using vulgar/inappropriate tags we can delete them/ban user I'd imagine from the pictures above.

I am sure you could, it would just need some original coding as that doesn't come right out of the box with it. Just about anything can be done with the right coding.

As for editing, yeah you can remove right from the cloud/forum/thread/wherever. With the AJAX add/delete, you can simply click X and the tag goes away.

-Reid

That sounds great. It looks like I'll have a coder look at how to move the tag cloud around, and we'll test out your Zoints Tags.

I really don't see the advantage that vBulletins core one has over yours, even someone at vb.com, a customer, not employee, said that it's missing some key features.

I'd suggest to your engineers an auto-import tags if using the RSS Importer Feed Manager system, so that for example if the system was auto posting other peoples blogs, or threads, it would auto import the tags from that blog or thread.

can we see the most add tagword member. if yes. How? i will give gift the most have tagwords of members.

apologise for my english. Waiting your answer.Thank you.

We do have an automatic tag feature which you can click to generate tags on all tagless threads (the system also uses stopwords) but I am not for sure if I follow your suggestion. I don't personally use much with RSS feeds on my forums, are you saying that tags can sometimes be included with those articles/content that could be then be imported as tags on the forums?

(I apologize if I am totally missing the point. I've been to two grocery stores today, done a ton of errands and just came back from the movies so I am a bit worn out.)

Hi jim. With the tag cloud, which would be at yourforum.com/forums/tags/ the biggest words are the most popular tags. So the largest font size you see there indicates that it is the most popular tag of all of your tags.

- Reid

Errr

vBulletin 3.7 is have tag system isn't it ?

thank you very much , :)

zoints theared tags 1.2.2 is problem in 3.7.x ,

Now it(1.2.3) woks in 3.7.2 :)

how do i remove zoints from my database? I uninstalled and deleted files and its still showing up on my database.

An additional question:

The automatic tag generator. Obviously I can do that when i first install it.

Can I set how many tags I want it to create per post?

Secondly let's say I have Zoints go for awhile and some users missed some threads, can I hit auto create again, and have it fill in the threads that have missed tags?

Will it overwrite threads that already have tags from a previous use of the Automatic Tag Generator?

Great! Glad to hear it. :)

By showing up on your database, what do you mean? If you removed the files and followed the uninstallation process, Thread Tags should be removed. If you are getting errors, that means that Google and other engines are looking for pages that no longer exist. But it really depends on what the error is, so please open up a support ticket to share it so we can sort it out for you.

With the automatic tagger there is no option that will allow you to set how many to do automatically per post, but I believe it does follow the general maximum rule set for tags per thread.

Yes it can. As for overwriting, it should maintain those same tags unless the threads have been moved or edited, or you change your stopwords. By and large though, if the content is the same and the rules are the same, the tags should stay that way as well.

- Reid

It's been over a year since I started looking for answers on this on this site and Zoints support forum and I still can't find any answers. Can anyone help?

I am looking to accomplish the following:

1. Have RSS feeds for topic tags. I know of a similar modification that has RSS feeds for topic tag searches. (Boardtracker Advanced Topic Tags)

2. Display the correct post icon in the tag search results page (example: http://gridironfans.com/forums/tags/index.php/49ers/)

O.K., I got it installed, but I cannot find the button to "Auto-generate" tags for existing threads and post.

Where do I find that button..?

Thanks for any and all help.

Is it possible to close the feature for few usergroups ?

this was great for SEO, but is it still relevant with vb tags?

are ppl use this in LIEU of vb tags or with it? I'd love to be able to...but hard to justify doubling up the same feature.

Hello jp,

On your sidebar in the vB Admin CP you should see an entry labeled "Zoints Thread Tags." From there you should see "Zoints Tag Manager" and on that link you should find the auto-generate option.

Hi realmr,

Currently with this version it is not, but we do have a beta version that has been out for some time which does do it. But I am not for sure if it works with a 3.7x forum, the product itself. If you are interested though, shoot me a PM (I use it on my live 3.68 forum.)

Hi Grendel,

Most people either continue using the Zoints Thread Tags or opt to use the default once upgrading to 3.7x. For SEO, many continue to use Zoints Thread Tags and some continue to use it for the different features it has. As a site owner and not someone who works with Zoints, I'd advise to just use one solution as that would provide the greatest usability (and least confusion) to your users.

- Reid

Found the option. I appreciate your tolerance with a NEWBIE!

One last question, I tried to generate the tags, but none were added. Then I deleted all of the "stop" words, tried again. Still no tags were added. Is there something I am not doing?

Again, thank you for your time.

jp

That's strange. All it normally takes to generate the tags is a simple click of the mouse. Open up a ticket with us jp so we can try it out for ourselves. Just provide us with a temporary admin account.

http://zoints.com/support.z

Thanks.

- Reid