After having a need for such a hack, and seeing only requests, and no code for one, I decided to put one together.

What is it?

vbAwards is a system that allows administrators to configure a robust award system which is fully integrated within VB v2.2.0+. You can have as many award "levels" as you like (i.e. merit badges, ribbons, medals, trophies, etc.). The awards engine consists of several components:

• The first, is the admin panel, where you can define new awards, edit/delete them, assign awards to users automatically, and even run test "scans" to see who is eligible for awards (great if you are still developing the criteria and want to see if you have it right). The award images themselves are completely configurable, BTW.
• The second, is the assignment robot. Run via cron, it allows you to automate the assignment of awards, based on your predefined rules/criteria.
• The third is the integration within VB itself - complete with award "shadow boxes", showing which awards a person has one, an overview page, which shows all the awards a person can earn, the Top 50 award winners, etc.

Now, the most important thing about this, is that most of the functionality is contained in a separate PHP module, meaning that the actual integration into VB is minimal at best. Add a couple of lines here and there, add a few templates, and you are all set.

The criteria for awards exist in the form of "embedded PHP" code. Basically, what this means is that you can really do anything you want. Some of the example plugins that I have allow you to automatically grant awards based on:

• # of posts in one or more specific forums
• # of threads started in one or more specific forums
• # of posts in threads that they didn't start (in 1 or more forums)
• # of referrals (new users they've brought in)

The above list is just a sample - you can get pretty crazy with the criteria. For example, we have one award that is only available if they've earned 10 or more "merit badges" (our lowest level of awards - they are forum specific), have been a member for at least 2 years, have at least 5,000 total posts, have referred at least 10 new people, and those new people must have at least 100 posts in order to count.

It can also work with external data sources (other mySQL database, mSQL databases, etc.). For example, on our site, I have it so that it works with our article publishing system and even our community image library - so people who contribute to those tools are eligible for awards as well.

To get a good idea of what the engine is capable of, or just to see it in action, visit my site at http://www.wetcanvas.com. Just head to the forums and look around.

A few screenshots will follow in subsequent posts in this thread.

This hack isn't currently available to the public, although it might be if there is enough interest. Be warned, I will likely charge a few bucks for it if and when I do offer it - its been a helluva lot of work, and I have bills to pay. :)

Cheers.
Scott

This screen shows a member's shadowbox, which is embedded in their profile page.

This one shows part of the page that lists all the awards they can win:

This one shows more awards on that same page.

This one shows the page which tells you all the members who have received a certain award.

This one shows the small link on the index page of any forum, allowing you to see all the winners of awards associated with that forum.

If you click that link that is mentioned 2 posts up (on the forum index pages), you get something like this:

This one shows you how the postbits look for a person with awards (beneath their avatar).

Viewing last night's award winners ... it is automated. :)

wow! looks great.

Loox very tight.

how much!?! :D i want it ;)

Sweeeeeeeet

and Al be damn are we all using that snowflack code

lol :p

My members would love this...I'm interested! :)

Looking Great!

I'm definitely interested. I've been looking for something like this for a while now.

I don't think it would be a good diea to make it retail.

We know you put alot of effort into making the hack, but isn't the point of making a hack public to let others freely download it?

rofl - no.

I have made many of my hacks public. This one I've decided to offer for a small price due to its sheer scope and size. What's the problem with that? Nothing ...

Cheers.
Scott

But....But.....I'm Cheap..... :(

Actually
I'll pay $6.00 (amount of money on my pay pal account left, i dont really want to re add muh credit card)

Please!

Don't make me beg linke a newbie!

Newbie: p/lz!111

how much is it?

I am interested.

Sara

Yes, I am definately willing to pay the 10 bucks. When will we be able to buy the hack from you?

baa make it public!

I doubt I'd pay for it. But its pretty cool.

Where can I purchase/get it ???

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Hamma
I doubt I'd pay for it. But its pretty cool.

Very interesting hack to be honest, i will pay for it :) ..

Looks very Good!

can we get a status update? how far done is it?

exactly

where the hell can we purchase it from !!!

So what's going on with this hack? Will we be seeing it released soon? I'll gladly pay a few bucks for it.

I dunno but I think incurso is gone :eek:

I don't blame him for leaving. Some of the responses in this thread were rather negative to say the least. I feel that with the amount of work he put into this hack, he is more than right to ask for some compensation for his efforts. I hope he considers releasing it under the realization that there are plenty of people out there that believe in compensating on for their efforts.

I would have thought about putting some money into it if it were not too high, I think a little cash for the hack for all the time placed into it is not too much to ask. From what I can see in the pictures, it is a very nice hack and would be well worth a small fee of some sort.

My thoughts, it is his hack, if he wishes to release it for free he will do so, if he wishes to set a small fee on the hack, he may also do that. There is not a problem with doing something like that, take the ever popular karma hack for instance, would you really expect Overgrow to give that away for free? :) (of course, everyone can wish, but I don't think it is going to happen with all the work that went into the hack).

If you are not willing to pay a small price, you probably do not need the hack anyway, again I will refer to the above mentioned karma hack.

(Note to members/mods/admins - I am not refering to the karma hack to stir up another 20 page long thread, I am simply using it as a reference)

oK, has anyone gotten this yet? I am very interested in getting/buying this hack!

[QUOTE]Originally posted by GraphicW
I don't blame him for leaving. Some of the responses in this thread were rather negative to say the least. I feel that with the amount of work he put into this hack, he is more than right to ask for some compensation for his efforts. I hope he considers releasing it under the realization that there are plenty of people out there that believe in compensating on for their efforts.

I agree as well. I think that it is more then fair to ask for small fee considering the size of this hack. And if it is as easy to run/install as he says it is, then it is even more worth it. JMHO.

This will be sooooooo cool! Can't wait!

After some more consideration, I think I may release this. Stay tuned - need to clean it up a bit.

Yes yes yes yes!!! Thanks incursio!