Have you ever used topsites?
 

Since i am just picked back up a project i started working on a few months ago, i figured i may as well do something that i should have THEN, to help me now :-p

Esentially, i really dont use topsites, but i have joined a few, talked to a handful of people, and looked at some of the mainstream topsites out there (like aardvark).

and im looking for some feedback about experiences with things like this as i am doing it :)

basically, have you ever used topsites? what were they? do you still use them? what did you like about them? what didnt you like? what would/did you change about them to suit your particular needs? would you switch if what you switched to was better? would you only switch if you could adequately and painlessly convert your current base? how much activity did your topsites recieve? would you be willing to let me look at the db data youve built up over the large course of time it took to do so, in order for me to think about making converters....that sort of thing :-p discussion on topsites. i want to know so i can better cater my upcoming hack to the people who actually will use it as extensively as it is being designed.

from topsites all they did is took the incomminng hits from a link and outgoing hits to a link and rated the site (somehow) to organize it

well i know how topsites work and how to code them, but im wondering more what people thought of various kinds of topsite out there, and if there was anything that they liked that a particular brand did :-p

please revive ur vb 2 hack, it was one of my favorites:)

i am in the process of doing so :) i believe it will be even more powerful than aardvark, if you want i could post some screenshots. right now its about 60% done, been working on the 60+ item admin help file since last night :-p

....which is why i started this thread. so i can find the features that topsites dont have yet and users would want, (ive come up with a couple which im implementing) ^_^

any updates on this? :)

This?

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...hlight=toplist

I use top4x4sites.com every day to build voting to my club. It gather alot of great new members to join and its fun competition to compete with other boards. But one thing is sure it isnt foolproof. many votes daily do not get counted

I have done before but not for a forum.

gets in line :P *twitches a bit* vbtopsites is by far the best top100 script intergrated or not that I've used .. but I'm prob bias :P

Well .. if you want my blunt opinion: they're tacky and I kinda dislike them as the educated forum admin and webmaster I consider myself to be.

BUT ... I did have some changes of mind with a forum of mine for women. I put a link in a topsite, just because I had nothing to do that moment. Imagine I got quite a traffic from that :D

So ... conclusion: they might work if you have the "good" demographic. I think my webmaster members would laugh themselves sensless if seeing such a button on my forums, but the girls who are not web designers had no problem following those links.

KNOW your demographic :)

About six months later, your 'upcoming release' is kinda ironic. But never the less:

They're good for some sites, and not so good for others. I mean, hosting a Topsite isn't a tacky thing, and you get free links and popularity from a ton of related and unrelated sites and forums.

My suggestions though are generally:

1. A layout more like the Aardvark Topsites versions would be nice, since the typical vBulletin topsite script seems rather more like a mini GARS article system than a topsite or a directory.

2. Similarly, a few features like that script would probably be good.

3. Permissions, including guest joining and adding a site, or for members only. Because many free scripts have pretty much awful spam protection, and a vBulletin integrated one is often better in that sense.

4. .htaccess? Maybe for things like a folder on your site outside the forum directory, since /topsite would probably look better than /topsite/topsite.php or /topsite.php. Or a subdomain type thing.

5. Editable settings. Like an easy way to choose the link image and specific link code given.

6. PHP 4 version and a PHP 5 version. Many scripts are one OR the other, and I like vBulletin's compatibility with both versions of PHP. This is evident when considering all other topsite scripts seem to be PHP 5 only.

uh, this was a really old thread you know, and cm-those are great suggestions, but i think i will lose them if you leave them here >.<

Cleaned thread from 2 recent spam posts that bumped this old thread.

As this is already 1.5 years old, closing this thread now