Unique Avatars
 

*** Staff note: The author of this modification has passed away in a diving accident. We wish his family all strength in dealing with this traggic issue. ***

Have you ever been frustrated by the fact that many of your users choose the same avatars from your pre-defined avatars?

Now you can prevent users from selecting avatars that others are already using.



Features

• No template or file edits, just a single .xml file to install
• Phrase-based - update language strings as you like
• Can either omit the used avatars from the display, or show them as unavailable
• Can optionally display a count of how many times each avatar is used
• All options configurable via the admin control panel
• Install routine adds an additional index to ensure database performance not impacted on larger boards

The inspiration from this mod came from a similar one for vBulletin 3.0 by VBDev. Even though there is almost no code in common between these mods I've sought and obtained his permission to release this.



Installation (30 seconds)

• Download the attached .xml file
• Go into your admin control panel -> Plugins & Products -> Manage Products -> Add/Import Product.
• Press the browse button to locate the .xml file you just downloaded click OK.
• Ensure that "Allow Overwrite" is set to "Yes" and press "Import"
• Note: requires MySQL version 4.1 or higher.

Configuration
VBulletin Options -> Unique Avatar

Version History
1.0 - Initial release (02.06.2007)
1.1 - 1 minor bugfix (20.01.2008)

See screenshots for further details.

That is a great idea. I like it!

If two people on the board already have the same avatar and you install this, what effect will it have on those two people??

I like this idea....nice of ya to rls it.

No effect, but if one of them selects a different avatar, then they won't be able to reselect it (since at least one other person is using it).

If you configure the mod to show the count of how many people are using a given avatar you can get an overview of which avatars are used.

It would be possible to craft some queries to show you which users were using a duplicate avatar (count of 2 or higher), and theoretically it would be possible to make a query which removed the avatar from these users (forcing them to choose again, and therefore no more duplicates possible from that point on).

Nice idea.

Thanks for the share,
Mat

Not a bad idea. Once I get my forum going with some more advatars, I'll give this hack a crack.

Great idea .. thanks mfyvie

Clicked install.

i love the idea, great one mate!

Nice thank you installed

Very nice! Can't believe this isn't a default feature.