Major Additions - Synergy by Zoints - A system like Digg integrated into forums.

Index

Installation and Upgrading
FAQ, Changelog and Troubleshooting
Pre-written threads

This plugin is not currently available for vBulletin 3.7.x. Several users have reported serious incompatibilities, and we would not suggest attempting to install it on a forum running 3.7.x at this time.

Foreward

Awhile back, two visionaries by the names of Sal Collaziano and George B realized that a Digg-like system for forums could be highly beneficial. Kudos to those two for their understanding that by working together, we can all benefit.

What is Synergy?

How often does this happen to you? You or a member write a great thread, Google indexes it a week later, but it is buried in the search results so the masses never end up reading it. Frustrating, isn't it? Zoints solves this by taking a system like Digg, then integrating and mirroring in across all forums in a manner that allows great threads to be read by the masses. Synergy is designed to bring you more traffic and inspire your members to create higher quality content in order to obtain "Top Author" status.

Demos (with forums like these using Synergy, you're sure to get some traffic)

You'll notice all the demos look virtually the same except for the skins. This is due to the system mirroring itself across the forums. When a link is clicked, it takes the reader to the originating forum.

Ubuntu Forums
NASIOC
ThumperTalk
LWS


How Synergy Works

You have a lot of high quality threads on your forum. When you (or a trusted usergroup member you permission via the admincp options) decides a thread is worthy of Synergy, you select the "Add to Synergy" link as seen below.




During the next step, you write a short description for the thread and select which category it should go into.




Your thread is then added to a queue on your forum. Once every X hours, the top thread in your queue is added to Synergy.




When your thread is added to Synergy, the system distributes the link and description you wrote to all participating forums. If someone on any forum around the net clicks on your thread link, they are redirected back to your forum to the actual thread so they can read it. If people like your thread, they can vote on it which ranks it higher. Higher ranked threads, especially those that make it to the front page will in turn bring you more traffic.




The admincp settings are as follows:




Proof of Traffic

If you submit good content to Synergy that gets to the front page, you WILL get a lot of traffic. The following screenshot is from a small forum early in our testing. Guess which day it got a thread on the front page?



As more forums join Synergy, more and more people will be reading your threads. Let's work together to remove our reliance on search engines to send us traffic. Our communities are full of great content, it's time for it to be read!

[Strike3ForumsMH]

Originally Posted by Tygerwoody

How do i link it up to my Zoints? The directions just said "create a forum called Synergy". It did not say anything else.

http://www.guildclan.com as you can see, my Synergy forum is just a normal section

Hi Tygerwoody,

Once you've uploaded the files, installed the product through the Product Manager, created a forum entitled Synergy, you then need to go vB Options in your Admin CP, Zoints Synergy Options and then configure the settings there. If you haven't already, you will also need to register your forum here:
http://zoints.com/forum.z
to get your forum key and token.

Let me know if you are still having trouble, should that not work.

Originally Posted by 0tolerance

I got this modification working perfectly on my 3.6.2 board(my main forum)

So every one! tell your friends about synergy and benefits it brings to your forum.
I'm finding alot of my members are very interested in the content that is being posted.

For people experiencing errors... disable all hacks and slowly enable them and test synergy and when you discover the hack that is conflicting let the staff know, so they can look into a fix for all the people who use that mod.

Thanks 0tolerance. And you are absolutely correct, if you enjoy Synergy and want to see more benefits for your forum, the best way to see that happen is for more forums to join up and share content with one another. Your members will be more interested in Synergy then and so will the members at the other Synergy forums and thus, everyone will benefit who is sharing content.

- Reid

[AndyA]

This looks like a very interesting forum addon, does it work with the later versions of vBulletin too ? I'm using 3.6.7 PL1

[Strike3ForumsMH]

Originally Posted by AndyA

This looks like a very interesting forum addon, does it work with the later versions of vBulletin too ? I'm using 3.6.7 PL1

Yes it does Andy, I've seen Synergy running on both 3.67 and 3.68 versions of vBulletin.

- Reid

[AndyA]

Great, thanks for that. I now have it installed on my forum.

[TTG]

Originally Posted by Strike3ForumsMH

Hi Tygerwoody,

to get your forum key and token.

Let me know if you are still having trouble, should that not work.

Trying to get forum key and token and all I get is

You do not have sufficient privileges to view this page.

[Strike3ForumsMH]

Hmm, if you did register your forum at Zoints.com, with the account that you registered it with open a ticket at network.zoints.com and list the forum you signed up.... and either I or one of the other staff members will get you going ASAP TTG.

- Reid

[TTG]

Originally Posted by Strike3ForumsMH

Hmm, if you did register your forum at Zoints.com, with the account that you registered it with open a ticket at network.zoints.com and list the forum you signed up.... and either I or one of the other staff members will get you going ASAP TTG.

- Reid

Done and all now running smoothly .. thanks for your help strike3

I'm surprised that more forums are not using this great idea.

[Tygerwoody]

edit: nm got it. Thanks

[RvG2]

I got more traffic because of this...

[AndyA]

I've had this installed on my forum for several hours and while I think it's a great idea, I'm not 100% convinced that it's good for me in it's present form. Some of the linked thread content shown in Synergy is unsuitable for whatever reason and some content is very poor quality.

Are there any plans to build in a better filter to remove unwanted content ?