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!

[BuyHostCheap]

will this work fine with vbseo?

[class101]

yes works fine here with the last vbseo 3.1.0, you'll just have to write your own rewriting rules because vbseo does not convert synergy urls by default

[oninuva]

Okay, I installed, will test it out.

[Animecraving]

a little problem here...
in who's online instead of showing viewing index it showing unknown location and the link is /forums/ajax_cron.php?rand=####### plz fix it

[christi78]

One small issue in the synergy forum I created everything works great except that the it seems random in the display instead of the top voted threads and the other issue is when click on Top Threads on the bottom right it errors out to page can not be found. The one below for new threads works just fine.

[Glitch0r]

Great great mod just what I need, thx Zoints!

[Animecraving]

err... something wrong...all the threads are said disable...

[TTG]

Is this still going to work on 3.7.0 ?
I've submitted a thread on 3.7.0 and have no way of knowing if its been sent !?

[Strike3ForumsMH]

Originally Posted by TTG

Is this still going to work on 3.7.0 ?
I've submitted a thread on 3.7.0 and have no way of knowing if its been sent !?

Hey TTG,

To be honest, I haven't heard anything about functionality and 3.7.0 (it could of slipped under my radar though. Could you open up a ticket with us so I could try it out? If I can't figure anything out, I'll move it up to the engineers.

- Reid

[TTG]

Originally Posted by Strike3ForumsMH

Hey TTG,

TCould you open up a ticket with us so I could try it out?
- Reid

Ticket submitted .. thanks Reid :up: