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!

[Zoints]

Synergy 0.9.7 has been released.

Changelog

2006/2/6: 0.9.7

- Cleanup of navbits
- Title/Description html-izing fix
- Thread/vote counts do not count towards forum total
- Default category fix
- Last post for subforums fixed
- RSS Feeds added

[Deadly Assassin]

Originally Posted by DChapman

When you use the Z, are they in the moderation queue or the approved queue? Using the threadtools dropdown sends them direct to the approved queue.

Can you take a screenshot?

Here's a shot



This has been like this for 2-3 days on and off. I have submitted it a few times and deleted it and resubmitted, but still no go.

[puertoblack2003]

ok i think this is a server issues if anybody can confirm apparently when i switch to a post or go anywhere in the board this is the image so you can see.


keep in mind that i'm hosting vb on a windows server.

thanks -pb

[soletrader]

My threads are forever stuck in queu for days. Why is this?

[caliman]

This mod is working great for me.

I do have a suggestion though...

Create a category for blogs where we can submit entries from our z local blog.

I think this would be popular.

[Zoints]

Those of you with threads stuck in the queue, please do the following:

1. Delete all the threads in your queue.

2. Upgrade to the newest version (if you haven't already).

There was a bug that would potentially cause what you folks are experiencing and that should resolve it.

[Deadly Assassin]

I deleted the stuck threads, then updated all the files in ftp, then did an overwrite of product install and its still doing the same thing.

I'm gutted, coz i like this, but i will have to uninstall it if this dont work.

[Chadi]

Any possible way not to affiliate with zoints.com and create own custom categories?

Reason: Christian forum, need to be carefull of what is shown on my site

[thincom2000]

Is it possible to update it so it doesn't add queries to showthread? Perhaps use hook showthread_query?

[Deadly Assassin]

Didn't want to do it, but Uninstalled.