Trader Ratings v1.2.0

Trader Ratings - A user feedback hack
Copyright ?2004 Jason Rabel, All Rights Reserved.
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Latest TR Verson: 1.2.0
vB Versions: 3.0.0 - 3.0.9
Author: Jason Rabel
Contact: PM me here, I'll respond.
Site: EXTREME Overclocking
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Updates:
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1.2.0 - September 4, 2004
- Added Trader Ratings Stats Page (finally!)
- Added PM notification when someone receives feedback
- Changed how positive feedback percentage score is calculated (bugfix)
- Ability to "close" the Trader Ratings pages (for maintainence or whatever) - TRATING_CLOSED
- Ability to set the URL field when submitting feedback to required or optional - TRATING_REQ_URL

1.1.0 - June 7, 2004
- Added time-based user edit/delete abilities, set via TRATING_UEDIT constant in traderratings.php file
- Userdate field is now an int field to be consistent with vBulletin
- Userrating field changed to tinyint to save space
- Fixed timeframes for showing historical ratings
- Made some various code consolidation
- Added missing ".TABLE_PREFIX." statement
- Templates.txt file shows code for postbit & MEMBERINFO, with conditional examples
- All 3 templates changed heavily
- Added some more phrases & fixed missing phrases

1.0.1 - June 2, 2004
- Fixed a "divide by zero" display error
- Postbit template fixed so guests do not have a trader rating

1.0.0 - June 1, 2004
- Initial Public Release

Description:
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Trader Ratings has evolved from my vB2 Buy/Sell/Trade User Rating System. This is a rating system for when members buy / sell / trade items from each other (presumably on a FS section of your forum). It is based on the honor system since there is no way to truly tell if they did engage in a transaction. (But I'm working on a way to fix that.) Trader Ratings came about because it was a pain to try and maintain a single thread listing good / bad traders and so far has worked out quite well.

Features:
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? Rate another member: Positive / Negative / Neutral
? Specify Buyer, Seller, or Trade
? Leave comments about the deal
? Records date when rating created
? Specify a URL to the deal
? Display ratings over time
? Filter based on Buyer/Seller/Trade/or feedback they left for others
? Users can edit/delete ratings left for others (time based limitation)
? Admins & Mods can edit/delete anyone's ratings (just incase)
? Stats page showing best & worst rated members, and recent ratings
? PM notification when a person is rated

Basic Info:
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I haven't written a FAQ or any real documentation yet, but the way the system works is very simple. The only part that might confuse someone is that the Feedback Score is based only on UNIQUE members. Also, there are simple checks in place to make sure they actually do select proper info and enter a comment. A user is not able to rate themself (obviously). Permissions for viewing / rating are similar to standard forum viewing / posting permissions. Also it checks to make sure users exist and all that good stuff.

Installation Info:
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This hack is very simply to implement requiring only:
? 1 new file
? 5 new templates / 2-3 template changes (navbar, posbit/postbit_legacy, MEMBERINFO, memberlist_resultsbit)
? 52 new phrases
? 1 new DB table / 1 table DB change & index

An install/upgrade PHP file is included to do all the template/phrase/DB stuff, so basically you run that, upload the file, and edit your postbit template. BAM!

Screen Shots / Demos:
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See Screenshots below, or you can view them on my forums: My Trader Rating Page

Standard Disclaimer:
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BACKUP YOUR DATABASE & FILES BEFORE IMPLEMENTING THIS HACK!!!

Forums Using This Hack:
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EXTREME Overclocking Forums
i-Club -- Forums
Accord Tuner
NSX Prime
Honda-Acura.net
Guns Network
PimpRig

(PM me your forum if you want me to add you to the list)

Donations:
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This hack will always be free, however your donations are kindly accepted and will help towards further development. If you donate, please leave me some info (either your forum site or username at vB.org) so that I can thank you.


Plans For Future Releases:
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? rebuttal / followup comments
? item description (possibly instead of thread url)
? button on thread that buyer/seller clicks to tie the transaction to two people

[NietzscheKid]

Originally Posted by Odoin

Thank you so much Jason!

Hello

this is a wonderful hack.

I would like to ask a question and I hope this is not stupid to ask ... but is there a way that I can delete the buyer/seller columns? I just ask because we don't buy or sell, just trade and this system would be perfect for us. If you or anyone can tell me how I can modify the hack to achieve a trades only function, I'd be overly happy.

Thank you in advance for any help

[eoc_Jason]

Well there are several things you can remove if you want to make it the most efficient, however to keep it simple (and make upgrades easier), I would just modify the template where you submit a new rating, remove the buy/sell/trade dropdown and make trade a hidden form field. You can also modify the display template to remove the extra buy/sell stuff.

[Tilmanitou]

Jason, in your templates.txt you wrote:

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NOTE: If you only want specific user groups to use the ratings, you will also
need to modify the traderratings.php code to prevent users from getting
to the feedback page through manual URLs (unlikely, but possible). This feature will be fully implemented in the next version (if you don't want to modify the php file).
-----------------------

would you please be so kind and explain me how to do that exactly, if possible in "find: x and replace with: y style" and tell me how to do that for one usergroup as well as for several usergroups.

I didn't manage to restrict access to traderratings in the postbit and memberinfo templates to one or several usergroups only. so we helped us out in limiting access to user profiles for these groups and adding the link to traderratings only in the memberinfo template.

Seems like I'm not the only one who didn't understand how to do that...thanks for explaining us!

[Watson]

Yeah I am hoping just for a forum to be used for my ratings, and not a usergroup. so they have to do it that way.

Also Jason mate, I aint exactly sure, but how would I put in a leave Feedback image or something in the Postbit?

[hasan2k]

Originally Posted by eoc_Jason

Well there are several things you can remove if you want to make it the most efficient, however to keep it simple (and make upgrades easier), I would just modify the template where you submit a new rating, remove the buy/sell/trade dropdown and make trade a hidden form field. You can also modify the display template to remove the extra buy/sell stuff.

This is a little off topic but I think we should all discuss this.

As you all know, this script is a honor based system, so there is no way to know if the rating is valid unless we can somehow track the transaction. So I would like to throw in the topic of Verification. Lets give your best shot.

My idea would be:

1. To some how have a Credit card verification included in the script. Something like what has been used in the adult sites to verify age. This verificaiton will be used for people who want to participate in the rating system. This way you have a way of telling if the rater is not a fictitous person because some people may abuse the system to make themselves look better than the others by getting multiple id's. If you have a verification built in, one person can rate only rate others not himself.

2. What do you think about verifying a transaction by asking a few questions to verify transaction did take place. Like the amount of transaction. Now, if asking the buyer the transaction amount found and asking the seller transaction amount found do not match, it will be seen as a fictitious transaction and will not be allowed to record the "RATING".

I think verification is the only way to do this. As a matter of fact, AMAZON.com just announced that they are going to implement the credit card verification to make sure the reviewr of their products are the people they say they are.

Lets discuss.

[eoc_Jason]

hasan2k - I'm not going to do CC verification, there are even ways around that, but also it would remove a large portion of younger people who don't have a CC, and also a lot of people who wouldn't feel comfortable submitting that info to a smaller site. I trust Amazon and do have my CC on file there for purchases, but I wouldn't trust Joe Bob's Fishing Forum to hold my CC info because I don't know how secure their software is, nor do I trust what they might do with it.

I was considering doing some sort of PayPal verification thing, however all my attempts in talking to PayPal about any sort of API to query if a person is PayPal verified have been returned with extremely unhelpful canned responses.

User / Transaction verification has been discussed before several times in this thread (try sifting through the pages or searching, I don't remember what post #'s they were). There was even discussion about linking users to a thread (by creating a buy/sell button) and then only letting them rate each other. But a lot of "what if" issues were brought up that would make the hack so complicated that it was determined that it would just make more sense to write a hack from the ground up that did what people wanted... an auction/classifieds add-on.

So that's what I'm doing. Well, actually two things. I'm working on a cross-forum capable version of Trader Ratings, and also the auction/classified system (that of course ties into trader ratings). This will bring about a "verifiable deal" in the sense that you have an actual page to view who the buyer & seller and item and price and whatnot were, but also allow "unverifiable" transactions based on good faith (like the current TR operates now). But all this will take some time as I've only got two hands and very little spare time at the moment.

This hack was intended to be simple and solve a common dilemma. I'm not big into hacking up 20 vBulletin files, only to have to re-do it all every time there is a new release. I prefer to keep things separate and minimal.

This hack solved the common issue I've seen a lot of forums do where they just had a thread that a person had to maintain where they listed who dealt with who... It was archiac and not really that informative. My hack (in its current state) is by no means perfect, but it is a step in the right direction by having an automated system that is user friendly.

[the wiz]

Problem: the trader ratings thing goes outside of my template edge. (Here is a link: http://www.dsites.net/vb/traderratings.php?u=1 ). Is there any way to make it go inside the template edges?

[hasan2k]

Originally Posted by eoc_Jason

hasan2k - I'm not going to do CC verification, there are even ways around that, but also it would remove a large portion of younger people who don't have a CC, and also a lot of people who wouldn't feel comfortable submitting that info to a smaller site. I trust Amazon and do have my CC on file there for purchases, but I wouldn't trust Joe Bob's Fishing Forum to hold my CC info because I don't know how secure their software is, nor do I trust what they might do with it.

Thanks for your answer. Either way this is a great hack. BUT, if you do get the time to put the verification in place somehow, there will be a commercial prospect to this script. I know I will be first in line to pay.

[eoc_Jason]

Problem just some table withs conflicting with your custom design... There's only 3 TR templates... Feel free to fidgit with the HTML...

Originally Posted by the wiz

Problem: the trader ratings thing goes outside of my template edge. (Here is a link: http://www.dsites.net/vb/traderratings.php?u=1 ). Is there any way to make it go inside the template edges?

[the wiz]

Originally Posted by eoc_Jason

Problem just some table withs conflicting with your custom design... There's only 3 TR templates... Feel free to fidgit with the HTML...

I didn't see any HTML tables in the traderratings.php file.