Major Additions - Zoints LOCAL. Social networking, enhanced profiles, blogs and MUCH more

Zoints Local 2.0 - Enhanced profiles, social portal, networking, blogging, and more

Zoints Local is now Gold!

Before installing, we encourage you to make backups and take the appropriate cautions that you would with any significant addition to your forum community.

We would also like to encourage developers to share hacks with the community at dev.zoints.com . Your improvements and enhancements are helpful and appreciated.

What is new to Zoints Local? What makes 2.0 worth the wait?

We know that many of you have waited patiently for this much anticipated update and we love you for it. Let's discuss why 2.0 is just plain awesome and why your forum users would want the creativity and connection it provides.

Zoints Local still brings truly customizable and unique profiles, unlike any free system out there, and is simple to install but let's check out the bullet points of new features for 2.0.0.2 RC1.

Community Central by Zoints - Your Forum's Social Hub

To develop a well connected and devoted user base, members need a personal connection to your forum. Community Central ties members together by creating personal connections and curiosity. Think about it like a community portal for your members and everything they do that isn?t posting a thread.

Activities on non-forum based aspects of a site are often lost or go un-noticed. Community Central is the hub for your users: to see who has updated their profile, to know who is interacting with others, to read the latest blog entries, to find popular tags on profiles/blogs/threads, and more. Community Central shows what?s going on in your community and encourages more connections, more community, and more fun. And, Zoints Community Central is completely controlled within your vB Admin CP!

Community Tag Pages show for each popular tag who is tagged with it, what blog entries are tagged with it and what threads are tagged with it (threads tagged by Zoints Thread Tags.) It's almost as if it is the ultimate search on an accurately and frequently tagged forum and brings content not found through any other function to connect it all.

Community Central is completely controlled within your vB Admin CP for easy access to manage it's system, templates and so on.

(Full Image)

(Full Image)

(Full Image)

Completely Overhauled, Total Blogging Solution

Another great addition to Zoints Local is its totally revamped blogging system. No longer will you need to seek out expensive paid alternatives to find a full feature blog for your forum. The blog page itself is now a block page with AJAX drop and drag technology, which means users can add relevant (and of course irrelevant) blocks to their blogs' content. Users can now create multiple blog categories for all of their entries which allows for improved organization of a user's entries and easier search for content. All blog entries can now be tagged with entry moods and entry tags, so if this was a blog entry on my page likely my mood would be Teary (tears of joy) and my tags could be Zoints Local 2.0 - vBulletin.org - ZL etc. There is also now RSS Syndication with the blogs so guests or other users would be able to easily subscribe to a user's blog and creating another path to your community. As far as new blocks; there is the blog panel, blog archive, blog tag cloud, recent blog comments, blogroll, and a blog categories list. When you put it all together, the blog is vastly improved and will offer a more rewarding experience to users.

(Full Image)

Activity Blocks and the XPSF MP3 Player

Other new blocks added to the profile page, include the Network Activity Block, Personal Activity Block and an XPSF Music Player. The activity blocks increase the chances members will continue to network with one another. The Music Player adds depth to the user?s profile. These additions are a huge addition to any community and help create and foster a need for members to return to your forum.

vB Product Improvements

The vB product has also seen a few changes to help further integrate Zoints into your community and improve the likelihood of profile interaction for your members. Member profiles now show within the postbit the last date they were updated and can be highlighted if they were updated on the same day you see their post (to encourage members to view updated profiles.) Also, you can display recently updated/created or random profiles on forum home. So whether you want to see the active and updated profiles getting the attention or for your new members to get a few warm welcomes, this will help.

Tighter 3.7 Integration

With the 3.7 version, there has also been integration with new features from vB 3.7. Both on Community Central and on individual profile blocks, there is use of the new 3.7 Social Groups and Photo Albums (including displaying a user's albums if the profile block for it is enabled.) You can see both of these in action on various screens in this thread.

What is Zoints Local?

Installed on your forum and under your control, Zoints Local is what you want it to be for your community. If you want to provide your members with a homepage they can personalize, you can. If you want members to share more about themselves via greatly enhanced profiles, you can. If you want members to have access to a complete blogging solution, you can. Networking? Resumes? Photos? Video sharing? No problem. Via Zoints' page and block management system, you can do what you want, how you want, with ease. Learn more about pages and blocks.

Zoints Local takes your forum's basic profile and turns it into a portal where a whole new world opens up, all on your website. As you can see below, your members can have everything from a personal homepage to an enhanced profile, blog, network, pages to show off their vehicle and anything else that can be dreamed up. And don't worry, we even include a page that shows the entire default vBulletin profile if you want it.

The key to Zoints Local is that the power is in YOUR hands. We know that today?s forum member is looking for something beyond a basic layout that they can find on any forum they joined powered by the same software, it?s just not worth their time to invest in creating a profile that many on the forum will overlook. Zoints Local 2.0 addresses this issue by expanding on the connectivity to provide you with a social networking solution that will make your dedicated members even more committed to your forum. Through measures such as our new central page, new activity blocks and postbit profile update indicators, your members will have a reason to check out other profiles, make new friends and get to know their current ones better. In a world where forums now have to compete with so many other time competitors online, forums need more than just content to drive members back, they need a true community aspect. By building a connected community, your members will not just remain loyal but they will be much more likely to recruit for your forum as they have such a positive affinity for the community. Zoints Local will help to provide the tools to make that possible.

(Full Image)

(Full Image)

Some sites using Zoints Local
Hundreds of forums are currently running Zoints Local. Here are just a few:

Forum: http://www.strike3forums.com/forums/
Zoints Local: http://www.strike3forums.com/forums/z/missionhockey21/

(If you would like your forum featured above, please contact Doug)

What will Zoints local bring to my forum?

Zoints Local brings a new level of possibilities to your community development and overall website appearance. There are so many features and options that it?s impossible for us to list them all here. As a community based platform that allows forum owners to share blocks, the opportunities to expand your site with Zoints Local continue to grow every day ? there?s just no telling what feature, block or idea will come out next. At the Zoints Development Forum you can download blocks posted by other community owners and developers. This way, if you own a writing forum, a software forum, a nursing forum, or a forum dedicated to any other topic, you can contour pages and blocks to specifically fit the needs of your community. Learn more about sharing blocks.

A few of the blocks and pages packaged with Zoints Local:
About Me, My Activity, My Discussions, My Links, Instant Chat, XSPF Music Player, My Media, My Photos, My Interests, My Communities, My Network, My Network Activity Quick Comments, Ratings, My Blog, RSS Feeds, Social Actions and many more. Virtually any existing "widget" shared on the internet can quickly be converted into a block, many in just a few minutes.

What else does Zoints Local offer?

Zoints Local is a state of the art product with all sorts of amazing features that go beyond the normal forum profile.

Drag and Drop technology - Do you want to move a block from one part of your profile to another? Do you want to change the order of your pages? No problem, just drag and drop! It's that easy.

Social Networking - Forget just friends, Zoints Local allows your members to create as many "Groups" as they want. We all have friends, family, colleagues, forum friends, and various other people in our lives.

Comprehensive privacy controls - Your members can create a variety of groups and show each group different content on a page by page basis. Zoints allows you to show what you want, when you want, to whom you want. Learn more about Zoints' Privacy Controls.

Style Sharing - When your members create custom styles, they can easily share them with other members of your community via the Styles Database.

Global Search - Zoints Local includes a global search that bridges communities and creates a virtual freeway between forums on the internet. Searches conducted through Zoints return results from every community that uses Zoints Local. Think of it as Google, for people. Google sends you a lot of traffic, and so can Zoints People Search.

The best part about Zoints Local is that you pick what to let your members use and what not to let them use.

What sort of administration options exist?

The Zoints Local system gives you extensive control of how your Zoints profiles should behave. You can turn features on and off, determine if you want your members to be able to edit/create/manage styles of their own, define default styles, define the default block layout, default pages, edit block options and much more.

Zoints Local 2.0 now implements a file-based phrasing system which will allow the system to be ported to other languages in a much simpler way. If you create a language system, please share it with us so you can help out other forums in need of the same one! Also with 2.0 is improved Module API and block management, all of which are detailed in the links below.

Zoints Local 2.0 also brings new user control options to your forum. You can login in as a user or edit their options from one click on their profile page. If a user is deleted or banned, their Zoints Profile account is closed. You can list reasons as to why an account is closed in case other members are curious. And you can now view comments left by each user in case you had a troublemaker or a spammer that you need to quick seek and destroy all traces of.

You can now find zAdmin by simply accessing your vB Admin CP and going to the Zoints Profile Settings section. If you are in a panic, in a rush or new to Zoints, all of your settings can be found from this simple area.

Here?s a couple screenshots from the admin control panel:

How do I get started? (Installation, Support, Update Instructions, Changelog)

Getting Zoints Local running on your site is a quick and painless process. Just follow the simple steps below and you can have your site running Zoints Local in a matter of minutes. Once you have the system setup, it?s completely up to you to decide how you want things to work. Customize, add on or leave the system exactly as it comes out of the box ? Zoints Local gives you the power to choose!

Step 1 ? Download the attached zip file.

Step 2 ? Upload everything under the "upload" folder to your forum's root.

Upload the /z/ folder to your forum's root directory (one of the below examples should fit most setups):

yourdomain.com/z/ or
subdomain.yourdomain.com/z/ or
yourdomain.com/forumdirectory/z/


Step 3 - Run the installation script found at /z/install/index.php and follow the directions

Step 4 - During the installation you will need to register your forum with Zoints to obtain a token and authentication key

Step 5 ? Once installation is complete, log in to your vBulletin Admin Control Panel and upload the plugin product file found in the /products/ folder

Step 6 ? Configure Zoints as you see fit! The new Community Central feature can be configured under the Zoints Local vBulletin options.

Promoting your forum through Zoints

Along with all of the features, tools and added functionality Zoints Local offers for your site, the Zoints is also interested in bringing you more traffic. Here?s how:

1. Add your forum to the Zoints directory at http://zoints.com/communities after you install. More information can be found in this thread.

2. The Zoints network will include your site in searches and other relevant results bringing you qualified traffic without any additional effort.

3. If you install Zoints Local on a Big-Board, please email us at big-boards@zoints.com with your url so we can get you added to the Zoints Enabled directory on BigBoards.com

Support

Due to the scope of this software, we ask that help requests be submitted at http://network.zoints.com in this specific forum so we can provide quick, efficient support.

Changelog

The full (and very lengthy) changelog can be found in the download.


Upgrade Instructions

Zoints Local 2.0.0.5 RC1 & RC2
============================================

Please note: Do not upload the following two files:

/z/install/index.php
/z/install/detail.php

STEPS:
* Download: Zoints Local-2.0.0.5RC1-vB3.6.x.zip ... that is all that is needed for 2.0.0.
1.0.4b .zip is available for archive purposes.
* UPLOAD THE ENTIRE CONTENTS of the /upload/ folder found in the
zip.
* After uploading the new files, access the following page in your browser:

http://yourdomain.com/forum/z/install/manager.php
(Replace "http://yourdomain.com/forum/" with your forum's URL)

And select to upgrade Zoints Local
* Import Zoints Profile vBulletin Product titled product-zointsprofile-2.2.3-3.7.x.xml and make sure to select the "Overwrite" option!
* Alter the Zoints Profile vBulletin settings to configure the new Social Portal via the vBulletin AdminCP

You're done!


***System Requirements***

Zoints Local requires the following:

- A linux or windows based webserver. Windows in ISAPI mode is not currently supported.
- vBulletin forum software (additional platforms will be added soon).
- PHP 4.3.3 or greater.
- MySQL 4.1 or greater.
- Your server must allow port 80 post and get requests to be made to Zoints.com
- Safemode is not currently supported.



*** Zoints Local 2.0 does not support Autonomous mode.

That's it!

[Strike3ForumsMH]

Originally Posted by jdelasko

I just edited the dependencies line in the product xml file so that it would import and it seems to have worked fine. Nothing blew up.

I received this from one of the engineers:

I have to investigate this. I set the compatibility to that for a reason...it was just a really long time ago.

Can you tell if any of the new product features are compatible, such as the community central? Thanks JD.

- Reid

[bc3tech]

There is an error in 2.0.0.5rc1 whereby it disregards the setting for "Show profile link in post bit"

the plugin for postbit_display_complete that displays this information should use the value of the variable $show['zointsprofile'] in its if statement and the other plugin for postbit_display_complete should execute in order number 4 (before the aforementioned one)

the former should be:

if($show['zointsprofile'])
{
  eval('$template_hook[\'postbit_userinfo_right\'] .= "' . fetch_template('zointsprofile_linkto_memberprofile') . '";');
}

[Strike3ForumsMH]

I'll post it in our bugs forum right away!

Thanks bc3tech.

- Reid

[jdelasko]

Still no photo album??!

[Strike3ForumsMH]

Originally Posted by jdelasko

Still no photo album??!

As we figured the primary future of our downloads will be from 3.7x forums, most of which will use the built-in photo album system, we thought it would be pointless to spend time developing an album solution thus why the 3.7x version has album integration into the Community Central and with a profile block.

Where as something like the blog is something that we felt a lot of forums might like who wish to have a free blogging solution.

- Reid

[jdelasko]

[Vent]At the risk of sounding like a complete jackass, I have to ask what the point of this release is. Why would anyone want to blog with such a cumbersome, and archaic text editor? The lack of an integrated photo album is another thing that prevents this from being a product forum members would want to use. Granted, my forum is currently a small one with a little over 300 members, but in spite of numerous attempts to get them to create personal pages using Zoints, not a single member page has been created on my site in the last year. Why should they? There's no easy to use text editor, and they can't create photo albums. These are 2 features that you have somehow managed to implement on the zoints website, but they are conspicuously missing from the released product. Bottom line is, that without these 2 features, I cannot imagine Anyone enjoying using this system, or why they would want to.

I could be wrong in my assessment, so if there is any forum owner out there that is having any degree of success at getting members to participate, I'd sure like to hear about it, because I'm very close to uninstalling htis product. And please hold the obvious comebacks that I'm getting this product for free, because that wasn't my choice and I'd be glad to pay for something that had all the necessary features.[/Vent]

[jdelasko]

Originally Posted by Strike3ForumsMH

As we figured the primary future of our downloads will be from 3.7x forums, most of which will use the built-in photo album system, we thought it would be pointless to spend time developing an album solution thus why the 3.7x version has album integration into the Community Central and with a profile block.

Where as something like the blog is something that we felt a lot of forums might like who wish to have a free blogging solution.

- Reid

Pointless? A photo album page that has the same look and feel as the rest of a members pages is pointless?

[Strike3ForumsMH]

Originally Posted by jdelasko

[Vent]At the risk of sounding like a complete jackass, I have to ask what the point of this release is. Why would anyone want to blog with such a cumbersome, and archaic text editor? The lack of an integrated photo album is another thing that prevents this from being a product forum members would want to use. Granted, my forum is currently a small one with a little over 300 members, but in spite of numerous attempts to get them to create personal pages using Zoints, not a single member page has been created on my site in the last year. Why should they? There's no easy to use text editor, and they can't create photo albums. These are 2 features that you have somehow managed to implement on the zoints website, but they are conspicuously missing from the released product. Bottom line is, that without these 2 features, I cannot imagine Anyone enjoying using this system, or why they would want to.

I could be wrong in my assessment, so if there is any forum owner out there that is having any degree of success at getting members to participate, I'd sure like to hear about it, because I'm very close to uninstalling htis product. And please hold the obvious comebacks that I'm getting this product for free, because that wasn't my choice and I'd be glad to pay for something that had all the necessary features.[/Vent]

JD,

I've tried to be nothing but helpful in answering your questions. It's truthful that many of our features came directly from suggestions and common thought among feedback, such as wanting ways to encourage members to have a reason to use profiles. Did we want to add more? Yeah. On the possible to-do list for the engineers was in fact the external WYSIWYG editor. Did we have endless time to complete all of this? No. You might think, actually I know you think, that we didn't prioritize correctly. For you and your forum that may be the case and I apologize if we can't meet your specific requirements but for other forums we might be delivering just what they need. We can never make everyone happy, but it's not for a lack of trying.

We WANT to add one. I think no matter what I say, you're not going to consider it and that's fine as you are entitled to your opinion, but I will make another push for looking into it. I am just a staff member, that doesn't mean it will happen but I can try my best.

As for this "but they are conspicuously missing from the released product," not to sound rude but that is just digging for something. We have added cool things to Local that haven't even made it's way to our network. A lot of people would say that was a pretty stupid move for us, but we wanted to give you guys something cool, whether you want to believe it or not.

Originally Posted by jdelasko

Pointless? A photo album page that has the same look and feel as the rest of a members pages is pointless?

Would it have been pointless if we could develop a superior photo album option? Of course not. Did we have the time to do such a thing considering how long we have been going at this? No. And to draw from the paragraph above, an album solution was needed on Zoints.com, we felt that as we weren't planning to release when 3.70 came out, some would already have established photo albums by our release and would be more content with keeping those rather than starting over.

I am really sorry you aren't more satisfied. As a non-engineer there is not much more I can do than to push for the editor issue to be looked into, which I will do.

Have a great weekend JD.

- Reid

[jdelasko]

The ultimate point I am trying to make is that the developers of zoints local are shooting themselves in the foot by not making the features I mentioned an urgent priority. I realize how much development time must have spent on this product. The plain and simple fact is, that if someone wants to create personal pages that include photo albums, they will go is myspace.com. Whether you like it or not, that is who zoints local is competing with. The myspace concept is completely integrated, and very intuitive. It is what the vast majority of forum members that would even consider creating a detailed profile are used to, and they will turn away from anything that is not as easy to use. As a forum owner, I am not able to present my members with a good reason to create profiles and blog on my site, because there are too many better places for them to do it easier. I have been hoping for the last year that the zoints product would change that.

Whether you believe it or not, I probably want zoints local to be a successful product as much as anyone on the zoints team. That is why I have been so persistent about implementing features that translate into ease of use by forum members. Not to sound too crass, but a lot of forum members or potential members couldn't find their butt if it had a bell on it... they can't even figure out how to complete the forum registration process 25% of the time, so they surely will have a hard time using, an antiquated text editor.

As far as a photo album, it's NOT about who has the better implementation. It's about the end users perception of seamless integration of album pages into their profile. Profile pages are, in fact, a mini-website, and as such should be a congruous collection of pages, including the photo album. If a visitor to any given zoints profile pages must navigate away from the profile to view a photo album, they have in effect, left that mini-website. That's not good because the congruity of profile pages is then broken. I have Photopost installed on my site and it's a better photo album solution that anything built into vBulletin will ever be. Even though it's the best photo forum available, it's useless as far as an integration into profile pages goes... it's a seperate product.

Bottom Line: Integration of features and ease of use is the key to making zoint local a highly successful product. I want zoints local to be a successful product, don't you? This thread had about 10 unique posters in th month of May.... that's a pretty low turnout. This thread should be going nuts with questions if forum members were using the zoints profile system.

[Strike3ForumsMH]

Originally Posted by jdelasko

The ultimate point I am trying to make is that the developers of zoints local are shooting themselves in the foot by not making the features I mentioned an urgent priority. I realize how much development time must have spent on this product. The plain and simple fact is, that if someone wants to create personal pages that include photo albums, they will go is myspace.com. Whether you like it or not, that is who zoints local is competing with. The myspace concept is completely integrated, and very intuitive. It is what the vast majority of forum members that would even consider creating a detailed profile are used to, and they will turn away from anything that is not as easy to use. As a forum owner, I am not able to present my members with a good reason to create profiles and blog on my site, because there are too many better places for them to do it easier. I have been hoping for the last year that the zoints product would change that.

Whether you believe it or not, I probably want zoints local to be a successful product as much as anyone on the zoints team. That is why I have been so persistent about implementing features that translate into ease of use by forum members. Not to sound too crass, but a lot of forum members or potential members couldn't find their butt if it had a bell on it... they can't even figure out how to complete the forum registration process 25% of the time, so they surely will have a hard time using, an antiquated text editor.

As far as a photo album, it's NOT about who has the better implementation. It's about the end users perception of seamless integration of album pages into their profile. Profile pages are, in fact, a mini-website, and as such should be a congruous collection of pages, including the photo album. If a visitor to any given zoints profile pages must navigate away from the profile to view a photo album, they have in effect, left that mini-website. That's not good because the congruity of profile pages is then broken. I have Photopost installed on my site and it's a better photo album solution that anything built into vBulletin will ever be. Even though it's the best photo forum available, it's useless as far as an integration into profile pages goes... it's a seperate product.

Bottom Line: Integration of features and ease of use is the key to making zoint local a highly successful product. I want zoints local to be a successful product, don't you? This thread had about 10 unique posters in th month of May.... that's a pretty low turnout. This thread should be going nuts with questions if forum members were using the zoints profile system.

First off JD, I appreciate your passion for the product. Secondly and before I possibly bore others with a wall of text, we are looking into it (the editor.) Like I mentioned, this has come up recently again and I think it's something we all want solved. I don't know when or how or even if, but I believe there will be a good effort made toward this.

And I understand your point about photo pages and I agree as a Zoints Local Photo Album would be great. In the future? Who knows. But I think you misunderstood my point a bit. Photo pages to us were "pointless" (probably not the best word) when compared to revamping the blog and developing blocks for it. A lot of of time alone was spent on thinking how an entry would be spaced out or where should the tags go, etc. We felt that as not all forums would have the blog, in fact many do not, that it would be the more heavily desired feature as it is another form of content. So in essence, it was a very utilitarian type of thought, which of the two would bring the greatest joy to the most. With any feature development in the future, I am sure a photo album solution will be heavily discussed (it was discussed in the last round) as we knocked off a lot of potential additions with the 2.0 changes.

- Reid