Major Additions - Discuss!! A Yahoo Answers Clone

Discuss!!
A Yahoo Answers Clone

by ChrisTERiS

Compatible with 4.2.0
but you must download the file Disucss_1_4_0.zip

1. Why we need a discussion mod

Maybe sounds crazy to have a powerfull forum and to install this AddOn. But this is not true. I do agree that vB has tons of features for any type of discussions. But from the other point Yahoo Answers (and dozens of similars sites) became famous, because they offer a simple way to users to get replies. Short questions, with a couple of replies. Why to go in a complicated system for this? And why to add dozens of extra categories, subcategories etc etc, just for this? This is the reason that you need it.

2.- How it works?

Very simple, so easy to use by novice users too. A member is posting a question in any of your categories (unlimited level are supporting) and then is waiting other members to post a reply. Reads the replies, chooses the best and that's all. There is no need for discussion here.





3.- Installation

1. Download, unzip and upload all files from the "upload" folder where your vb installation is (you can't install in different directory).
2. Goto you admincp and import the product-discuss.xml
3. That's all

4.- Configuration





Configuration is very easy and is like all other addons here. You need to follow the steps below, and soon you'll be ready:

1. First of all goto Usergroup permissions and set what each usergroup can do or not do.
2. Goto Discuss General setting, check the default values and change them if you want
3. PM Templates. I believe that the predefinied text is ok for most of you. But if you want you can change them. Please don't touce the variables (anything inside {}). The available variables are:
   1. {questiontitle} : Title with link
   2. {questiontitle_nolink} : As above but without link
   3. {category} : Category name with link
   4. {category_nolink} : Category without link
   5. {questionowner} : The author's username with link
   6. {questionowner_nolink} : As above, no link
   7. {description} : 200 chars from the question body
   8. {username} : This is the "To:" value. eg Dear {username},
   9. {postdate_short} : Post date in format that you've set as long dates
   10. {postdate_long} : Same as above in long date format
   11. {signature} : Anything that you've set in your settings
4. Last step is to set your categories.

5.- Copyright

In the footer of each page there is a link back to my site vBulletON.com. Even if it easy to remove it, please avoid doing it. Respect if you want to be respected. That's the only that I can say.

6.- PRO version

Currently there is no one. I don't use to build an addon, and then remove 90% of its features to make a free version. No. This is all that I've done. Sure there are dozens of more features that I can add. If I see that this mod becomes popular then I'll add them but as commercial version.

7.- Live Demo

http://www.christeris.com/testvb4/discuss.php

Login:
demouser1 / demopass1
demouser2 / demopass2
demouser3 / demopass3

Enjoy
Chris

[SuperDude]

some RTL style bugs

[bposner]

I can't seem to find a way to set permissions to remove this from the menu NavBar. I have one user group who I wish not to see this option. Looked in the user group and can't find anything to limit view on navbar. I have all the options in the usergroup for Discuss set to no. Suggestions?
Thanks

[Christos Teriakis]

Originally Posted by bposner

I can't seem to find a way to set permissions to remove this from the menu NavBar. I have one user group who I wish not to see this option. Looked in the user group and can't find anything to limit view on navbar. I have all the options in the usergroup for Discuss set to no. Suggestions?
Thanks

Sorry there is no such usergroup permission option and I have never seen something similar in other mods. If you need to place such restriction you must manual edit:
AdminCP-> Plugins & Products-> Plugins Manager-> Discuss-> Discuss NavTab

Chris

[Christos Teriakis]

Originally Posted by SuperDude

some RTL style bugs

Sorry but really I can't understand what's wrong.

Chris

[tiengnhat]

Hello, when i click on "Best Answer":
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
"you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:

Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.

Log Out Home "

Can you tell me about fix it?

[StonePilot]

Forget Mod of the month, this is Mod of the Year caliber ... once it's out of beta.

I would really need custom theme support and would pay to have it incorporated with my style. Just fyi.

[Christos Teriakis]

Originally Posted by StonePilot

Forget Mod of the month, this is Mod of the Year caliber ... once it's out of beta.

I would really need custom theme support and would pay to have it incorporated with my style. Just fyi.

I've hired a designer to teach me the secrets of stylevars. As I wrote many times by being coder, doesn't means that I'm also designer, especially in vB4 which has so many stylevars. Till now I learned everything related to usercp templates and styles, and I like a lot the new changes. I also bought a dark style so I'll be able to test my mods with dark backgrounds etc. I know that there are free dark styles here, but I wanted them to be upgrading to the latest version, something that only a commercial style can has.

Chris

[StonePilot]

Well, you clearly are onto something very strong with this mod, and I applaud the idea of bringing in a designer to work with. I am planning to install this mod on a smaller site with the default template this week and if it works well I'll consider it for some larger sites. Hopefully the mod can continue to grow and develop as you get more feedback - and I make sure to $$ support developers and encourage others to do so as well.

I have some mocked-up drafts of changes to some of my sites, and I just added in samples from your mod with ideal layouts that I would like. I don't expect you to make any changes to your mod, but I can share with you if you're interested in understanding my ideas for how your mod could help my members, if for nothing else.

Once again, great idea and I appreciate the level of activity you're putting in on this project! It's not gone unnoticed.

Originally Posted by ChrisTERiS

I've hired a designer to teach me the secrets of stylevars. As I wrote many times by being coder, doesn't means that I'm also designer, especially in vB4 which has so many stylevars. Till now I learned everything related to usercp templates and styles, and I like a lot the new changes. I also bought a dark style so I'll be able to test my mods with dark backgrounds etc. I know that there are free dark styles here, but I wanted them to be upgrading to the latest version, something that only a commercial style can has.

Chris

[StonePilot]

Why I like Discuss!! so very much: One of the biggest problems of any online forum is the chit-chat that goes on back-and-forth in a threaded message, and even in a blog post to a lesser degree. For example, this thread I am responding to was hijacked with a bunch of off-topic conversation that had to be moderated with many posts deleted! However, with the "Answers" concept, all of that goes away and only the most relevant answers to a question are shown at the top. I'm not saying that we don't need both, but for a good Q&A software package, it's just brilliant!

My Initial Observations / Questions / Suggestions
I have installed this at www.couponforum.org and I like it. I tried to customize it for this community and I think it's going to work pretty well. My thoughts are all mixed together. I actually did read almost all of the pages in this thread (a first for me!) so please pardon me if I touch on something that has been dealt with.

- Any ability to change navbar "Questions" to something else?
- I'd like to require user to choose a category when posting a new question.
- I'd like to be able to edit any question or answer. Permission based for Admin, Moderators and Original Posters.
- I'd like to see enhancements to the way [Resolved] items appear on the landing page, maybe keep them alive longer so they don't drop off the page.
- SEO request - Change the tags for Title and Meta Descriptions tag for each page. Also turn the Question into a H1 tag instead of basic text.
- Not sure how the [Best Answer] concept works, but I'd like every member (by permission level) be able to vote and have the system calculate the most popular answer.
- Allow question "Status" to be edited with admin-defined categories instead of just stock "Resolved" and "Open", plus change [Winner Answer] to something else.
- I know this is a big design change, but I'd rather see the About Author information in the upper-left of the question, just helps draw attention to it.
- I just installed today and all of the Facebook buttons (for all questions) show 2 Likes [(F) Likes] [2] [O Send], so it must be pulling the likes from a different source that the unique question that is asked.
- Apostrophe Bug (?) - When I ask a question with an apostrophe, it adds a slash in front. "What's the best way ..." shows up as "What\'s the best way ..."
- I can't figure out where I can add in the "Place your rules here ..." text in the Terms of Use box.
- All three of the icons for Category / Title / Keyword are broken. They are trying to pull "/discuss/images/info.png" and that image does not exist for me.

That's it for now. I'm not trying to dump on you with a bunch of stuff, I'm just very excited to see this unique, flexible and powerful add-on to vBulletin. Thanks again.

[Christos Teriakis]

Oppssss........ Too long to reply now... After a full day of coding my mind doesn't works ...lol.. I'll say just this: "That's why I coded it. First for my own use. As I've been frustated of out off topics post, or just Thank you (even if I count them as a polite reaction)".
But the best of all is that there is "Just One Question". Not like in threads, where most users are posting something like "I've a similar problem ...bla...bla...bla...".
Wait my rest comments tomorrow... And yes, I know that this post is something not acceptable in Discuss :-))

Chris