Secret Admirer

This was requested over here:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...=&pagenumber=1

Essentially it is a hack to allow users to have crushes on each other and to declare them secretly. If two users declare that they fancy each other, then a match occurs and both are notified.

This is a great way of virally encouraging users back to the board and to inject a bit of fun into a forum.

We ran a manual one of these on our boards called 'secret crush', but that proved too controversial, so this is slightly watered down to be 'secret admirer', such that more people can participate and admiring someone doesn't commit you to them... so it's less imposing.

Anyhow... on with the hack.

The hack is comprised of:
1 new database table.
1 new php file.
Edit to member.php to include new "if" statement.
Edit to getinfo template for 'admire' link.
6 new templates.

All of the code and instructions can be found in the attached zip file.

I've tested this on my own board, and have installed it in my live environment. I don't know if it is rock solid though, so would appreciate feedback and bug reporting. I'm not a PHP coder by trade, so point out any errors if you see them.

Cheers

David K

UPDATED: 2003-SEP-12

Major update, adds reporting functionality for users and puts us on the verge of a gold release. Could a few other people please install this and let me know how you go... I want to know for sure that others are comfortable with this as it stands before I turn it gold.

I personally think it's there now... but just want the community to give me that peace of mind (as my board is hacked heavily and I want to find issues BEFORE it goes gold).

UPDATED: 2003-SEP-13

Now included screen shots within the zip file.

[pokesph]

Yes, this hack would really work out well on our boards.. too bad it's not done for vB 3 yet.. any ideas when/if it will be done for vB3??

[Zachery]

08-09-03 at 06:23 AM Hobbes said this in Post #9
great hack!

this is super cool man I like it!

Except, one thing you could includein the gold version is an admin-side where Admins can see who clicked who, who matched etc....

it'd be really cool ..

and i'll beta test for vb3 if u want hehe

no you wont hobbies :P


nice idea at our site i think we need more members, if i hadnt just upgraded to vb3 i might use this

[Hobbes]

08-08-03 at 10:23 PM Hobbes said this in Post #9
great hack!

this is super cool man I like it!

Except, one thing you could includein the gold version is an admin-side where Admins can see who clicked who, who matched etc....

still wondering

[buro9]

I've been lazy. I apologise.

I left it wallow in Beta as no bugs have been found.

I'll polish it this week and release it as soon as I can.

I won't include an admin option to view who has voted though. I have no doubt some of you want this, but I value the trust of my users very highly and respect their confidentiality.

If you want such a thing for specific cases, then you can just take a peek at the database table 'secret_admirer'... it's very easy to figure out. But it's not my style to have things like this, or the PM reader hack*, etc.

Cheers

David K

* I actually go one further and obfuscate the storage of PMs on my site to assure the users that private means private.

[buro9]

07-16-03 at 12:00 PM kaotic said this in Post #6
This does seem like it would be cool; however, screenies or a demo site would be appreciated.

Screenies will follow when it goes Gold... which will only be a week or so

[Catch-22|BL]

buro9: Very nice! We have a message board of 17000 posts/week and we will definitely give this a shot if you can get this to final release. I think it will be popular and a fun thing to build sense of community.

I agree with your thoughts of keeping the information secret from administrators. Besides privacy (which is a good enough reason by itself) think about it this way: how many administrators would want people bombarding them begging for hints or clues?

[buro9]

Originally Posted by Catch-22|BL

buro9: Very nice! We have a message board of 17000 posts/week and we will definitely give this a shot if you can get this to final release. I think it will be popular and a fun thing to build sense of community.

I agree with your thoughts of keeping the information secret from administrators. Besides privacy (which is a good enough reason by itself) think about it this way: how many administrators would want people bombarding them begging for hints or clues?

Just done most of the updates... refreshed the zip file for you all... it should now be ready for gold... I'll set about getting some screenshots for you all.

BTW... the bombarding admins and mods is a very valid point... they do do this, and it was only my continual assurance that I couldn't and wouldn't tell them anything that got them off my back.

You can see this all in action over at http://www.bowlie.com/forum/

Cheers

David K

[buro9]

Just thought I'd re-iterate... as regards VB3... I've designed this mod to be VERY portable.

All of the code is pretty much in one file... and only a small slice of logic will need to be ported.

As soon as I have VB3 running I will port this mod to it... because obviously I need it too!!!!

[buro9]

Originally Posted by buro9

Screenies will follow when it goes Gold... which will only be a week or so

Screen shots are now in the zip file too... 6 of them I think... they show all of the additions, etc.

They don't quite do the system justice though, I have over 2,000 rows in the database table... it's proving very effective

[ButchGal]

Originally Posted by buro9

* I actually go one further and obfuscate the storage of PMs on my site to assure the users that private means private.

Thanks for this hack, i love it and so will my users.

How do you obfuscate the storage of PMs? I'd like to do that also.