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!

[Lionel]

Originally Posted by DChapman

As traffic grows, we'll definitely look into expanding categories and the customization options. We need to keep the category options narrow right now to avoid dilution.

what do you think about a Politics category?

[Zoints]

Originally Posted by puertoblack2003

testing functions out if i wanted to disable this i got this error

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in \includes\adminfunctions_options.php(331) : eval()'d code on line 20

i don't know if i'm the only one and i'm up to date with vb .6.4

Thanks for the report, we'll fix that in the next build. It's a very minor bug in case anyone is worried.

[Zoints]

Originally Posted by eNforce

Feature Request:

When deleting a submission would it be possible to leave a reason for the deletion via PM to the person who submit the thread?

Yes, better communication like that is needed. Including a means to track who did what.

[Zoints]

Originally Posted by KTBleeding

I have to register my forum with zoints.com (which I already have done).. I'm wondering what happens now. If I install a Zoints product, do my members get posted onto zoints.com? I would really like to avoid doing that. I personally just don't like the idea.

I guess what my question really is.. Why register the forum with Zoints? And what happens once registered..

No, your members do not get posted on Zoints.com. The reason for the registration is mods like Synergy require a unique token and authentication key. Because of the data transfer, we have to know who is sending what and ensure it is done in a secure manner (for obvious reasons). The only way to do that is assign a unique authentication key and token during signup. Our mods that don't require secure data transmission don't require any signup.

[Zoints]

Originally Posted by Lionel

what do you think about a Politics category?

That could probably become a subsection of society once traffic levels warrant it.

[fotografik]

Forum home display not updating?

I have installed Synergy (great mod, btw) and it seems to be running well, except for the following :-

a) I have turned off Health and Science in the options but the item that appears in the Forum Home listing shows the top thread which is a Health and Science thread "Theoretical Physicists Develop test for String Theory"

b) Forum Home list appears to be based on Most Popular. Is there a way to change it to Newest?

c) Forum display by Most Popular doesn't seem to sort properly.

See attachments for examples.

[caliman]

My members love this mod! Thank you very much.

Like the post above, I've noticed the sorting too with 'most popular.' How is it sorting really?

[puertoblack2003]

good day,

hey chapman i posted this in the wrong version here is the link https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....4&postcount=10 that happens after i either refresh page or go to a post .

[Zoints]

Originally Posted by fotografik

Forum home display not updating?

I have installed Synergy (great mod, btw) and it seems to be running well, except for the following :-

a) I have turned off Health and Science in the options but the item that appears in the Forum Home listing shows the top thread which is a Health and Science thread "Theoretical Physicists Develop test for String Theory"

b) Forum Home list appears to be based on Most Popular. Is there a way to change it to Newest?

c) Forum display by Most Popular doesn't seem to sort properly.

A. That's a bug that will be fixed in the next build. Sorry!

B. We plan to add that next build (notice a trend here? )

C. Can you elaborate on what you mean please?

[Zoints]

Originally Posted by caliman

My members love this mod! Thank you very much.

Like the post above, I've noticed the sorting too with 'most popular.' How is it sorting really?

Do you mean vote wise?

"Most Popular" doesn't necessarily mean "most votes". Votes are an extremely important aspect of determining which are most popular, but the algorithm takes a lot of variables into account. If most popular was most votes, then 3-4 threads would always be stuck on top.