Review Rating System

[thunderclap82]

I assume this is okay to discuss here, if not then I apologize.

Does anyone know of a rating reviews system that can be integrated with vB 4? I bought a rather expensive mod (iReview) that would be very nice if not for all the bugs. Unfortunately the developer has not been very helpful in correcting these issues. I found a program called GARS but it is not yet compatible with vB 4. I looked at VBadvanced Dynamics that might work, but the rating system is limited by vB's design.

What I'm basically looking for is something that allow users to rate an item once or modify their current rating, as well as post a review or comment on a review. I would also like several ratings to be tallied into an overall rating (i.e. Picture Quality, Sound Quality, Extras, Packaging, etc. since this is a movie site), allow for search criteria like highest rated, most popular, most visited, etc.

Does anything like this exist? It doesn't necessary need to be something specific to vB but a PHP or CSS program that can be integrated is fine. I've found such programs for competing CMS platforms, but since we have 75% of the site vB I really don't want to use a second program and a "bridge".

Any comments or thoughts would be appreciated.

[Adam81]

Can someone please help with this. I have tried finding an answer to this since I bought VB4 in january. I was told at the time that gars would be updated for VB4, what a joke. My site used to heavily rely on reviews, and I have been hurting because of this. I used to use jreviews, which is great but joomla sucks. I also don't want to use a bridge.

[thunderclap82]

Originally Posted by Adam81

Can someone please help with this. I have tried finding an answer to this since I bought VB4 in january. I was told at the time that gars would be updated for VB4, what a joke. My site used to heavily rely on reviews, and I have been hurting because of this. I used to use jreviews, which is great but joomla sucks. I also don't want to use a bridge.

That's what we're looking into now: jReviews. While it's not ideal it's the best we can come up with. If no vB solution presents itself we'll use vB for the CMS and forums and then bridge to jReviews (via Joomla) for reviews.

But I urge you to steer clear of iReviews for vB if you've looked into it. Buggy and the developer is not the most helpful person. We wasted $130 on that crap.

And I e-mailed the developer of GARS about a week ago yet they haven't responded either. I assume their not interested in developing it for vB 4.

[Adam81]

I've used jreviews in the past. I never had that good of luck in terms of SEO with jreviews so I abandoned it. I have great results on vb4 posts ranking and that is the reason I want something that works within the VB framework and not a whole new CMS. People have been asking for this for a year now. I was told by a VB sales person back in March of 09 and they said that they had spoken to the developer of GARS and he was doing it for VB4. What a bunch of BS. I also also have been told they were building in a review element themselves. Whatever happened to that? Not happy.:down:

[Ramsesx]

For me as a gars user with thousand of threads, the best would be a vb 4 port.
It's indeed really sad that there isn't one word from the developer on this (morgan) since so long time.

[thunderclap82]

A new post over at the GARS site states that:

Please note that support is offline until after final determinations of all the geek scripts have been made. The shopping cart will remain open during this time. Decisions about GARS, GAZ, and GMart are still in the works. GAB, GAB Stats, and GAL have been updated for vB4. While support may stop by during this time, please be aware that support will not be consistent until after final determinations about the other geek scripts have been made.

I'm guessing this means they're evaluating whether or not to continue development on these products. I wish they'd decide soon, because the other admins on our site are ready to plop down money for jReviews. And after the terrible experience with vbcover and their iReview product, I really don't have it in me to be screwed over again.

[cykelmyggen]

I'm in the exact same situation. A sign of life has been given by Morgan, and you should post your opinion in the thread:
http://www.thevbgeek.com/showthread.php?t=5835

[thunderclap82]

Originally Posted by cykelmyggen

I'm in the exact same situation. A sign of life has been given by Morgan, and you should post your opinion in the thread:
http://www.thevbgeek.com/showthread.php?t=5835

Unfortunately we couldn't wait any longer and went with jReviews. I hate having to bridge Joomla and vB, but it is necessary for what we want to do.

[lazytown]

What is the major problems with Ireview and vbulletin 4? does it work at all with vbseo?

Same with jreviews. Did you integrate it with vb4? Does it work with vbseo?