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!

[Alien]

BUG REPORT: When viewing a single post, you have an uncached template.

Uncached templates: synergy_postbit (1)

This does not occur when viewing a thread, just when looking at a SINGLE post.

[3dsoft]

Okay, but would I be able to choose only threads from an other language (e.g. german), so that all other languages would be filtered. And I also don't like the idea that it shows all categories. I only would like the system to show 1 category, e.g. any news about animals.

[project-Buckfas]

You can select which categories you want to see from your profile

[aj8690]

Hey guys,

I really like this, but the posts in synergy count towards my forum statistics. I don't want them to. How can I fix this please? I already tried making posts not count for users in the synergy forum but that didn't work. I also updated the stats and that didn't work either.

Thanks!

AJ

[Freak0204]

Originally Posted by DChapman

Do you know what browser and version she's using?

No but will ask her.

[sportsoutlaw]

I have this installed and no threads are showing up in my Synergy forum. Does this take a while?

[Zoints]

Originally Posted by sportsoutlaw

I have this installed and no threads are showing up in my Synergy forum. Does this take a while?

It should happen right away.

If you manually run the cron job, what message does it return?

[Zoints]

Originally Posted by Alien

BUG REPORT: When viewing a single post, you have an uncached template.


This does not occur when viewing a thread, just when looking at a SINGLE post.

Thanks Allen.

[Zoints]

Originally Posted by aj8690

Hey guys,

I really like this, but the posts in synergy count towards my forum statistics. I don't want them to. How can I fix this please? I already tried making posts not count for users in the synergy forum but that didn't work. I also updated the stats and that didn't work either.

Unfortunately that option is still bugged. Please accept my apologies.

[d8tabyte]

I want to take this moment to offer my thoughts to other admins who may want to install this on their forums.

I had synergy installed from the first day it was released. I believed in DChapman, as he had sufficiently convinced me on Zoints through TheAdminZone.com. I heavily promoted the use of synergy through out my forums and supported it on other admin forums as I saw an immediate effect in my stats as far as referring websites and unique users.

I have the #1 top author on Synergy, as well as many in the top 20. As of 2 days ago, we were banned for an unexplained reason. The reason isn't so much the problem, it was the complete lack of customer service provided by the Zoints team. See, we were not informed of the banning. We were simply banned. The members start emailing my staff and my staff starts calling me asking me what is going on, and I have to offer up the "Hell if I know" response as I was away on business and had not received any kind of warning or email informing me of this action. So now, I have to explain to my members that our forum is no longer welcome on the synergy lists and that they need not waste their time browsing the system, as votes are no longer accepted from our forum.

My main reason I am posting this is not to +++++ or complain, they have a zero tolerance policy and will not re-institute a banned forum, my point is to inform other forum owners that they should consider this when they make the choice to download and install or not. While they can sell you on their product just fine, when it comes down to providing even the smallest courtesy as an email, or warning to allow you to adjust what ever infraction has caused a negative light on your forum, they lack and in a serious way.

I am frankly shocked and I will be removing all Zoints modifications from my forums. I do not appreciate the embarrassment of having to deal with my members and not have an answer to give them.