Statistics Modifications - vbTrends - An Enhanced Statistics Box on Forum Home

Note: This product is now being supported at www.catnine.net

Keywords: Statistics, New members, joins, trends, Forum Home, threads, posts

ATTENTION:
If you download the latest version go into your usergroups and set the 'can view trends' permission. SAVE the usergroup even if you haven't changed the setting or things may not work. There is an odd permissions bug I haven't figured out yet.

Also note that overwrite will not work. Please uninstall the previous version before installing the new one.

Description:
Enhances the "YourBBS" Statistics box on the forum home to show trends of posts, threads and new users vs. the overall history of the board. Also allows you to display more than one "newest member".

Version 2.0.0:

1. Calculations exposed and modifiable in admincp.
2. Added ability to delay updates of stats to every x minutes in admincp.
3. Added a style setting for positive and negative trends.
4. Added custom hooks for all aspects of vbTrends, and moved code into said hooks.
5. Changed template to still show total threads when trend is negative and 'positive trends only' is enabled.
6. Usergroup permission to view trends.

Note: You cannot cause an error by messing up the calculations in the admincp. If the calculation you provide contains errors the stat in question will show as N/A.

This is a major rewrite, so I've set the hack to beta for now.

Version 1.2.6:

1. Made some minor tweaks for cleaner code
2. Made change to build datastore call to force serialization

You can just overwrite the product.xml if you are upgrading. Remember vbTrends has an option in the admincp to reset the counters. To see any changes/fixes you'll want to run that, or you'll end up having to wait for a new day before the changes will take affect.

Version 1.2.5:

1. fixed minor bug in auto-replace that was causing it not to work on some boards

Version 1.2.4:

1. fixed bug in percentage of active users
2. fixed bug in limit of queries (added order by)

Thanks to bchertov and Battle_Ring for the testing

Version 1.2.3:

1. Added option to display % of active users.
2. Added option to set the number of previous months to include in the trend data.

Version 1.1.3:

1. Updated for vBulletin 3.6.
2. Fixed long standing problem with stats calculating incorrectly.
3. Added option to only show positive trends.

Version 1.1.2:

1. Added admincp menu to reset cached counters.
2. Fixed a couple of divide by zero errors that occurred when your board had no history (was less than a month old).
3. Fixed so templates are now cached.

Version 1.1.1:

1. Fixed calculation of statistics - should definately be correct now

Version 1.1.0:

1. Fully phrased.
2. Uses templates now so look and feel can be customized
3. Fixed bug so output is valid xhtml 1.0.

Version 1.0.0:

1. Turn on/off in admincp
2. Offers the option to auto replace in templates, or to manually edit templates.
3. Allows more than one 'newest user' to be display.
4. Shows trends for posts, threads and new users - this month vs. the boards average.

Install

1. Download the vbTrends_2.0.0.zip.
2. Unzip and follow instructions in install.html.

[hambil]

Alright, another bug squashed. Thanks for the help everyone. It would seem that a bug in the install sql was being hidden for a number of reasons, but the latest zip should correct that. You *must* do a complete uninstall and reinstall, as it appears the install code does't run on an overwrite.

[voteforbird]

You need to completely uninstall and then reinstall. Oddly, I did this and nothing happened, but the next day it was working. Perhaps it has to aggregate stats?

Also, the stats are a bit odd in that it seems to be comparing day X of the month to X amount of days in previous month, but since X doesn't change from daytime to nighttime, the % (and the arrows) move up throughout the day. At 12:00 AM, the %'s jump down again.

[hambil]

Originally Posted by voteforbird

You need to completely uninstall and then reinstall. Oddly, I did this and nothing happened, but the next day it was working. Perhaps it has to aggregate stats?

See above update.

Also, the stats are a bit odd in that it seems to be comparing day X of the month to X amount of days in previous month, but since X doesn't change from daytime to nighttime, the % (and the arrows) move up throughout the day. At 12:00 AM, the %'s jump down again.

Yeah, that's an interesting issue. What I do is compare today against the average for today over the last x months. Of course as the day goes on the numbers will get better.

In order to compare literally minute to minute, I'd have to run the large 'avg' queries everytime I run the 'current' queries. However, that would make the stats more accurate. Perhaps I'll make that an options - it might be especially useful for people who are using a delay of several minutes or more anyway.

[goblues]

Had to update a usergroup to "activate" the mod but is working now. Thanks!

[Deadly Assassin]

In the Screeny, there are some green arrows, it doesnt show on mine?

I have left the board accessible :up:

[hambil]

That's because Firefox doesn't show red x's. Move the vbtrends gifs to your various skin image directories, and you're good to go.

[tobias_t]

Originally Posted by hambil

Yeah, that's an interesting issue. What I do is compare today against the average for today over the last x months. Of course as the day goes on the numbers will get better.

Why don't you compare the previous, finished day instead of the present one? This should solve this problem.

[hambil]

Originally Posted by tobias_t

Why don't you compare the previous, finished day instead of the present one? This should solve this problem.

The original inspiration for this hack was as a member motivator. I wanted my members to see the stats where down and post more and recruit more to get them up. In that light, I wanted it to change when they made a post or a thread or got someone to join. I wanted them to get positive feedback.

I still think that's a valuable thing and I want to keep the concept of quick positive feedback. However, I need to go think on this some.

[tobias_t]

Originally Posted by hambil

The original inspiration for this hack was as a member motivator. I wanted my members to see the stats where down and post more and recruit more to get them up. In that light, I wanted it to change when they made a post or a thread or got someone to join. I wanted them to get positive feedback.

The idea of the mod is great, but I think there is much more value in it for admins and moderators than for members (which members care about the stats of a forum anyway?). So I would definitely suggest going for a readout that is probably less real-time but more valid overall.

Thanks for your efforts with this project!

[hambil]

Originally Posted by tobias_t

(which members care about the stats of a forum anyway?)

You'd be surprised. On my boards they care very much. It's the same reason people like the store, and obsess over their time logged in or reputation or post count. Many people just love having things to play with as part of their community.

However, that said, since I've already added the delayed concept, tweaking it further makes perfect sense. This doesn't have to be an either/or thing.