Trader Ratings v1.2.0

Trader Ratings - A user feedback hack
Copyright ?2004 Jason Rabel, All Rights Reserved.
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Latest TR Verson: 1.2.0
vB Versions: 3.0.0 - 3.0.9
Author: Jason Rabel
Contact: PM me here, I'll respond.
Site: EXTREME Overclocking
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Updates:
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1.2.0 - September 4, 2004
- Added Trader Ratings Stats Page (finally!)
- Added PM notification when someone receives feedback
- Changed how positive feedback percentage score is calculated (bugfix)
- Ability to "close" the Trader Ratings pages (for maintainence or whatever) - TRATING_CLOSED
- Ability to set the URL field when submitting feedback to required or optional - TRATING_REQ_URL

1.1.0 - June 7, 2004
- Added time-based user edit/delete abilities, set via TRATING_UEDIT constant in traderratings.php file
- Userdate field is now an int field to be consistent with vBulletin
- Userrating field changed to tinyint to save space
- Fixed timeframes for showing historical ratings
- Made some various code consolidation
- Added missing ".TABLE_PREFIX." statement
- Templates.txt file shows code for postbit & MEMBERINFO, with conditional examples
- All 3 templates changed heavily
- Added some more phrases & fixed missing phrases

1.0.1 - June 2, 2004
- Fixed a "divide by zero" display error
- Postbit template fixed so guests do not have a trader rating

1.0.0 - June 1, 2004
- Initial Public Release

Description:
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Trader Ratings has evolved from my vB2 Buy/Sell/Trade User Rating System. This is a rating system for when members buy / sell / trade items from each other (presumably on a FS section of your forum). It is based on the honor system since there is no way to truly tell if they did engage in a transaction. (But I'm working on a way to fix that.) Trader Ratings came about because it was a pain to try and maintain a single thread listing good / bad traders and so far has worked out quite well.

Features:
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? Rate another member: Positive / Negative / Neutral
? Specify Buyer, Seller, or Trade
? Leave comments about the deal
? Records date when rating created
? Specify a URL to the deal
? Display ratings over time
? Filter based on Buyer/Seller/Trade/or feedback they left for others
? Users can edit/delete ratings left for others (time based limitation)
? Admins & Mods can edit/delete anyone's ratings (just incase)
? Stats page showing best & worst rated members, and recent ratings
? PM notification when a person is rated

Basic Info:
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I haven't written a FAQ or any real documentation yet, but the way the system works is very simple. The only part that might confuse someone is that the Feedback Score is based only on UNIQUE members. Also, there are simple checks in place to make sure they actually do select proper info and enter a comment. A user is not able to rate themself (obviously). Permissions for viewing / rating are similar to standard forum viewing / posting permissions. Also it checks to make sure users exist and all that good stuff.

Installation Info:
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This hack is very simply to implement requiring only:
? 1 new file
? 5 new templates / 2-3 template changes (navbar, posbit/postbit_legacy, MEMBERINFO, memberlist_resultsbit)
? 52 new phrases
? 1 new DB table / 1 table DB change & index

An install/upgrade PHP file is included to do all the template/phrase/DB stuff, so basically you run that, upload the file, and edit your postbit template. BAM!

Screen Shots / Demos:
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See Screenshots below, or you can view them on my forums: My Trader Rating Page

Standard Disclaimer:
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BACKUP YOUR DATABASE & FILES BEFORE IMPLEMENTING THIS HACK!!!

Forums Using This Hack:
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EXTREME Overclocking Forums
i-Club -- Forums
Accord Tuner
NSX Prime
Honda-Acura.net
Guns Network
PimpRig

(PM me your forum if you want me to add you to the list)

Donations:
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This hack will always be free, however your donations are kindly accepted and will help towards further development. If you donate, please leave me some info (either your forum site or username at vB.org) so that I can thank you.


Plans For Future Releases:
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? rebuttal / followup comments
? item description (possibly instead of thread url)
? button on thread that buyer/seller clicks to tie the transaction to two people

[eoc_Jason]

Hey guys just a little update. I'm not dead or anything, just having a lot of personal stuff to take care of.

I know I'm long overdue for the update, but it will come just as soon as humanly possible.

[joeychgo]

There are alot of pages here - and I have a question that might have been answered and I missed it.

Can this be limited to certain usergroups?

I ahve a car club forum -- and am looking for a rating system for VENDORS, who only make up 5% of my membership. I would only want this rating system to apply to them...So that only VENDORS could be rated, but the ratings be viewable by all members.

SO, can I restrict this to a particular usergroup?

[ChrisBaktis]

Originally Posted by Chriss74

Sorry, but I still didn't get it. Maybe my english isn't good enough...

For my opinion, always the seller and the buyer should rate and should be rated - like in ebay. I still don't understand the sense of rating the deal itself - regardless if it was a sale or a trade.

And if there is a possibility to rate a trade, there should also be the possibility to rate a sale. Otherwise it would be unlogical.

Maybe, you or someone else try to explain it again, why it is sensible to rate a trade.

Thanks,
Chriss

An example would be my site www.rustysoaptraders.com. It is for sports card trading. This hack allows the members to rate each other on trades. Did they ship cards promptly, were they packaged good etc. Some members also buy and sell cards. This allows them to rate each other also. This is a perfect hack for my type of site and many others.

Chris

[ludachris]

Hey Jason, a couple things I wanted to point out/ask:

1. I'm getting a discrepancy after upgrading from the VB2 version between the overall Trader rating and the actual number of ratings for some members - meaning, I'll look at one member who has 8 positive ratings and only has a 6 rating overall (and has no negative or neutral ratings). Is there a script I need to run to recalculate the totals?

2. I'd also like to do something to highlight if the member has a positive or negative number, like color coding, or showing a relevant graphic, but it seems VB3 doesn't like the "greater than" and "less than" symbols in the template code like you suggested a couple pages back:

<if condition="$... >= 0">one color<else />another color</if>

Does anyone know how to get the templates to accept the great than/less than conditions? I get errors saying that there is an unexpected ">" in the code.

[eoc_Jason]

joeychgo - Please read the templates.txt file in the zip. It explains how to use conditionals in your templates for both forumid's and usergroups. Remember, you will have to adjust the templates based on if you want the TR score to show in the postbit, or if you want the link that allows people to rate each other on the TR page itself.

ludachris - The TR score is based upon unique userid's, this is done for two reasons. 1 - I think it better reflects their deals with multiple people. 2 - It prevents just one person rating another a whole bunch of times to mess up their score. Yes, you can use < and > since it is the quotes that start and end of the condition. Please post your code example that you were trying, there might be a typo somewhere else.

[sketch42]

Originally Posted by eoc_Jason

joeychgo - Please read the templates.txt file in the zip. It explains how to use conditionals in your templates for both forumid's and usergroups. Remember, you will have to adjust the templates based on if you want the TR score to show in the postbit, or if you want the link that allows people to rate each other on the TR page itself.

ludachris - The TR score is based upon unique userid's, this is done for two reasons. 1 - I think it better reflects their deals with multiple people. 2 - It prevents just one person rating another a whole bunch of times to mess up their score. Yes, you can use < and > since it is the quotes that start and end of the condition. Please post your code example that you were trying, there might be a typo somewhere else.

i just installed a new template... how would i go about adding the hack now.. do i run the upgrade script or the install script??

[co7t]

First off, this is an excellent hack! I just installed it and it's working great! The only problem I'm having is when you're on the "leave feedback" form. The width goes way out of the forum page. The one box with "you are responsible..." is the one specifically out of the screen. Where do I go to modify this? I'll probably just move all the text in that box right above the submit button. Suggestions?

TIA,
Co7t

[eoc_Jason]

sketch42 - You are going to have to be a *little* more specific...

co7t - TR was designed around a 1000 pixel width forum (or wider)... However if you are running the default forum width you will have to make some changes probably. However the template in question that you will have to modify the layout is tratings_feedback... (There are only 3 templates)

[sketch42]

Originally Posted by eoc_Jason

sketch42 - You are going to have to be a *little* more specific...

co7t - TR was designed around a 1000 pixel width forum (or wider)... However if you are running the default forum width you will have to make some changes probably. However the template in question that you will have to modify the layout is tratings_feedback... (There are only 3 templates)

im sorry.... i have trader rating installed on my board already... i just added a style and wanted to know the procedure to get trader ratings working with that style

[eoc_Jason]

vB styles work from inheritence, your default TR templates should be the highest level, and allow the alternate styles to "inherit" them. If they aren't you will need to move them to the proper style, then you can customize alternate styles without affecting the templates globally.