Welcome Thread Created on Members first post

Product Name:
Welcome Thread Created on Members first post

Product Description:
This Hack/Product creates a new "welcome post" when a member posts for the first time. You can choose to either create a new thread in a welcome forum or create the post in an existing thread. The user's original first post can also be modified, allowing you to link to their "welcome post".

I have only tested this package install on 3.5.4. Please post if you successfully (or unsuccessfully) install this under any other 3.5 versions.

This Hack was created as a generic way to post "welcome threads" for all types of registration situations: wide open, authentication, approval, etc. It also keeps the number of welcome threads down somewhat by never posting one for users that register and never post. Lurkers can still register and lurk.

This Hack was inspired by amykhar, PaulM, Andreas, and others and leans heavily on their previous work. This is my first attempt at a packaged, released hack so I hope they will help me out if I screwed anything up

Contents:
This package includes:
1 Plugin:
"Welcome Post and First post modify": Code to create the "welcome thread" and modify the user's original post via templates.

3 Templates:
welcome_thread: The text of the "welcome thread" created.
welcome_title: The title of the "welcome thread" created.
welcome_addon: The text to be added on to the members original first post.

3 Option/Setting:
welcomeforum: (group "Welcome New Users Options"): The forumid of the forum where the welcome threads will be created. A "0" passes control to the welcomethread option.

welcomethread: (group "Welcome New Users Options"): The threadid of the thread where the welcome posts will be created. This option is ignored if the welcomeforum option is set. Setting both welcomethread and welcomeforum options to "0" disables the creation of welcome posts entirely (though modification of the original post may still occur)

welcomeposter: (group "Welcome New Users Options"): The userid of the user that will post the welcome message. If this setting is "0", the welcome post will be poster as the new user.

Installation Instructions:
Step 1: Import the product .xml file (attached here)

Step 2: Change the "welcomeforum" option or the "welcomethread" option to the correct welcomeid or threadid where you wish the welcome messages to be created. "welcomeforum" takes precedence over "welcomethread". Set both to zero if you wish to disable the creation of welcome posts.

TIP: An easy way to get the forumid or threadid number is to put your cursor over the forum or thread you want to use and read the link information in the bar at the bottom of your browser. Look at the "t=xxx" for threads or "f=xxx" for forums.

Step 3: Set "welcomeposter" to the userid of the user you wish to post the welcome message. If this setting is set to "0", the welcome post will be posted as the new user. The default for this setting is "0".

Step 4: Modify the 3 templates to your taste. The sample templates show how to make both the welcome thread and the modified first post point back to each other.

Step 5: Enjoy.

Version History:
version 0.9 - Initial release

• Initial public release

version 0.91

• added welcomethread option and functionality
• code cleanup and template cleanup

version 0.92

• added welcomeposter option and functionality
• code cleanup and template cleanup

[Tralala]

Originally Posted by sinaluna

The welcome thread is posted as the new member. This was a so that people can click to see their profile, send them PMs, give them reputation, etc. directly from the welcome thread.

As in the sample templates, you want to be sure that you clearly indicate that this is "Automatically Generated Message".

I see. Well, allow me to make a request, that we be able to choose for the post to be made by a moderator, or the new user's referrer, or perhaps a WelcomeBot. I've always felt it strange to see an automatically generated message posted by a new member. Seems counter-intuitive and somewhat unfriendly to me.

Originally Posted by sinaluna

Yes, this can be done. We had problems with some new users being skipped over and not getting "acknowledged" with the single thread. But if there a need for an option to post to a single thread instead of making a new thread, Ill look into the cleanest way to add this to the product.

Thanks, that'd be great. On some small-ish forums, this is a cleaner way to handle things, and new members are infrequent enough that no one would get lost in the shuffle.

In case you hadn't seen this, flypaper modified amykhar's similar hack, and it posts to into a thread (instead of starting a whole new thread: )
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=195

Hope this helps.

[sinaluna]

I see. Well, allow me to make a request, that we be able to choose for the post to be made by a moderator, or the new user's referrer, or perhaps a WelcomeBot. I've always felt it strange to see an automatically generated message posted by a new member. Seems counter-intuitive and somewhat unfriendly to me.

Hmm...OK, if this is a simple change, Ill add the option in the next day or two. Thinking outloud, Ill prolly just create an option that is defaulted to "0", meaning "post as the new member", or can be set to a userid to have the welcome posted as that userid.

I may have to go change the method for posting the note to make this work, but Ill look at it tonight.

In case you hadn't seen this, flypaper modified amykhar's similar hack, and it posts to into a thread (instead of starting a whole new thread)

Yeah, this is a simple coding change, but not sure how to do the configuration side. Also will look at this tonight.

[sinaluna]

I just uploaded v0.91 of this modification.

Per request, this change adds the ability to post the welcome message to a thread by setting the Welcome Forum to "0" and setting the Welcome Thread to the correct threadid. The Welcome Forum takes precedence over the Welcome Thread settings.

Cleaned up some minor coding issues and mis-spellings while I was in there.

[Tralala]

Sweet, thanks!

[XanTrax]

sinaluna has anyone else installed this yet or any way for me to see a demo yet?

[sinaluna]

I will have it installed on a public forum this weekend. Ill post the link then. If someone else has it installed where others can see it, please feel free to post that here.

Also, I would love to see some template examples people end up using. If I see something cool in them, Ill add it to the product!

[sinaluna]

I just uploaded v0.92 of this modification.

Per request, this change adds the ability to have the welcome message posted as any existing user. By default, the userid is set to "0", which posts the welcome message as the new user.

Thanks to Tralala for the suggestions...

[Tralala]

Awesome, sinaluna, thanks so much for the update.

The other "Welcome Thread" hack posted too early (pre-authorization, pre-mod approval...) so this one should fit the bill nicely.

[sinaluna]

No problem Tralala...Let me know how it works for you.

Id be interested in seeing the templates you end up using. I really didnt work too hard on making presentable templates. They basically just were built to demonstrate how to link the welcome message and the add on message to each other.

[Tralala]

Originally Posted by sinaluna

No problem Tralala...Let me know how it works for you.

Id be interested in seeing the templates you end up using. I really didnt work too hard on making presentable templates. They basically just were built to demonstrate how to link the welcome message and the add on message to each other.

Okay, yeah, I'm working on the wording and workflow to see what makes most sense.

Question: if we don't want any "add on text" to the new user's first post, should we just delete the text in the "welcome_addon" template? It would be nice, I think, if this was another option that could be turned off in AdminCP.

Also, we should be editing the text in the templates of all of our styles? Why not make these as phrases instead?