Voting for your favorite suggestions...

[Wayne Luke]

Voting for your favorite suggestions helps bring them visibility. While this won't ensure that they get implemented in the next version it does mean they will be reviewed heavily and can be included in an upcoming version. The more votes something has the more desired it is. So make sure to vote for the suggestions your really like.

[Bengie]

Well, this has been sitting here for a couple of years and not a lot of suggestions, but I have one.

Can you make it prominent that you are willing to upload and get the forum running for a buyer?

I know nothing about servers and so forth and really could do with assistance. I don't expect personal assistance to be free.

[Wayne Luke]

This is for changes to the software. It isn't for suggestions on services. If you need to purchase Professional Installation, you can do that from your shopping cart after logging in on the front of the site.

[megabink]

Maybe adding an option to restrict/limit downloading for certain user groups...for example 1 download a day for new members?
This would be a great addition for forums who offer lots of downloads to avoid new members to download to much at once.

[Wayne Luke]

Maybe adding an option to restrict/limit downloading for certain user groups...for example 1 download a day for new members?
This would be a great addition for forums who offer lots of downloads to avoid new members to download to much at once.

What is the JIRA for this suggestion? That is where people would vote at.

http://tracker.vbulletin.com/secure/...91&issuetype=7

[mahimapu]

What about adding a Realtime Shoutbox/chatbox at the top of the site.

[Mark.B]

You would need to make a request in the Tracker, however it's extremely unlikely we would ever add a shout box.

[In Omnibus]

What about adding a Realtime Shoutbox/chatbox at the top of the site.

Why would this be a default feature when shoutboxes kill forum activity?

[lange]

I do not see the problem if the admin can disable the chatBox or assign the chabtbox by usergroups.

The admin could decide not to activate it maybe even not to install it (if it is sold separately like at Xenforo).

On the same note, vBmessenger could contain more options.

[jonschreiber]

I am not sure if this is the place to make these comments/suggestions, but I appreciate the opportunity either way. Let me also take a moment to thank the experts here who work tirelessly to answer our questions and address these issues.

1. For those of you who have been with vBulletin for years, I would imagine much of the terminology (e.g. what is a topic vs. channel vs. post, or announcement vs notification) is second nature. To those of us who are new, it is challenging to understand. As a result, I found it time-consuming to understand the basics of setting up a forum here. In fact, while our site is up and running, I have the nagging feeling that I am "doing things wrong" or at the very least, not taking advantage of some useful features. I am not sure if this is a software feature or not, but some sort of help function (beyond a manual) might be beneficial to new users.

2. A key element of a good forum, IMHO, is easy navigation. Many people want to come to the site, identify the new POSTS since they were last there, and click through them one-by-one, to read them. I would suggest that vBulletin allow that sort of navigation.

[Wayne Luke]

1. For those of you who have been with vBulletin for years, I would imagine much of the terminology (e.g. what is a topic vs. channel vs. post, or announcement vs notification) is second nature. To those of us who are new, it is challenging to understand. As a result, I found it time-consuming to understand the basics of setting up a forum here. In fact, while our site is up and running, I have the nagging feeling that I am "doing things wrong" or at the very least, not taking advantage of some useful features. I am not sure if this is a software feature or not, but some sort of help function (beyond a manual) might be beneficial to new users.

What kind of help? vBulletin has a Manual, inline AdminCP Help, and a User Manual all included in the software.

2. A key element of a good forum, IMHO, is easy navigation. Many people want to come to the site, identify the new POSTS since they were last there, and click through them one-by-one, to read them. I would suggest that vBulletin allow that sort of navigation.

The default installation of vBulletin exposes a "New Topics" link in the site navigation that provides exactly this. In addition to this, users can subscribe to topics and see a list of notifications in their message center and this is linked in the header of the site under "Notifications" as a drop down menu that separates things by the type of notification.

How can this be made easier?

Finally, the system has a "Activity Stream" that lists the latest activity in a channel. Users could browse this and see what is new since their last visit. Originally, this was going to be the first thing users saw when visiting vBulletin. However, there was a lot of pushback from vBulletin 3 and 4 users because they want the list of forums to be the first thing user's see. I think this is nostalgia and being against change but the Tab became a secondary tab in the default tab. However, if you click on "Quick Setup" in Site Builder, you can choose the Community homepage. It will move the list of forums to the left and display the Activity Stream in the main column first.

[jonschreiber]

The default installation of vBulletin exposes a "New Topics" link in the site navigation that provides exactly this. In addition to this, users can subscribe to topics and see a list of notifications in their message center and this is linked in the header of the site under "Notifications" as a drop down menu that separates things by the type of notification.

I am confused now....
When I asked for the same thing , the reply was "vBulletin doesn't track whether a single post is read or not. It tracks topics. So when a user visits the topic all posts within it are marked read and will disappear from the list when they return to it. If users want to follow a specific topic, they should subscribe to it using the subscribe button. Then they will receive notifications and emails (if selected) when there are updates on their subscribed topics."

To clarify...
I am looking for a way for a user to come to the site and have a way to scroll through all new individual posts since they were last there.

[Wayne Luke]

vBulletin does track what is read by Topic. You can list searches as "Posts." These two aren't always compatible.

What the system does is compare your last visit time with the new posts in a topic and receive a notification to the first unread post or are provided a link to the last unread post in a topic when in topic view.

If there are 1, 5, 10 (or more) new posts in a topic, what is the benefit of providing a link to each one? With most searches, these will most likely be in a reverse chronological order with the newest post first instead of the oldest post first.

I suspect most people interested in a topic want to go to the first unread post in a topic. They then read all the new posts in the topic (or at least scan them). Finally they return to the search and go to the next topic.

I am trying to understand the use case for keeping a link to every post in the search until a user explicitly visits that post.

For simply scrolling through all posts since their last visit, that is what the Activity Stream does.

[jonschreiber]

Let me digest and think about this before I reply.

I can post this elsewhere if you prefer, but how can I easily add the Activity Stream to my current home page? (If I go back to "Quick Set Up" I lose the current features of the page, right?).
Thanks for your patience.

[Wayne Luke]

To see the "Activity Stream" click any tab named "Latest Activity." It should already be on your homepage even if it isn't the default.