What can I do in 2021?

[cbiweb]

After looking around here, and looking at vB.org, and a couple competitor's sites, it feels like the forum world has lost some steam (thank you, social media 🙄) since my retirement from the Web in 2011. Yet, everyone seems to be hanging on somehow.

I worked on a lot of vB sites for people back in the day, and was on the test team for vB4 from alpha to release. At this point I need to get to know vb5 well enough to help again. But in the current state of things I'm not sure where to focus my efforts.

So, this might be a non-starter question, but what can I do to be of some use in the community? I'm not satisfied with just being a user of the software, I like to contribute. So if I can do that in any way, feel free to chime in! Or tell me to be quiet and speak only when spoken to, LOL.

[In Omnibus]

The biggest problem seems to be users not understanding what can be done with the software or how to do it. I could go off on a tangent about third party modifications here but I'll let the number of sites they have ruined speak for itself. If you know anything about how to develop custom themes or how to use an API those seem to be among the questions most asked.

[cbiweb]

Good to know, Omnibus. Thank you!

[twistsol]

Since you asked, here's my list.

1. Birthdays module. I'd like to have an option that lets us select a minimum number of posts before they show up. I run a woodworking site and as you can imaging, it's a bunch of old guys and we tend to die off ... literally. Naturally they haven't posted in a while but we'd still like to recognize our prominent members regardless of the physical or etherial realm they inhabit. This one I can fix with a simple change to the querydef.php file but have to do it with every single release.
2. Forms for posting, specifically a form for posting reviews with rankings so they are consistent. Back in our VB3 days there was a hack for this that didn't exist beyond vb3. The biggest problem is that once the extension was removed, the content looked like crap and I spent months cleaning it up. Anything that creates content or formats it should continue to function even if the product that created it no longer exists.
3. A way to import calendar files into events. The events type is great and actually does what I need it to, but creating the events 1 at a time is a pain, especially since I usually already have in ical file for each event with everything I need in it.

I managed to learn enough to convert the data from all of our old extensions so that it looked worked after the upgrades to vb4 and vb5 but won't ever use a product that creates content that can't be presented properly with native vBulletin.

[craigyb]

I think there is lots of replacements of Dragonbyte software needed. Their shout box and other products were good but they abandoned Vbulletin.
Better understanding of the API would help everyone create new functionality.

I also needed a way to have review forms in VB5 there was the EZform plugin for VB3 and VB4.
So i managed to create something using the API. The code works but maybe isn't pretty and there is a downloadable form example here:
https://vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=327945

Some people don't seem to like it, but it does the job for me. Feel free to improve on that.
I've seen many people ask for this functionality.

[napy8gen]

Maybe you can develop something like VBSEO.

[Wayne Luke]

Maybe you can develop something like VBSEO.

Why? You can already customize every URL in vBulletin 5.

[mito22]

With OLD Vbseo.... u got 'autotagger from titles'.. and, incoming links to your topics (under the topic) and many more...

[scylla22]

Customizing the urls is not the only feature vbseo offered...

[In Omnibus]

Maybe you can develop something like VBSEO.

I hope not. vBSEO broke countless sites and the developers abandoned it.

[napy8gen]

I hope not. vBSEO broke countless sites and the developers abandoned it.

Not to copy them but inspired by them. Do it better like "All in One SEO" for WordPress

[napy8gen]

Or you can do 2 step verification for login

[Wayne Luke]

Or you can do 2 step verification for login

vBulletin 5 has had two step verification for Administrators, Super Moderators, and Moderators for several years now. There isn't much point to apply it to regular users but if enough people request it, the system can be expanded. There is already a feature request for this. It hasn't shown a lot of customer demand though.

[mito22]

My list?I've got a 20 year old forum... and we pass over some version of VB and many mods and plugins

1. similar thread/topic or related content for VB connect /very very useful for large forums (under the topic or between the first and second message, 3/4/5 links to similar thread (I have this mod on VB3)
2. to improve registration.. the possibility for not registred users (guests) to read only the title of topics or title and first message (better, if u can set up (ON OFF for every node/channel)
3. auto tag , excluding common words (why, and, or, etc), every title generates tag for a topic , AND possibility to set up 1-2-3 TAG for every channel (automatic for every topic of the channel) example... u got a subforum (channel of... star wars enthusiasts?) in this subforum every new topic can have the tag (automatic) 'Star' 'Wars' 'Forum' for exlample
4. anti bump old topics .. u can set x months... and also when a user want to reply to a topic older than 'x months', give a litlle pop up 'are u sure?and check yes to activate the reply button
5. the possibility for not registred users to SUBCRIBE to a topic... with email for example (send a confirm link via email)
6. FOR ADMIN or selected users , see how many subcribers have every topics... to boost the most subcribed
7. EMOTICONS... like on smartphones... put in first 5-/10/15 plaeces the more used by every user or the possibility, for the users, to set 'my preferred 5-10-15 emoticon'
8. TIME SPENT ONLINE... and old plugin on VB3.... every users in 'about' section on profile had 'all time , and average per day, also in index menu there was 'time spent online (leaderboard for users by week/month,/year, TOTAL
9. FORCE USER to read a thread.... like announcment or important topic... oblige every users to read (or see) for one time (also a link or an address) or can go on others channel or topics


Thanks Wayne Luke .... for your work! and cbiweb

[yilmaz]

...

Hello mito22
This should be standard on vb5 you listed and should be more useful.
It is a loss of customers to always endure tomorrow.
Other ordinary forum software offers these ordinary plugins as standard, but none of them can offer vBulletin quality.

Customers who are thrown into the lap of those who write paid add-ons, instead of delegating customers, realize that the add-on does not work with every update.
Best regards.

[dz_khelifa]

peace upon you I found a lot of additions, but most of them have problems For example, display the number of visitors to the channel Display sub channels as a dropdown list
The forum vb5 needs to work more on the aesthetics of the home page

[mito22]

cbiweb do u like various ideas?