Xenforo Review system - Would you invest

I am still interested.

The main point for me is the ability to tie in a 5 star ratings with Googles Rich Snippets "gold star" system. That is great for seo and traffic.

Presently I use the VB plug in GARS - to date I haven't found a suitable replacement for it on Xenforo.

Chris Deeming and Stuart from AV forums have begun to release things built for AV forums (like a competitions add on) Reviews are a big part of AV forums but its not clear if they will release their review system for others to use.

Present status summary: IMHO Its vital for there to be a good reviews system for Xenforo. Its much needed.

I might invest.
 
Based upon my reviews investing thread on vb.org and here plus my personal communications with webmasters, I think its clear that a lot of people are willing to spend $100-$150 plus $50 a year for a full featured reviews system and about $30-50 for a basic reviews product.
 
@Alfa1, since you seem to be in contact with people that want it. Could you possibly find out exactly how many people and how much money they're willing to contribute along with how exactly they want it to work?
 
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Would be interested in a review system depending on feature set and cost. Do we have a rough outline of preferred features?
 
For reviews of physical locations, it would be very nice to have location check in functionality using mobile Location Services.

Such checkins have various benefits: users who check in can be asked to write a review. Advertisers will see the power of the reviews and see that community members are visiting their business.
 
It's almost becoming too much for the review system to be created.

However, I would put some serious cheddar down for a system.
 
Depends on the entire feature set. Honestly some of @Alfa1's suggestions will be time consuming and therefore more expensive. If the community can agree on a feature set, I'll have an easier time getting a price. More intense features obviously take longer. Also if there's something not the entire community wants, like any other add on, it can be built upon [by me or by others].
 
Its my experience that webmasters use a review system for quite different needs and therefore to get enough people on board, an extensive feature set should be the goal.
As said, the feature set I posted is a summary of most requested features by a large number of webmasters. Many of the features have been described as being essential or dealbreakers for some webmasters. As the list was compiled over time, there may be a few features that are no longer relevant, but overall it should be pretty close.

IMHO it is not necessary to deliver all features at once, but its also possible to create a basic platform, release and expand it. This way the most important features will become evident by customer requests. Providing that a feature request forum is offered so that customers can steer the direction of development.
 
Alfa1 said:
Its my experience that webmasters use a review system for quite different needs and therefore to get enough people on board, an extensive feature set should be the goal.
As said, the feature set I posted is a summary of most requested features by a large number of webmasters. Many of the features have been described as being essential or dealbreakers for some webmasters. As the list was compiled over time, there may be a few features that are no longer relevant, but overall it should be pretty close.

IMHO it is not necessary to deliver all features at once, but its also possible to create a basic platform, release and expand it. This way the most important features will become evident by customer requests. Providing that a feature request forum is offered so that customers can steer the direction of development.
Click to expand...

I'm good with that and I hope you know I meant no offense by my statement. Your feature set wasn't bad, I was just stating the obvious that it was extensive and as such requires more work/money. That is not a problem by me as long the entire crowd is good with it.

If you can all agree on the feature set and the milestone points for completion, I'll work on setting up a crowdfund (if there's any preference in the site used let me know) I am not picky. I would like all parties to be insured (a platform where the money is guaranteed to me) and a product is guaranteed to all of you.

I want there to be no concerns about me walking away from the project, I also want to be assured that I won't be working in vain (spending hundreds of hours for 6 people to buy a license).

I basically want everything to be up to you guys as far as the license price, the feature set, etc.. and I'll determine the amount of money I need to see based on the feature set. Basically if you all pick $50 for the license and someone wants to put $200 towards the goal, they'll just be given 4 licenses. We can also put in some sort of branding agreement to add that as an incentive for contributing more towards the goal. Everything is up to you guys.

I personally would just leave branding out of it but I was looking at one of the 'kickstarter' type sites and it has a rewards section $x gets x reward and that's why I mentioned that.
 
Alfa1 said:
What is the total investment & time frame for the completion of all features?
Click to expand...

Depends on the feature set we use. I haven't really broken down how long each aspect of it will take yet because I don't have the 'official' list.

Just to note: I do have a full time job and an infant at home, with that said I do still put about 20 hours a week into developing my own projects.

Once the most serious contributors can agree on a list of features, I'll set the goal ($ wise). Then once they (inclusive of you, as you seem to be very serious also) agrees on the basic feature set for the first release, I'll set a time frame for the first release. I'll also have it up for viewing on a dev site so all contributors can critique it.
 
I'm still interested. I'll look over Alfa1's feature list and see which ones are most important for me.
 
My vision of the add on so far. If there was nothing added, I'd plan for a January release. I'd also set the goal at $2,500 USD with a license at $50. I realize that's unlikely but it gives an idea. Your guys opinion on that goal being realistic and the license price are both welcome.

Let me know, in a detailed breakdown like this, what else needs to be added.
General Features
  • Unlimited sections/categories with unlimited sub-sections/sub-categories (I imagine it will work like the resource manager categories).
  • Each category will have it's own permission settings for who can create an item (product/store/etc) for review (if you're the first person to review it you'll have to first create it) and who can review it.
  • Member card will (optionally) display the amount of reviews the user has submitted
  • Permission setting to auto-publish reviews (if turned off they'll have to be approved).
  • Custom fields for each category:
    • For creating an item, examples:
      • Price
      • Location
      • Platform (if it was the game category)
    • For reviewing an item, examples:
      • story mode: 1-5 stars,
      • realism: 1-5 stars,
      • game play: 1-5 stars
      • overall: 1-5 stars (this one isn't actually going to be a custom field as every item will have an overall rating).
  • Option for each category to allow a referral link (to be shown when reading a review).
Viewing A Category
  • When viewing a category you'll see a list of all items (products/stores/restaurants/etc).
  • Clicking one of the items will result in a list of reviews.
  • Sidebar block/widget (possible to use bd widget framework, your guys' call) to display the stats for that category (# of reviews, # of critics(?), # of items, etc).
  • If the user has permission to make a new item, they'll see a link to make a new item (option to make every item need approval before being seen).
Viewing An Item
  • Tabbed content: the pages title would be the item's name, description would be about the item, tabs would be "About", "Reviews". More tabs can be added/changed, they'll obviously work off phrases.
  • A link to create a review (if permissions allow).
  • Reviews will look somewhat like threads, you'll be able to sort by a few different methods (time submitted, the rating given, the rating they've received (since I understand you want products to be rated as part of the review and user's reviews to also be able to get rated). Or they could look like posts I suppose?
Creating An Item
  • A form with all the custom fields.
  • The ability to upload an image (maybe images? not sure if multiple is needed) for the product.
  • A name for the item.
  • Description of the item.
Viewing Reviews
  • I imagine this will somewhat look like the resource manager's resource: user's avatar, name of item?, the rating they gave, not really sure her.
  • Tabs: "Review", "Discussion" (to discuss this person's review, if there's questions or something), more, less.
  • Ability to rate the review.
  • Sidebar blocks/widgets :
    • Stats on the author (# of reviews, average rating received on reviews, etc).
    • Item information (maybe the average rating it's recieved, some other information)
Reviewing An Item
  • Form with the custom fields
  • Ability to use your referral link (if the category [and your permissions] allow
Link structure (SEO was brought up) would be basically the same as the rest of XenForo:
/reviews/ (index, show all the categories), /reviews/user/5749.daniel-hood/ (reviews by me), /reviews/1.category-name/ (the product list), /reviews/item(?)/1.first-product/ (viewing the product), not sure about the link to viewing a review, /reviews/review/id.username/ doesn't seem good, possibly /reviews/review_id.username/review but that breaks out of the norm.

Admin Panel
  • Manage categories
  • Manage permissions
  • Search reviews by user
 
Daniel Hood said:
My vision of the add on so far. If there was nothing added, I'd plan for a January release. I'd also set the goal at $2,500 USD with a license at $50. I realize that's unlikely but it gives an idea. Your guys opinion on that goal being realistic and the license price are both welcome.

Let me know, in a detailed breakdown like this, what else needs to be added.
General Features
  • Unlimited sections/categories with unlimited sub-sections/sub-categories (I imagine it will work like the resource manager categories).
  • Each category will have it's own permission settings for who can create an item (product/store/etc) for review (if you're the first person to review it you'll have to first create it) and who can review it.
  • Member card will (optionally) display the amount of reviews the user has submitted
  • Permission setting to auto-publish reviews (if turned off they'll have to be approved).
  • Custom fields for each category:
    • For creating an item, examples:
      • Price
      • Location
      • Platform (if it was the game category)
    • For reviewing an item, examples:
      • story mode: 1-5 stars,
      • realism: 1-5 stars,
      • game play: 1-5 stars
      • overall: 1-5 stars (this one isn't actually going to be a custom field as every item will have an overall rating).
  • Option for each category to allow a referral link (to be shown when reading a review).
Viewing A Category
  • When viewing a category you'll see a list of all items (products/stores/restaurants/etc).
  • Clicking one of the items will result in a list of reviews.
  • Sidebar block/widget (possible to use bd widget framework, your guys' call) to display the stats for that category (# of reviews, # of critics(?), # of items, etc).
  • If the user has permission to make a new item, they'll see a link to make a new item (option to make every item need approval before being seen).
Viewing An Item
  • Tabbed content: the pages title would be the item's name, description would be about the item, tabs would be "About", "Reviews". More tabs can be added/changed, they'll obviously work off phrases.
  • A link to create a review (if permissions allow).
  • Reviews will look somewhat like threads, you'll be able to sort by a few different methods (time submitted, the rating given, the rating they've received (since I understand you want products to be rated as part of the review and user's reviews to also be able to get rated). Or they could look like posts I suppose?
Creating An Item
  • A form with all the custom fields.
  • The ability to upload an image (maybe images? not sure if multiple is needed) for the product.
  • A name for the item.
  • Description of the item.
Viewing Reviews
  • I imagine this will somewhat look like the resource manager's resource: user's avatar, name of item?, the rating they gave, not really sure her.
  • Tabs: "Review", "Discussion" (to discuss this person's review, if there's questions or something), more, less.
  • Ability to rate the review.
  • Sidebar blocks/widgets :
    • Stats on the author (# of reviews, average rating received on reviews, etc).
    • Item information (maybe the average rating it's recieved, some other information)
Reviewing An Item
  • Form with the custom fields
  • Ability to use your referral link (if the category [and your permissions] allow
Link structure (SEO was brought up) would be basically the same as the rest of XenForo:
/reviews/ (index, show all the categories), /reviews/user/5749.daniel-hood/ (reviews by me), /reviews/1.category-name/ (the product list), /reviews/item(?)/1.first-product/ (viewing the product), not sure about the link to viewing a review, /reviews/review/id.username/ doesn't seem good, possibly /reviews/review_id.username/review but that breaks out of the norm.

Admin Panel
  • Manage categories
  • Manage permissions
  • Search reviews by user
Click to expand...

My opinion on the pricing is irrelevant and goal since I know development takes time to push out quality but I'll say anyway. If you developed such an add-on I wouldn't have any issue in purchasing it when it's complete (not when members say it should be complete). Judging by your previous add-ons you would be someone I would personally purchase from. Glancing through your vision of what the add-on might be like it sounds good to me.

It's a little late right now so no suggestions to give at this time but I'm sure I could throw some up when I'm a little more wide eyed. One suggestion though Daniel, if your serious about developing such an add-on I would advise creating a new thread in this area just so your post/proposal isn't buried and lost in this thread when it grows, which I'm sure it will now that you have put down the initial features you've envisioned.

Support for post ratings is one that comes to mind. << class that as a suggestion.
 
Thank you for your compliments and feedback. I'll make it it's own thread once I set up the project on a crowd funding site. Preferably I'll get more responses before doing so though.
 
Daniel Hood said:
My vision of the add on so far. If there was nothing added, I'd plan for a January release. I'd also set the goal at $2,500 USD with a license at $50. I realize that's unlikely but it gives an idea. Your guys opinion on that goal being realistic and the license price are both welcome.

Let me know, in a detailed breakdown like this, what else needs to be added.
General Features
  • Unlimited sections/categories with unlimited sub-sections/sub-categories (I imagine it will work like the resource manager categories).
  • Each category will have it's own permission settings for who can create an item (product/store/etc) for review (if you're the first person to review it you'll have to first create it) and who can review it.
  • Member card will (optionally) display the amount of reviews the user has submitted
  • Permission setting to auto-publish reviews (if turned off they'll have to be approved).
  • Custom fields for each category:
    • For creating an item, examples:
      • Price
      • Location
      • Platform (if it was the game category)
    • For reviewing an item, examples:
      • story mode: 1-5 stars,
      • realism: 1-5 stars,
      • game play: 1-5 stars
      • overall: 1-5 stars (this one isn't actually going to be a custom field as every item will have an overall rating).
  • Option for each category to allow a referral link (to be shown when reading a review).
Viewing A Category
  • When viewing a category you'll see a list of all items (products/stores/restaurants/etc).
  • Clicking one of the items will result in a list of reviews.
  • Sidebar block/widget (possible to use bd widget framework, your guys' call) to display the stats for that category (# of reviews, # of critics(?), # of items, etc).
  • If the user has permission to make a new item, they'll see a link to make a new item (option to make every item need approval before being seen).
Viewing An Item
  • Tabbed content: the pages title would be the item's name, description would be about the item, tabs would be "About", "Reviews". More tabs can be added/changed, they'll obviously work off phrases.
  • A link to create a review (if permissions allow).
  • Reviews will look somewhat like threads, you'll be able to sort by a few different methods (time submitted, the rating given, the rating they've received (since I understand you want products to be rated as part of the review and user's reviews to also be able to get rated). Or they could look like posts I suppose?
Creating An Item
  • A form with all the custom fields.
  • The ability to upload an image (maybe images? not sure if multiple is needed) for the product.
  • A name for the item.
  • Description of the item.
Viewing Reviews
  • I imagine this will somewhat look like the resource manager's resource: user's avatar, name of item?, the rating they gave, not really sure her.
  • Tabs: "Review", "Discussion" (to discuss this person's review, if there's questions or something), more, less.
  • Ability to rate the review.
  • Sidebar blocks/widgets :
    • Stats on the author (# of reviews, average rating received on reviews, etc).
    • Item information (maybe the average rating it's recieved, some other information)
Reviewing An Item
  • Form with the custom fields
  • Ability to use your referral link (if the category [and your permissions] allow
Link structure (SEO was brought up) would be basically the same as the rest of XenForo:
/reviews/ (index, show all the categories), /reviews/user/5749.daniel-hood/ (reviews by me), /reviews/1.category-name/ (the product list), /reviews/item(?)/1.first-product/ (viewing the product), not sure about the link to viewing a review, /reviews/review/id.username/ doesn't seem good, possibly /reviews/review_id.username/review but that breaks out of the norm.

Admin Panel
  • Manage categories
  • Manage permissions
  • Search reviews by user
Click to expand...

- When rating a review, I would recommend following Amazon's style of "was this review helpful to you Yes/No" "40 people found this review helpful"

- Any ability to search by customfields or at least filter? Let's say only games supporting PS4 platform? Also would it be possible to select multiple platforms? Minimum rating x? See http://www.ign.com/games/reviews?filter=latest You can search by minimum score, genre, platform.

- For item list, would it be possible to have a thumbnail like RM1.1? Sort of like http://www.ign.com/games/reviews?filter=latest where it shows cover art, item title, either average rating or site's rating.

- IGN and other review sites often have an "Editors" pick. Any chance to mark an item as something like that. Mods would be able to quickly show users items that exceed expectations, etc.

- Any chance for a featured video? For games, it's often nice to include release trailer with a review item.

Feature List looks pretty good.
 
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