Post your (vB) Products & Plugins

dutchbb

Well-known member
Please post your (vB) products and plugins in this thread. I'll start:

Being very critical when choosing and installing products and plugins in vB, I think those that we have installed are really useful, so wanted to share them here to help improve this software.

Some of these are already posted in the suggestion forums, others will be soon. This thread is just meant as a summary.

  • Add Header/Footer on each forum (or ad location)
    This allows you to add a custom header and footer under and above the global header and footer in each forum and subforum, for example to show an ad. Every forum and subforum can have their own header and footer, and thus ad. We couldn't even pay the bills without this modification, since it allows advertisers to advertise their products.
  • Admin log in as user
    Very handy to quickly check what's wrong with someone's account, or if they have been doing illegal stuff in the private message system (we often get reports about that).
  • Autobump
    This mod is one of the greatest ever. Let me explain why: it makes sure that threads with 0 replies are answered within a certain period of time, because it bumps them for a few days, every x-hours. There is nothing more irritating than finding threads in Google search with 0 replies, when you are looking for information and/or help. On the other hand, it's also annoying for a user to post a thread and not get a reply. So this simple little mod helps to prevent this.
  • Ban users from threads
    Sometimes a user just wont stop quarreling in a thread, and if he or she really doesn't listen, what do you do? You can ban them from the whole forum for a day or week, but that can be too drastic. That's where this mod comes in.
  • Cyb - Advanced Forum Rules
    This is also an important one. It allows you to change the rules at a certain point in time, and force users to agree with them again. Without this mod, you would change the rules, and no one would know they were changed, so really needed.
  • Easy Forms
    Probably more something for the XF modding community, but a great mod for making forms on the forums. We use it for product reviews and participation forms. After submitting, the form data is posted in a new thread.
  • Find my posts in a thread
    I've already suggested this one here, but really useful little mod that should be there by default, but never was in vB.
  • IpInfo
    Basically a better IP page for each member than the default one in vB. Shows every IP the user has posted under, making it easier to see whether he is posting under multiple accounts etc.
  • Multiple Login Detector
    Looks for users that login with multiple accounts. Great for spotting trolls and returning banned users.
  • Super Private Message
    Allows administrators to send a private message to every user in a usergroup he can pick, with the option to send an e-mail with it. Good for making important announcements.
  • Prevent Spam
    Looks for words that are often found in spam, the admin may choose these words. Threads and posts that contain these words are placed in moderation (not visible to users). This way you are one step beyond spammers, users wont even see the spam.
  • Real IP detection
    I'll use the words of the coder: "Makes your forum aways use the real ip when a proxy server is detected, the proxy ip is recorded in an extra field but then ignored."
  • Username request
    Users can request for a change of their username in their preferences. Just makes it quicker for them and you to go through this process.
  • Prevent bumping old threads
    See link above and like it if you want it.
  • Option to delete post/thread when giving an infraction
    XF doesn't have an infraction system yet (please make one, essential, we must be able to import infractions from vB!!) but when it does, please make it possible to delete a thread or post when giving the infraction. For example if the posts contains child pornography, you have to be able to remove this quickly while giving the infraction (or in this case a perm ban).
That's it for me.
 
Some good ideas in there...
Most of them seem like mod/addon candidates, but there are a few here we already use and a few others that we probably will. I like the autobump, ban from thread and find my posts in thread tools particularly.

Intrigued by the Easy Forms. Really hoping for some powerful addons/plugins that allow creating custom content types like reviews, classifieds etc inside the forums. :)
 
  • Admin log in as user
    Very handy to quickly check what's wrong with someone's account, or if they have been doing illegal stuff in the private message system (we often get reports about that).
  • Cyb - Advanced Forum Rules
    This is also an important one. It allows you to change the rules at a certain point in time, and force users to agree with them again. Without this mod, you would change the rules, and no one would know they were changed, so really needed.
  • Easy Forms
    Probably more something for the XF modding community, but a great mod for making forms on the forums. We use it for product reviews and participation forms. After submitting, the form data is posted in a new thread.
  • Multiple Login Detector
  • Looks for users that login with multiple accounts. Great for spotting trolls and returning banned users.
  • Super Private Message
    Allows administrators to send a private message to every user in a usergroup he can pick, with the option to send an e-mail with it. Good for making important announcements.
  • Real IP detection
    I'll use the words of the coder: "Makes your forum aways use the real ip when a proxy server is detected, the proxy ip is recorded in an extra field but then ignored."
These are the ones I currently use on my forum (not sure if they are the same modifications - same results though). I'd like to see something like these integrated.
I did request proxy detection and log in as user has been requested too :P
 
  • Ban users from threads
    Sometimes a user just wont stop quarreling in a thread, and if he or she really doesn't listen, what do you do? You can ban them from the whole forum for a day or week, but that can be too drastic. That's where this mod comes in.
  • Find my posts in a thread I've already suggested this one here, but really useful little mod that should be there by default, but never was in vB.
  • Multiple Login Detector
    Looks for users that login with multiple accounts. Great for spotting trolls and returning banned users.
  • Username request
    Users can request for a change of their username in their preferences. Just makes it quicker for them and you to go through this process.
  • Option to delete post/thread when giving an infraction
    XF doesn't have an infraction system yet (please make one, essential, we must be able to import yellow and red cards from vB!!) but when it does, please make it possible to delete a thread or post when giving the infraction. For example if the posts contains child pornography, you have to be able to remove this quickly while giving the infraction (or in this case a perm ban).
I already make use of and rely on the ones in red, the others sound great.

I had coded a variation of this one
  • Multiple Login Detector
What I did was make it report (on the same cookie identified computer) - multiple member regitrations posting in the SAME THREAD.

I called it the Multiple login THREAD detector.

All of the above would be good.
 
Heres a list of mine that i have installed and want for xen.

  • Automatic Thread Tagger
  • Ajax Thread Preview
  • UserCP Referral ID
  • Similar thread check v2
  • Separate Sticky and Normal Threads
  • Nexia's Threadless Forums
 
There's a few in the OP's list that I didn't know existed and would have been really useful - but a bit late now as I'm looking into xF.

I only run a few on mine: Miserable Users, vBSEO and something that shows a list of all members who have visited today. I used to have an arcade but it was a 7 day wonder with members.

I have a few extras that I did myself. I have randomly rotating banners (per page impression) which is a simple PHP script that picks a random advert to show. I have a member map which takes lat/long from the users details and plots it on a googlemap with a pin and link to their profile. Finally, an events map too, if a member fills an event in the calendar and also enters a lat/long for it, it's plotted on a googlemap - so members can quickly locate other people near them, and events too.

In the OP's list I really like the sound of ban users from threads - a great idea to stop squabbling without using a blanket ban or infractions. Also the better ways of logging IP addresses and detecting multiple logins.
 
I'd like to see the following:

Forum Icons
Easy Mod Tools
IM, MSN, AIM, ICQ Integration
vBStopForumSpam
Sub-Forum Manager
iTrader

The list can go on and on, but these i know can be of great help to a lot of poeple.
 
This should more be a list for plugin developers to get started on when XF is released then have it being included stock as a new feature. Let the plugin community grow and quickly! That will make or break this product (at least for me).

Here is the list of plugins I would love to see for XF:
  • Easy Forms - Don't know how I lived without this.
  • Helpful Answers - The ability to mark thread replies as helpful or not and hide replies that have too much negative response.
  • Inactive User Email Management - The ability to email inactive users and get them back into using the site.
  • Limited Guest Viewing - Stop people from trying to view everything on your forum without registering and only allow them to see a certain amount of threads before forcing registration.
  • Member Who Have Visited - Self-explanatory
  • Prevent Double Posts - Merges posts if they are made by the same user within the set timelimit.
  • Real IP Detection - Stops users from hiding behind proxy's and what not.
  • Seperate Stickies & Normal Threads - Enough said.
  • Thread Auto-Close - I think this should be a stock feature. It closes threads after a certain time, so if you don't want people bumping 2 year old posts, it locks them.
  • vBSEO - You can learn more from their site.
  • Advanced Forum Rules - List out the server rules on a separate page and forces users to accept them. Great plugin and should be stock!
  • Advanced Permissions based on Post Count - I have some sections in which I need users to only be able to post if they have a certain post count. Otherwise they cannot.
  • Threads Limit per X Hours - I have some sections in my forum which require users to only post new threads every 7 days. This is to stop constant spamming (advertising forum). This would be a nice to be stock, but a great plugin!
 
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