Referrals

[---MAD---]

Howdy,

I just noticed there is no referral box when registering? Would be a nice addition to see which members are helping spread the word .

Maybe also a "who did you refer" page to see which members joined because of you.

Thoughts?

 

[Enigma]

In my experience, referrals aren't really used all that much, but maybe my experience isn't representative of everyone.

 

[Forsaken]

In my experience, referrals aren't really used all that much, but maybe my experience isn't representative of everyone.

Referrals tend to be used on my forums quite often, but on a few of them we also gave rewards for referred active members.

 

[Grover]

In my experience, referrals aren't really used all that much...

Well... inside information tells me that a certain individual labeled 'Mike' decided to destroy this functionality in his former project . You see, this bug is 2 years old and it has never ever returned in vBulletin... isn't it strange that referrals aren't used that much anymore? Now you know who is to blame and this time it's not IB (for once), but one of our Saviors! How remarkable as it sounds, he... (and now it would be really nasty if it returns in XenForo, hehehe)

On a serious note: when it still worked on my vBulletin powered site it also wasn't used that much, because vBulletin did nothing to rewards those referrers (see reply of Forsaken). There was no automatic system attached to it, making it all a bit pointless/useless for 99% of my member base.

 

[Markos]

Referrals is a good feature!

 

[James]

My site use referrals a lot and it's something we offer free VIP for. It also helps keep track of who is bringing others to the site.

Would love for this to return.

Remember to Like the first post guys.

 

[KURTZ]

In my experience, referrals aren't really used all that much, but maybe my experience isn't representative of everyone.

i'm totally agree.

 

[Floris]

The reason it is underused is because it has always been under developed.

There is no connection system for it, you don't auto follow each other when you refer some one, the list isn't there, so you can't see who is connected to who, unless you load each individual profile. There's no 'lets invite more friends' to extend the referral system, etc ..

 

[---MAD---]

The reason it is underused is because it has always been under developed.

There is no connection system for it, you don't auto follow each other when you refer some one, the list isn't there, so you can't see who is connected to who, unless you load each individual profile. There's no 'lets invite more friends' to extend the referral system, etc ..

My thoughts exactly.

Trophies could also be handed out to people who refer people as a reward .

 

[Peter]

I'm surprised not many actually clicked the like button even as they like it. ;-)

 

[Shamil]

Tie in referrals to trophies.. might want to check that the person is using their own link to register accounts.

 

[JamesM]

Tie in referrals to trophies.. might want to check that the person is using their own link to register accounts.

Fantastic idea. I think an advanced referral system is needed.

 

[AmericanForum.com]

Anybody making a referral system that is tied to Trophies ? ... your addon is SOLD !

 

[dutchbb]

One problem with awarding trophies for referrals: members registering fake accounts to get more trophies. IP checking won't help either.

It has never been used on my forums anyway so don't care about this.

 

[Shamil]

One problem with awarding trophies for referrals: members registering fake accounts to get more trophies. IP checking won't help either.

It has never been used on my forums anyway so don't care about this.

Paul M's addon for proxy detection combined with a few things ought to do the trick. It's magical.

 

[dutchbb]

Paul M's addon for proxy detection combined with a few things ought to do the trick. It's magical.

Unless you're dealing with dynamic IP addresses or registrations from public computers/ at their friends.

 

[Shamil]

Unless you're dealing with dynamic IP addresses or registrations from public computers/ at their friends.

There are other ways, such as browser / mac detection.

 

[JIffff]

I would like to see this feature implemented.

I was intending to use it so that partners could advertise my forum and then the members they refer would be shown adverts of the referrers choosing (either their own products or the referrers affiliate link). Good for getting a forum off the ground I thought.

 

[Grover]

... when it still worked on my vBulletin powered site it also wasn't used that much, because vBulletin did nothing to rewards those referrers (see reply of Forsaken). There was no automatic system attached to it, making it all a bit pointless/useless for 99% of my member base.

The reason it is underused is because it has always been under developed.

There is no connection system for it, you don't auto follow each other when you refer some one, the list isn't there, so you can't see who is connected to who, unless you load each individual profile. There's no 'lets invite more friends' to extend the referral system, etc ..

Not only the above valid (I I may partly say so myself) arguments are the reason it was -understandably- underused (sometime you wonder who is/was doing usability-tests on those forum packages? ), but this -on vBulletin- is yet another reason:

You see, I know that my members have to :

- Go to the FAQ,
- Search for 'referral' or a likewise term (imagine you are on a translated board...) and then...
- ... hopefully they find the FAQ-entry explaining to them what a referral is, how their referral link looks like and what they can do with it.

Amazing. Their own personal referral link is burried deep inside the FAQ system! I can't understand this userunfriendliness. Well... I assume it has something to do with the fact that the FAQ system is almost as old as... well... and that vB just recently introduced their social networking facilities. Finally vB became more USERoriënted and I think the referral-system should be expanded to be more in line with the new vB direction. A personal referral link has no place in the FAQ, it's obvious that it needs to be placed inside the USER(hence the word)CP or USER Profile, indeed like Sockwater rightfully points out.

(Source: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/show...tion-for-3.8?p=1660169&viewfull=1#post1660169)

 

[Grover]

These are also good suggestion:

If referrals were more prominent, it would encourage members to promote the forums a bit. For example:

• Have a ready-to-copy-and-paste URL on the profile and in the User CP, so people can copy it and promote your forums.
• Have a referrals tab on user profiles showing how many users they have referred, and showing the usernames.
• Have a referrals stats page showing who has referred the most people, for different time periods-- all time, last month, last week etc.
• Allow usergroup promotions based on number of referrals to reward users who are successfully promoting your forum for you.

(Source: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/show...tics-Suggestion-for-3.8?p=1660124#post1660124)

And one of my Moderators wondered if this would be possible (for obvious benefits, but since I am no technical person I don't know if it's possible at all) as a referrerID:

www.yoursite.com/username

I am in need of promoting my sites as much as possible and having more links from external sites to mine would be welcome. A (for once) easy and fun/rewarding to use Referral System is something that can play a valuable part in self-promotion.