Hi,
This is my first fully-formed suggestion for an entire SMF mod, so please forgive any stupidity on my part.
I would like to see a TopSites mod for SMF, and since I really, really like my experience with SMF Store so far, I figured I'd post it here rather than inject it into the ether at the official SMF forums.
That said, here we go...
SMF Topsites
Overall goal: To create the ability for webmasters to install this mod and have an extra "TopSites" feature on their forum. This would be a seperate area of the forum, just like the Store and Gallery scripts createa new area and do not integrate into the actual board list, etc.
User's Experience: A user who goes to a forum with SMF Topsites would be able to click a link that says "TopSites".
The Specifics...There they would see a list of websites currently listed on that forum's TopSites list.
Each entry would have the following:
1.) The # ranking of that site. For example: "#1".
2.) The title of that site, set by owner of listing.
3.) An ad banner for that site, set by owner of listing.
4.) A description of that site, set by owner of listing.
5.) The stats for that listing. Hits in, Hits out, etc. (full list below)
6.) A Vote link.
7.) A like to the profile of the owner of the listing.
Here's a general idea of how it would be laid out:
#1.) TITLE
BANNER
DESCRIPTION
VOTE LINK - PROFILE LINK - STATS
Example:
Links are underlined.
#1.)
SMFHacks.com
(SMF HACKS BANNER HERE.)
SMF Hacks is a website where you can get some really awesome stuff for Simple Machines Forum. We offer stuff like SMF Store, SMF Gallery, and...
more<--* link to listing profile. *
(PREVIOUS RANK ICON HERE.) - Vote! - Posted by Username
# Votes - # In - # Out - # Comments - # Faves - (STAR RANK HERE)Of course, each listing would be in order of raking, from #1 down.
This would be a lot like having a regular board on your forum, ordered by ranking, except that clicking the title takes you to that website instead of a post.
There would ideally be categories as well, simply linked somewhere on the page, which would display only listings in that category when clicked.
Yeah, but how does ranking work?People place a link on their website to your TopList section. When any user clicks that link, they're taken to a page that displays ONLY THE INFO FOR THAT LISTING, sort of like viewing a single image in a gallery.
I will refer to that page as "listing profile."
The listing profile would have the banner, the description, all that information - PLUS the "VOTE" link.
The idea is tha the user then clicks "vote", and another vote is cast for that listing!
IPs would need to be recorded so that a user cannot vote for the same listing twice within the alotted period. Otherwise the whole system is useless. Voting for different listings is okay.
Admin Features:- Enable/Disable the whole thing.
- Name of TopSites section. (IE: "Hot Game Rankingz!")
- Allow new listings.
- Auto-approve new listings.
- Membergroups allowed to submit listings.
- Number of listings per user. (How many sites can they post?)
- Show stats to users. (IE: Hits in, Hits out, etc.)
- Membergoups who can vote. (Ideally set to guests + registered.)
- Period after which to reset votes. (IE: Daily, weekly, monthly.)
- Allow banners?
- Minimum banner size.
- Maximum banner size.
- Upload banners or link to external?
- Allowed banner formats. (PNG, JPG, etc.)
- Max description length.
- Apply swear filter to descriptions?
- Allow BBC in descriptions? (No images! This would allow users to break format.)
- Allow user comments on listing profile?
- Allow user ratings of listings? (Zero to five stars, doesn't reset.)
- Allow users to set "favorites?" (Always at top.)
- Enter categories people can list under. (IE: "Action Game", etc.)
- Number of listings per page.
- Set the HTML for the link people put on their pages.
Possibly only available on TopSites Pro...- Show stats to users. (IE: Hits in, Hits out, etc.)
- Period after which to reset votes. (IE: Daily, weekly, monthly.)
- Allow BBC in descriptions? (No images! This would allow users to break format.)
- Allow user comments on listing profile?
- Allow user ratings of listings? (Zero to five stars, doesn't reset.)
- Allow user to set "favorites?"
User Options:These are some options available to someone who presumably has all the proper permissions to do any of this, as determined by the site owner, etc. Basically this is just here for further clarification.
- Post a new listing. (User fills out all needed info.)
- Edit own listing.
- Delete own listing.
- View specific category.
- Order by stats, IE: Hits in, Hits out, etc. (by clicking any stat.)
- Search listings. (Would search title and description.)
- Vote for any given listing.
- Comment on any given listing.
- Rank any given listing. (Zero to five stars.)
- Report a listing. (Bad link, etc.)
- Add a listing to "favorites."
- Get the code they need to put the voting link on their page.
List of stats:Bold listings are reset at the interval the admin chooses as per option above.
- Votes. (How many people clicked the "Vote" link.)
- Hits in. (How many people viewed the listing, like post views.)
- Hits out. (How many click the link, like redirect board count.)
- Previous rank. (Up arrow, Down arrow, or Equal sign.)
- Number of comments.
- Current ranking. (Zero to five stars.)
- Number of rankings.
- Number of "favorites" by users.
Would also be nice if favorites showed on the bottom of a user's profile.
And of course, all listings should be paginated.
I know that's a lot to take in, but I used to run a TopSites page, and I feel like this would be a very popular modification.
A lot of the features may seem like they're not needed, but again this comes from experience so I hope I can just be trusted on this...
Heh.[/list]
SMFHacks.com
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September 12, 2007, 07:53:08 am
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