How do YOU use your vBulletin?

tjpeople

Site Administrator
Staff member
I just had some general questions/discussion points

It may just be mee but the smilie :D is used alot in these forums i would guess the most of all smilies. I use it alot and was wondering if its just becuase 1 person does then it spreads or if its becuase we are all really smilily people? :D (there i go)

Also i have set up the reading of the thread so that its sorta in reverse order to default so page 1 of a thread shows the lastest post from top to bottom. which i thing is handy cause u donmt have to go throught pages. I saw there were other options does anydbody use anything else?

(feel free to bring up any other questions/disccusion ponint to do with the vBulletin software)
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
I use the view last unread post button, so I like viewing the threads in chronological order so I scroll down, not up.

I also don't use the smilies very often because that requires using the mouse, and I prefer to keep my fingers typing at 75WPM on the keyboard.

But vBulletin is really powerful software. There's a lot of features. I was really amazed at all the new features it added when I became a mod.
 

admin

Retired Administrator
As many of you will have noticed, and yardgames has said above, vBulletin is extremly powerful stuff. For once we are actually typing into something that actually represents what the finished product is, not typing in random codes.

There are so many options we don't use still, or choose not to.

For example its only a few weeks ago that I realised we could have external feeds for the forums including JavaScript (which we now have on the MITMVC homepage) and RSS and RSS2 which I know that tj uses, I don't no about anyone else.

I like the standard version of forum ,but there are other hybrids. Infact when I first got the software, the user information bar the the left of every post, was actually above everypost - i changed that because I found it annoying...

I am quite happy for any questions regarding vBulletin to be asked, by don't expect me to always know the answer :D the Reputation thing was a suprise to me too, I wasn't exactly expecting it to double at 100 :D

I found out we also have buddy and ignore lists, put peopel in you don't want to hear talking and put peoplein you like.

Also I have a fun option for pests, so they can see there posts but no one else can.
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
Are there any better themes? This one seems so boring and blue and default. An exciting theme (that still matches the banner) would be neat.

(could you at least make the Google ads be the same color blue as the forum? The two different shades of blue are really annoying.)
 

admin

Retired Administrator
yardgames said:
Are there any better themes? This one seems so boring and blue and default. An exciting theme (that still matches the banner) would be neat.

(could you at least make the Google ads be the same color blue as the forum? The two different shades of blue are really annoying.)
Sadly, all the new themes I tried looked rubbish, so I have stuck with this one, there is also a problem that I have modified this forum slightly and therefore all new themes would also need to be modifeid, otherwise they would be missing stuff out.

As regards google ads my machine's firewall or something blocks them, so I have abosolutely no idea how bad they look, I might make them smaller if they are annoying - post a screenshot here so I can have alook :D

Also show me how the ones in the MITMVC look, I have no idea at all
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
Text ads are deleted? Doesn't that defeat the purpose?

Anyway, I've attached a look.

And here is some code that would make it look good:

<script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-8965313766949857";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
google_ad_format = "728x90_as";
google_ad_channel ="";
google_color_border = "3E5C92";
google_color_bg = "F5F4FF";
google_color_link = "22229C";
google_color_url = "008000";
google_color_text = "000000";
//--></script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>

It should also be centered on the page instead of pushed to the left.

That should make it look real nice, like it's part of the forum.

(the ones on the official VC didn't appear for me, not even a place for them, did you remove them?)
 

admin

Retired Administrator
OK, thanks for the advice, your right it does look a bit dumb to the left, and the colours just off. I have taken your advice and changed the code to what you said.. if you can screenshot it now that would be great. If they annoy you or look out of place still I shall simple take them off.
 

admin

Retired Administrator
The reasons you can't see them on the MITMVC is because you are logged in, they are only for loggedout people
 

NeCoHo

Retired Mod
still looks to the left to me.


my deleted post was a mess-up, I couldn't get a screenshot, i feel computer illetiate, i have to learn all this stuff again:)
 

tjpeople

Site Administrator
Staff member
cant u disbale your firewall to stop blocking google add for a bit? its look as good as adverts can now.
 

admin

Retired Administrator
i don't want to see the adverts though :D I have tried before to see them though.

As long as they look respectable and not too out of place I am happy. As soon as we hit the $100 mark they get taken off as thats all I need to fund the forums for another year. Just for info we've $16.18 so far, so thats quite a bit to go...

Through Amazon.co.uk we've also raised £21.00.

So we are getting their with funds for next year, (this is next year 2006, as we have already raised enough funds for this year :D)
 

tjpeople

Site Administrator
Staff member
$16 in what 3 days thats amense you could make loads! why stop. i dont mind havin adverts they dont cuase any problem to anyone really.
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
The Google text ads are fine. Much less distracting than other ads, and if they're making you money, by all means, keep them.

Here's an updated screen shot for you. They look pretty good now, they really appear to be part of the forums.
 

NeCoHo

Retired Mod
The ads are fine, I don't mind them being up there. What good website doesn't have ads anymore, they're everywhere on the net.I don't mind text ads, it just those pop-ups that squeze through my pop-up blocker that anoy me.
 

arach

New member
I use the forum in the old fashioned way. Old postings on the first page, new postings at the end of the thread. Forum-Standard. I think it became a habit of my years of using forums.

P.S.: The Ad's are fine. ;)
 
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