xF1 Add-on Post Ratings - taking likes to the next level 1.7.5

Description:



At its most basic level, this addon is a massive improvement on the likes system of XenForo by allowing users to express a wide range of views on a post.

From first glance it may look like one of those silly addons for moods, points, credits, etc. that really adds nothing of benefit to your forum, but the reality is very different.

This addon:

• Increases daily posts (read on for proof)
• Improves signal to noise ratio; less short/unnecessary posts
• Improves quality of posts (posters want to avoid negative ratings)
• Makes lurkers useful for something and gives them a means of interaction

Like Alerts and similar features, I have found this addon to be a major source of the 'XenForo effect' - people just can't stop using it.

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Screenshots & Features:


Posts interface:

Hover over anywhere on a post and the ratings bar will subtly fade into view (always visible on mobile devices) helping to reduce UI clutter:




Note that the ratings themselves can be entirely customised - read on for more

Since the above gif was recorded, new tooltips have been added:




Ratings list becomes more concise by hiding removing the rating names when a large variety of ratings have been applied to a post:




If a post does not already have ratings no solid bar is displayed until it has been rated, to further promote a clean interface:




Both forward and backwards compatible with XenForo's built in likes - legacy posts will have Like ratings displayed (by default) and new Like ratings are passed back to XenForo to handle as actual likes (again by default):



'List' links to overlay displaying who has rated the post:



This list can easily scale to large numbers of ratings on a single post without breaking the clean design:



Users with the appropriate permission can delete any user's rating from the rating list view: (The X button is displayed on hover of each section to reduce clutter)



If you wish you can choose to have messages with more than x negative ratings 'soft hidden'. A user does not need any special permissions in order to use 'Show message'; it is a purely cosmetic effect.



Integration with XenPorta's Article comment system is included:



Optional (via style property) total ratings received display on postbit:




And an alternative way of displaying total ratings received on postbit (via style property):




Your members will find interesting ways of using the ratings system, for example mini polls in the middle of threads:







Members interface:


Member card integration showing total positive/neutral/negative ratings received by the user:





Profile page integration listing the total number of each type of rating both given and received, as well as total positive/neutral/negative received:




Members list integration:





Online list integration:





Visitor panel integration:





Replacement for Likes You've Received page:





As well as extra Ratings You've Given page:





Alerts/News Feed/Recent Activity:

Fully integrated with the XenForo Alert system:




Fully integrated with the XenForo News Feed system, which powers Recent Activity both globally and the tab on user pages, and also to users' private News Feeds:





Admin interface:

Easily list/add/remove/edit ratings to personalise the addon to your forum. As well as the rating name and icon, you can customise the order they are displayed in, disable legacy ratings without removing them entirely, choose whether they are considered 'positive', 'neutral' or 'negative', restrict ratings to specific groups and nodes within your forum, and choose for a rating to be available on the first post in a thread only.










Simple options to disable features if needed and generally tweak the addon to your individual needs:




Fully integrated with XenForo's Criteria system - use ratings to trigger Notices, Trophies, Usergroup Promotions and more:




Ability to rate posts controlled by XenForo's permission system:



Daily Statistics integration (see later screenshot)


Other Features:


Highly optimised - adds negligible load time even when millions of ratings are stored. Testing was done on a 256mb virtual machine with 100mbit connection to mysql data files on a remote 5400rpm disk and query cache disabled. The test case is viewing a thread with a variety of different ratings.




In both cases there is a significant error margin on the PHP load time (+/- 70ms) so the value is perhaps of little relevance, but the query time remains +/- 5ms and pretty much identical in both cases.

Dogfood tested - This addon is used extensively on my own forum and has hugely increased the level of ratings (compared to the previous likes system) while not decreasing the level of posting, in fact quite the opposite:




I can say without a doubt that this addon extends the 'XenForo effect' that features such as Alerts bring - it encourages people to spend longer on your site through increased interaction and therefore increases the number of overall posts while decreasing the pointless/low content posts that can be replaced by ratings.


Browser support:

Works perfectly in IE7+ and all the standards compliant browsers.


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Demo:

Feel free to play with the user-accessible side of the mod on my live forum:
Gaming Masters


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Installation:

1. Upload contents of upload folder to forum root
2. Install addon-PostRating.xml file
3. Configure the permissions for your user groups (search for 'Post Ratings' on the permissions page).