Hi All

I'm a beginner and have noticed that there is some very experienced vbulletin users around here.

So I was wondering if they could share the top 10 hacks they use on there boards.

Possibly even with a small explanation why they used them.

Happy-Harry

Great question, I know the first thing I installed was vbSEO for Search Engine Optimization.

Other hacks I installed right away:

vbSEO Site Map Generator
Zoints Synergy
NoSpam! - verification hack instead of the hard to read letter image verification

That's all I've got so far. I'm looking for a good ad / sponsor hack to install next. I'd love to see what some of the seasoned vB users say are the must have hacks, I'm still new at all of this.

George

Great question... I'm not at my PC right now but as soon as I do, I'll post the top ten hacks I would suggest.. I agree with George that the first two woult be vbseo and the vbseo sitemap ;)

whats zoints senergy do ? I've never used that one.

-Bs

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I'm not 100% familiar with it but this is what I gathered from it. Synergy is like a digg setup for forum posts.

You create a forum for it and it displays the most popular topics / threads from other forums that are subscribed to Synergy. Basically it sends a feed to all forums that have Synergy installed and displays the popular topics in hopes to help drive traffic to the sites.

Admins, mods or registered users (you can control who) can submit the thread into que to go to the Synergy database to be displayed on forums who have it installed.

Their description of How Synergy Works.

I'm excited to read what your top 10 hacks are Brandon! If a sponsors/ad hack isn't one in your top 10, could you recommend one for me that you like? (or explain if there's an easy way to do it w/o a hack).

Thanks!

George @ Pure Adapt

Also, Brandon could you list where I can DL the Thanked hack you used on your forum? I would like to add that to mine if possible.

Thanks again,

George

Brandon, already installed it... I used this one:

[AJAX] Post Thank You Hack

I'm assuming this is the same one you have installed here?

Still looking forward to hearing about your top 10 hacks!

George

oooh ya, I seen that zoints synergy b4.. I didn't care for it

here are the top 10 hacks I like

I say vbseo, but that cost money, so I'll leave it off the list

vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap Generator for vBulletin 3.6.x, 3.5.x & 3.0.x - vBulletin.org Forum
Welcome headers - Improve community registration rates - vBulletin.org Forum
WebTemplates 3.5.x: VB Integrated CMS (Content Management System) - vBulletin.org Forum
AdminCP Top 10 Statistic - vBulletin.org Forum
vB AJAX Cron - vBulletin.org Forum
Akismet Anti-Spam - vBulletin.org Forum
Spam Decimator Version 1.0.5 - vBulletin.org Forum
Members who have visited the forum (Today or last 24 hours). - vBulletin.org Forum
Show Newest PM If Unread On Forum Home - vBulletin.org Forum
vBWeather Lite Discussions - vBulletin Modification Discussions

all of these are free, and are easily installed... 3-5 mins tops on any one hack.

and yes, thats the thanks mod we use here

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I see no reason to bother with the spam hacks when starting a forum. I have run several vb forums and never seen spam as a problem.

As for vB weather I would pass as well. Same for WebTemplates.

I would go with vBMicro Stats
vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=140449
This helps you keep an eye on server stats.

vBJournals may be a good possibility.

I think alot of it depends on the theme of your forum. Like is it a sports forum,news,history, or what?

vbJournal isn't ported for 3.6 last I checked.

and we we're getting spam right away,, if your site is promoted correctly and/or has Any PR, you'll get spam ;)

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Brandon,

Any suggestions on ad management? Or do you prefer coding that by hand?

Thanks,

George

I prefer to use thevbgeeks GAB The vB Geek I think it's like 20-30 bucks

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The only thing that concerned me on this ad software is:

PLEASE NOTE!
GAB is a Pre-Release and not considered to be a complete and stable release.

Have you had any issues using this ad program?

George