Refer Member

[.Cameron]

The latest good Referral mod i've seen was for 2.0.x so I'd like to see it integrated too.

[TCWT]

Please integrate this feature to a future release :) add the # of referrals on a member's profile too, each with a unique link to keep track. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Sire]

Would still love to see this too, at least in a simple form.

[Mark]

I would not like to see this included in the default feature set.

I continued development on and upgraded for 2.2/3 use, a referral mod and not only is it complicated and problematic (the EMails will always be picked up by junk mail features) it really is only suited to a certain kind of forums.

[Sire]

I would not like to see this included in the default feature set.

I continued development on and upgraded for 2.2/3 use, a referral mod and not only is it complicated and problematic (the EMails will always be picked up by junk mail features) it really is only suited to a certain kind of forums.

I would not like to see -you- code anything if a simple referral field is difficult and problematic for you. :)

The way it works with vBulletin (since v1.0?) for example, as had been explained previously is really quite simple.

A registration link can be passed like:
http://www.ipsbeyond.com/forums/index.php?...Reg&CODE=00&ref=8936

8936 is my member # which is used everywhere already anyway. There's nothing bulky or complicated about appending the number to the registration link.

This value 8936 can then be inserted upon registration into a custom field or an existing field ie [ referred by ]

See how simple that is?

What you do with it after that can be infinite and a powerful incentive for your members to refer new members. They know that they are getting credit for the referrals. At the very minimum, it can indicate something such as they referred 3 members. This is enough for many of your members to add links on their profiles elsewhere, in their sigs, etc... You could hold contests for the members who referred the most new active members. You could give away gifts, tshirts, brandable items, it's really endless with possibilities to reward your street team.

[lOgOl]

I would like to see this feature added, too!

[Mark]

I would not like to see -you- code anything if a simple referral field is difficult and problematic for you. :)

The way it works with vBulletin (since v1.0?) for example, as had been explained previously is really quite simple.

A registration link can be passed like:

http://www.ipsbeyond.com/forums/index.php?...Reg&CODE=00&ref=8936

8936 is my member # which is used everywhere already anyway. There's nothing bulky or complicated about appending the number to the registration link.

This value

8936

can then be inserted upon registration into a custom field or an existing field ie [ referred by ]

See how simple that is?

What you do with it after that can be infinite and a powerful incentive for your members to refer new members. They know that they are getting credit for the referrals. At the very minimum, it can indicate something such as they referred 3 members. This is enough for many of your members to add links on their profiles elsewhere, in their sigs, etc... You could hold contests for the members who referred the most new active members. You could give away gifts, tshirts, brandable items, it's really endless with possibilities to reward your street team.

Well first of all, that referral ID has to be parsed from page to page. Because if someone gives you a link to a registration page, you're not going to just fill in the form - you're going to have a look around the site.
So that needs to be either parsed from page to page using a GET variable, or added to a cookie - what if the user doesn't accept cookies? It could also go into the session ID - but what if they close the browser and register later, or follow an external link on your site (like to your website home) and then come back?

If this feature is added, people are going to want to know who referred who, which adds to the profile information.

People will also want to know probably the top referrers, and their downline of referrals which adds an additional act=page.

There will have to be an area in the UCP to get your referral link.

What if rather than giving someone a referral link they type in your username on registration? They'd have to be a function added to the registration page to check that it's a valid username that's been enterred - that adds a query.

And so on...




Also, it's important to remember that a lot of businesses using forums for support forums or something similar (who IPS are quite largely aimed at - look at the reasons for having a community listed on the website) would have absolutely no need for this feature - only hobby sites are really going to need this, which isn't a *significant* amount of people, so it should be a mod, which is what the components system is for.

[Sire]

Don't overcomplicate it Professor. That's why it becomes too complicated for you. Not because it has to be.

[sunrisecc]

Also, it's important to remember that a lot of businesses using forums for support forums or something similar (

who IPS are quite largely aimed at - look at the reasons for having a community listed on the website

) would have absolutely no need for this feature - only hobby sites are really going to need this, which isn't a *significant* amount of people, so it should be a mod, which is what the components system is for.

I agree fully with this paragraph.

[Louis M.]

I think this would be best suited as a mod or an addon type similair to IP.Tracker. I have to agree that this would be more useful for hobby/gaming sites.

[Mark]

Don't overcomplicate it Professor. That's why it becomes too complicated for you. Not because it has to be.

Errrm... without adding features to do stuff with the referrals - what is the point in recording them?

[Rοb]

I don't think Professor P is/was over complicating matters in the slightest.

The "extra" stuff he mentioned would have to be included in an initial release as the chances of someone clicking a referral link and then registering an account before looking around at the forum/site first are very slim indeed.

That alone would break a "basic" modification, so yes you would need those "complicated" things as without them it would be a pretty useless modification/addition.

[atomicknight]

Eh, it's still not as complicated as it sounds. The referral information can just go in the session/cookie. If the user closes the browser, chances are that he/she won't be coming back - or at least, not by typing in the URL and getting to it that way (i.e. he'll probably go back and click through the original link that was given to him). If the user isn't accepting cookies, you're dealing with either someone who really knows what he or she is doing or someone who has absolutely no idea what's going on. It's highly unlikely that someone who decides to follow a referral link has cookies disabled, especially when frequenting message boards - what would you do if you couldn't log in to anything?

Taking care of who referred who is easy - just make a new table that keeps track of each referral. Showing who referred who is a simple task of adding a query that pulls information from the table - that can go anywhere really. Adding a UCP component to get one's referral link is also easy - using the template provided in the developer docs, that shouldn't take any more than 5 minutes (if you know what you're doing).

Username lookups are easy also. They should already be indexed - if not, then you should go back and index it for performance reasons anyway.

But really, having a referral system is somewhat useless in my opinion, especially since referrals are so easily abused. I have at least 10 different e-mail accounts that are used for different purposes - what's going to stop me from registering multiple times with them? Tracking IPs won't work since I'll just proxy through the registration system. Checking user agents won't work either since I can just set my user agent to whatever I want (or use a virtual machine).

But yeah, it doesn't seem like a truly necessary core feature to me.

[Louis M.]

I agree with you atomicknight. I can see so many ways this can and will be abused.

I plan on using a "referral" type system, but I plan on using Nexus for it. My plan is to send a support ticket in requesting the add for the referral. Then who ever I have doing ticket support can modify the appropriate fields. I know this is kinda screwy but for my guild this will work perfectly. This will also help me keep track of referal abuse a bit better.

I am sure something can be arranged similar in IPB either via a special forum, or a mod approval on a referralrequest. I don't know the perfect solution but I defiantly can see a lot of abuse coming if a system were implemented.