Zoints Local - Social networking, enhanced profiles, blogs, and more

Introducing Zoints Local

The media has recently been talking non-stop about social networking and online communities. Myspace, Facebook and YouTube make the front-page of major news sites day after day yet forums seem to be missing from the picture. Zoints gives your members the features and tools they have come to expect from a modern website where people interact. Zoints helps bring your members together while providing you with tools to extend your site in ways you never thought possible. No matter what type of forum you run, from sports to humor to professional groups, Zoints Local can benefit you and your members. The hot buzzword on the internet these days is "Web 2.0". Zoints Local is designed to start "Forum 2.0." With over 500 forums now interconnected in a mutually beneficial relationship via Zoints software, Forum 2.0 has begun.

What is Zoints Local?

Installed on your forum and under your control, Zoints Local is what you want it to be. If you want to provide your members with a homepage they can personalize, you can. If you want members to share more about themselves via greatly enhanced profiles, you can. Blogs? Networking? Resumes? Photos? Video sharing? No problem. Via Zoints' page and block management system, you can do what you want, how you want, with ease. Learn more about pages and blocks (http://zoints.com/tour/blocks-and-pages/)

Zoints Local takes your forum's basic profile and turns it into a portal where a whole new world opens up, all on your website. The following image is a "My Vehicle" page you might use if you operate a car related site.


http://img3.zoints.com/zthread/zoints1_lg.png

What will Zoints local bring to my forum?

Zoints Local brings a new level of possibilities to your website. There are so many features and options that it’s impossible for us to list them all here. As a community based platform that allows forum owners to share blocks, the opportunities to expand your site with Zoints Local continue to grow every day – there’s just no telling what feature, block or idea will come out next. At the Zoints Development Forum (http://dev.zoints.com) you can download blocks posted by other community owners and developers. This way, if you own a writing forum, a software forum, a nursing forum, or a forum dedicated to any other topic, you can contour pages and blocks to specifically fit the needs of your community. Learn more about sharing blocks (http://zoints.com/tour/block-sharing/)

A few of the blocks and pages packaged with Zoints Local:

About Me, My Discussions, My Links, Instant Chat, My Photos My Interests, My Communities, My Network, Quick Comments, Ratings, My Blog, RSS Feeds, Social Actions and many more. Virtually any existing "widget" shared on the internet can quickly be converted into a block, many in just a few minutes.

What else does Zoints Local offer?

Zoints Local is a state of the art product with all sorts of amazing features that go beyond the normal website.

Drag and Drop technology - Do you want to move a block from one part of your profile to another? Do you want to change the order of your pages? No problem, just drag and drop!

http://img3.zoints.com/zthread/zoints2_lg.png

Social Networking - Forget just friends, Zoints Local allows your members to create as many "Groups" as they want. We all have friends, family, colleagues, forum friends, and various other people in our lives.

http://img3.zoints.com/zthread/zoints7_lg.png

Comprehensive privacy controls - Your members can create a variety of groups and show each group different content on a page by page basis. Zoints allows you to show what you want, when you want, to whom you want. Learn more about Zoints' Privacy Controls (http://zoints.com/tour/privacy/)

Style Sharing - When your members create custom styles, they can easily share them with other members of your community via the Styles Database.

Global Search - Zoints Local includes a global search that bridges that crerates a virtual freeway between the forums of the internet. Searches conducted through Zoints return results from every community that uses Zoints Local. Think of it as Google, for people. Google sends you a lot of traffic, and so can Zoints People Search.

http://img3.zoints.com/zthread/zoints8_sm.png

The best part about Zoints Local is that you pick what to let your members use and what not to let them use.

What sort of administration options exist?

The Zoints Local system gives you extensive control of how your Zoints profiles should behave. You can turn features on and off, determine if you want your members to be able to edit/create/manage styles of their own, define default styles, add your own customized header and logo to the pages and much more.

Here’s a couple screenshots from the admin control panel:

http://img3.zoints.com/zthread/zoints9_lg.png

http://img3.zoints.com/zthread/zoints14_lg.png


How do I get started?

Getting Zoints Local running on your site is a quick and painless process. Just follow the simple steps below and you can have your site running Zoints Local in a matter of minutes. Once you have the system setup, it’s completely up to you to decide how you want things to work. Customize, add on or leave the system exactly as it comes out of the box – Zoints Local gives you the power to choose!

Step 1 – Download both of the attached zip files and unzip them.

Step 2 – Upload the /z/ folder to:

yourdomain.com/z/ or
subdomain.yourdomain.com/z/ or
yourdomain.com/forumdirectory/z/

Step 3 - Run the installation script found at /z/install/index.php and follow the directions

Step 4 - During the installation you will need to register your forum with Zoints to obtain a token and authentication key

Step 5 – Once installation is complete, log in to your vBulletin Admin Control Panel and upload the plugin product file found in the second zip file.

Step 6 – Configure Zoints as you see fit!

Promoting your forum through Zoints

Along with all of the features, tools and added functionality Zoints Local offers for your site, the Zoints is also interested in bringing you more traffic. Here’s how:

1. Add your forum to the Zoints directory at http://zoints.com/communities after you install. More information can be found in this thread (http://network.zoints.com/showthread.php?t=511).

2. The Zoints network will include your site in searches and other relevant results bringing you qualified traffic without any additional effort.

3. If you install Zoints Lite on a Big-Board, please email us at big-boards@zoints.com with your url so we can get you added to the Zoints Enabled directory (http://www.big-boards.com/kw/zoints/) on BigBoards.com

Support

Due to the scope of this software, we ask that help requests be submitted at http://network.zoints.com (http://network.zoints.com/) in this specific forum (http://network.zoints.com/forumdisplay.php?f=63) so we can provide quick, efficient support.


Upgrade Instructions

1. Download the new zip file and overwrite the existing files

2. After uploading the new files, access /z/install/manager.php in your browser

3. Click "Upgrade Zoints" and then click on "1.0 RC3"

That's it! :)


Changelog

2006/11/10: 1.0 RC 3
* Custom footer in admin area
* Ability to disable network join request PMs in settings
* Added Simple Editor mode (Non drag and drop)
* Ability to login as users for moderation/editing purposes
* Tons of bugfixes (open_basedir, various whitepages, xml bug, etc)

2006/11/07: 1.0 RC 2
* ImageMagick settings pulled from forums
* Fixed bug with cURL redundancy not returning proper data
* Fixed bug in CFPLS handler
* Can now properly add custom blocks for other tabs
* Search age bug
* Quick Comments block fix
* Media block fix
* Misc additional bugs

2006/11/06: 1.0 RC 1
* Initial release

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. This is all installed on MY forum?

A. Correct :)


Q. I would prefer to utilize the centralized version of Zoints. Can I?

A. No, sorry. Not until we standardize the Zoints Local and Zoints.com code. We do not have an ETA for this.


Q. How do I create a default style for my members?

A. Creating a default style is easy. Using the Zoints Style Editor, create styles as you normally would. As an admin, your custom styles will be automatically listed in the zadmin.php control panel. You can specify the same or different styles for each page by going to zadmin > pages > edit name/style as shown in the image below.

http://img3.zoints.com/zthread/faq-default-style1.png


The style dropdown menu will then be populated with all your custom styles.

http://img3.zoints.com/zthread/faq-default-style2.png

You can also add a logo and header to the top of all /z/ pages on zadmin > settings.


Q. Why do I have to register my community with Zoints and get a forum token and authentication key?

A. Zoints Local provides (and will add many more) features that require secure authentication between Zoints and your forum.


Q. My forum uses the Zoints centralized system. Can I switch?

A. Absolutely! The system does it automatically. Please note, you cannot run both.


Q. What browsers do you code for?

A. Firefox 1.x+, IE 6.x+, and Opera 8.x+. Other browsers may or may not work, however, we do not officially support them at this time.


Q. The images in the navigation bar don't fit well with the style I created, can I change them?

A. Yes, you may overwrite those images with your own as long as they are named the same and are easily readable.


Q. Are there any vBadvanced modules that work with this?

A. Of course. Currently there are Recent blog entries (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=130948) and random members (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=130947).


Q. I have custom profile fields I don't want to lose. What about those?

A. No problem, we created a block that automatically pulls all the custom profile fields. See it here (http://dev.zoints.com/showthread.php?t=28). Blocks can be made to do pretty much anything :)

Great work.. I look forward to checking this out more once i find this "install" button.

Great work.. I look forward to checking this out more once i find this "install" button.

Hi Cory :wave: ~ Welcome to vB-FAQ. You'll find the install button on the right hand side of the first post between "Release" and "Attached Files". :)

HOw do I add it? Sorry I dont own a vbulletin forum I administrate one. 3.5.4

Just follow the directions in the first post. Look under the heading, "How do I get started?"

Welcome to vBulletin FAQ, BTW.

Subdirectorys?

For answers to specific questions, you are probably better off checking in at Zoints (http://network.zoints.com/forumdisplay.php?f=64).

How to create subdirectorys is what I want to know

To create a subdirectory on your server using an FTP client, select the folder in which you wish to create the subdirectory and click the Create new folder icon. If, as a forum administrator, you've only got access to the vB Admin control panel and not got FTP or site account control panel access, you just can't do it.

If that doesn't clear up your problem you'll need to be more specific as to exactly what you are trying to do and what tools you've got available.