Member Avatar for vip3r

Hi,

I am starting off with a forum site. I have seen quite a few s/w available,but I am not able to finalize on one of them.

The design of forum is highly heirarchy based. So only few of them would be able to post reply in certain forums.
Eg: Normal user can create a topic, but only one class of "subscribed" users can respond to it. And I plan to charge for the subscription (yearly subscription). The customization should be based on certain forums only. Normal users can hang around in few of the general discussion forums also....

I would like to know which forum software provides this level of customization. I should be able to enable professional users to subscribe and start using the service....in other words, integration of transaction processing to user registration.

Could someone please suggest the easiest and best way to do it.

Thanks in Advance.
Vip3r

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by MattEvans

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A compact, practical roadmap for based on the thread: the requirements you listed (free users can start topics, paid "VIP" users can reply, premium-post tagging, and payment tied to registration) are implementable without buying an enterprise suite—but they do need a clear workflow and a bit of custom code or a plugin.

Start with usergroups and per-forum permissions: create at least two groups (Registered and VIP) and set forum-level permissions so Registered can create threads but not reply where required. Make subscription state authoritative by storing an expiration timestamp in a custom user field (for example subscription_expires). Use your payment gateway’s IPN/webhook to promote new purchasers into VIP and write the expiration time; run a scheduled task that demotes users when subscription_expires passes. This keeps payments, promotion, and expiry fully automated.

For premium-post behavior: add a small post-time UI element (a checkbox or modal) shown only to VIPs using a template edit or a lightweight posting-hook so that a reply can be marked premium. Persist that flag in a post/thread custom field. Then surface premium content by (a) adding a visual badge/prefix, (b) optionally bumping or sticky-ing premium replies via the same hook, or (c) providing a filtered "premium-only" view. Keep moderator permissions separate so VIPs cannot delete or moderate content.

A few cautions and tips: use a gateway that supports recurring billing and test with sandbox accounts; log all IPN/webhook events and transaction IDs; enforce SSL and follow basic PCI hygiene; start with minimal features (payment -> group promotion -> premium flag) and iterate the UI (popups, sorting) after the core flow is solid. If you are not comfortable writing the hooks, contracting a small vBulletin developer for the integration is usually cheaper than buying full enterprise software.

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Member Avatar for jwenting

I know Jive supports what you're looking for (I coded part of the functionality myself...).

http://www.jivesoftware.com

Mind I've no commercial interest in them, I was a part of the group that coded the initial version before the project leaders went commercial with it (effectively kicking us all out, as we'd have to buy a license to be allowed to get at the sourcecode).

Member Avatar for vip3r

http://www.jivesoftware.com

This is way above my budget.... I was looking at something like vbulletin... Can this be done using vbulletin? I think from an implementation/design perspective, it will be similar to the freelance websites like or rentacoder.com....

I would like to understand the level of user customization provided by Vbulletin...can I give only "create thread" permissions to one set of users ( general users) and "reply permission" to "VIPs" ...general users cannot reply...

However, VIPs, cannot delete posts or threads, that'll be done by Moderators only...
I am sorry if I was off-topic here, but I couldnt find this information elsewhere..

Member Avatar for Dani

vBulletin has pretty extensive usergroup customization. For each usergroup, you can set permissions as far as what they can and cannot do. You can also auto-promote users among usergroups based on certain criteria.

Member Avatar for vip3r

Thanks!... one problem solved... Another question, is it possible to tag posts as premium posts....and put in some hooks within the vbulletin s/w? Eg, say I want to popup a new page to the "vip user" whenever he/she posts a reply? -> do you want your post to be premium? if so post the premium ones among the first few replies....

Member Avatar for MattEvans

It's possible to put hooks into almost anything to do almost anything... But if your intended system is to be really customised, you may be better off buying or having something produced to meet your exact requirements.

Integrating a payment system into a forum probably wouldn't be too challenging; vBulletin is quite a big name, so I imagine they have a good application interface and developer community.

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