Post To Host Model

[azoundria]

Hi All,

We have, thus far, been an advertising-based model of hosting, whereby clients can pay for hosting by placing advertising on their website. Having figured out how to use this model successfully, we are now looking to expand by offering a post to host model as an alternative.

So, clients could do one, the other, or both, and in exchange, receive credits. These are our virtual currency, and can be exchanged for all kinds of extras. Effective April, hosting will cost a very small number of credits, based on individual resource usage.

I really like the idea Frihost uses of changing the payout based on length of the post, but I'm sure you're a creative bunch. Is there any better way to control the payout than just length?

I am really looking for a system that can decide based on quality. For example, posts with typos, incorrect grammar, etc... may receive less credits. In addition, is there any way to perhaps have some kind of reputation where users get more credits per post as that increases?

And finally, I need to make it so editing or deleting posts will update the credit count correctly. I'm using PHPBB. What modifications would I need to make to do something like this?

[dmmcintyre3]

I have a system where you earn based on the number of characters in the post. You only get 1 point for the post but make 2 points per character after you hit 5 characters in the post. If you start a thread you get 10 points for replies to that thread. Once they get the requirements for the package they want they just go to the forum where they request it which has permissions set so they cannot get to it without the requirements met. I use MyBB and newpoints for this. It does update the points during edits and I think it does if deleted. Also, if they refer someone to the forum they get points too. You can set some forums to pay more or less if you want too.

For example, this post is worth 1664 points with my system. I just set the point requirement really high.

It would only take 12 of this post to get 20,000 points.

[TaoPhoenix]

Quality is good!

There are some problems with raw length. It encourages pasting stuff as examples. Also, there seems to be a meme of "too long - didn't read" which can be frustrating if people put a lot of work into a post.

[dmmcintyre3]

There are some problems with raw length. It encourages pasting stuff as examples. Also, there seems to be a meme of "too long - didn't read" which can be frustrating if people put a lot of work into a post.

It's still better than someone making 50 "I agree", "that worked, thanks" or other .2 line posts in every thread. I suppose you could do something like "after 200 charictors, only award 1/4 credit for the ones after 200"

[yhelp]

There is a mod on phpBB that can do this but i can not remember what it was called.

It works on the number of letters and so on in a topic. We used it when we did P2H on are old URL.

I will look on phpBB and post a link when i find it.

Edit: Ok i found it. Its here but it looks like a mod that's dead. But you can all ways ask in phpBB if there is a mod smiler to it.

[azoundria]

This is good.

Our hosting isn't going to be entirely post-to-host. That's just an alternative to advertising, since not everyone is open to giving up space on their website.

What I do find really annoying is the lack of proper grammar in everyone else's posts. If I want to have hope of attracting professionals as I'm aiming for, it has to look like there's a community of professionals. All the end result is, the poster looks less intelligent, and the community looks less intelligent, it takes longer to find information, etc...

In short: It's a mess.

When I first started thing out, I could fix up all the grammar in everyone's post. It's a pretty easy task, and as you improve people's grammar, they kind of get the hint, or they see fixed grammar, and believe it's the group 'norm' so they adjust to it. But lately, it's been way too much.

I need a system that doesn't depend on one person, and works reliably to encourage proper grammar/spelling. The two things I don't want - to ban people from the community, or to completely discourage people from posting. So I was thinking, what if other people can fix typos in posts - and 'steal' the credits from the poster?

Of course, this will be abused, and that's the big problem with the idea. I could verify all the modifications myself, but that's still tedious. It's a starting point though, if I could figure out how to build it, and I'm hoping maybe some more minds in the mix here might end up with a usable solution.

The end product I want to provide is pages of helpful discussion that are practical and useful for the general public. People will see these pages, find their answer, and it will rise in the search engines. Thus, higher advertising revenue, more chance of people finding our hosting, and a more professional appearance for our community.

[yhelp]

Our hosting isn't going to be entirely post-to-host. That's just an alternative to advertising, since not everyone is open to giving up space on their website.

Sounds like a nice idea. You would need a shop mod or something to work with the points mod.

What I do find really annoying is the lack of proper grammar in everyone else's posts. If I want to have hope of attracting professionals as I'm aiming for, it has to look like there's a community of professionals. All the end result is, the poster looks less intelligent, and the community looks less intelligent, it takes longer to find information, etc...

In short: It's a mess.

Well don't let me on your forums as i can sometimes type and spell like a 1 year old. [When i have had no sleep or its been a long day]

When I first started thing out, I could fix up all the grammar in everyone's post. It's a pretty easy task, and as you improve people's grammar, they kind of get the hint, or they see fixed grammar, and believe it's the group 'norm' so they adjust to it. But lately, it's been way too much.

I need a system that doesn't depend on one person, and works reliably to encourage proper grammar/spelling. The two things I don't want - to ban people from the community, or to completely discourage people from posting. So I was thinking, what if other people can fix typos in posts - and 'steal' the credits from the poster?

Of course, this will be abused, and that's the big problem with the idea. I could verify all the modifications myself, but that's still tedious. It's a starting point though, if I could figure out how to build it, and I'm hoping maybe some more minds in the mix here might end up with a usable solution.

The end product I want to provide is pages of helpful discussion that are practical and useful for the general public. People will see these pages, find their answer, and it will rise in the search engines. Thus, higher advertising revenue, more chance of people finding our hosting, and a more professional appearance for our community.

Have you tried the ABC mod for phpBB that will check spelling and grammar before it lets you post?

[WL-Michael]

It's still better than someone making 50 "I agree", "that worked, thanks" or other .2 line posts in every thread. I suppose you could do something like "after 200 charictors, only award 1/4 credit for the ones after 200"

That sounds like a pretty good idea along with the blocking of messages too short, but then you'd possibly get people just putting senseless stuff in the posts.

[dmmcintyre3]

That sounds like a pretty good idea along with the blocking of messages too short, but then you'd possibly get people just putting senseless stuff in the posts.

I don't block them if they are too short, they just don't count.

[Sitebee]

Personally im a fan of "one time posting" where the users only have to meet a required quota of x ammount of posts the one time and do not need to keep coming back to post just to keep their accounts alive.
Although of course there is times where you should have your users visiting your forums for example news announcements, TOS changes etc etc.

Over the years on the p2p model "again personal opinions" I found that if you force people to keep posting they generally just post crap and also make random support requests they do not require.

[TaoPhoenix]

I'll run with Stonerocket's idea and say that it would be neat if members could continually get permanent upgrades with their posts. 1-Time post to start, with no risk of falling behind the mysterious "post counter". But as the posts collect, you could qualify for resource upgrades.

[dmmcintyre3]

Personally im a fan of "one time posting" where the users only have to meet a required quota of x ammount of posts the one time and do not need to keep coming back to post just to keep their accounts alive.
Although of course there is times where you should have your users visiting your forums for example news announcements, TOS changes etc etc.

Over the years on the p2p model "again personal opinions" I found that if you force people to keep posting they generally just post crap and also make random support requests they do not require.

I'll run with Stonerocket's idea and say that it would be neat if members could continually get permanent upgrades with their posts. 1-Time post to start, with no risk of falling behind the mysterious "post counter". But as the posts collect, you could qualify for resource upgrades.

That's the way to go, no monthly posts (or just 1) and just a high 1 time requirement.

[yhelp]

What Stonerocket put is the reason why we stooped P2H hosting. We are finding that users will use the forums as well if there a incentive for them.

No point in have a P2H plans on 1/0 post.

Our incentive was the free TLD offer we did but you can run competitions as a incentive as well.