vBulletin 3.7.0 Features Thread

[R1Lover]

vBulletin 3.7.0 contains a plethora of new features, many of which have been long requested by users and customers, while other new features will come as a surprise to everyone. 3.7.0 is slated to be the final major release of the vBulletin 3.x series before all forum development efforts are switched over to vBulletin 4.x, after which 3.x will receive only bug fix releases.

In terms of timescales, the plan is to upgrade vBulletin.com to run on vBulletin 3.7.0 on Monday (November 26th) and to let it run for a few days in order to get some feedback and bug reports before releasing the first public beta.

So, to the important bit: what's new in vBulletin 3.7?

Answer: Lots. But here, in no particular order, are some highlights...

[R1Lover]

Inline Spam Management and Prevention Tools

Forum spam is an increasing problem for many boards. Unfortunately, due to the visible-source nature of vBulletin and most other forum systems, most preventative measures we might add to the system can simply be reverse-engineered and worked around by persistent spammers.

Therefore, 3.7 contains a new set of tools to help clean up spam and deal with spammers.

Threads and posts can be selected in the usual inline moderation fashion, and then the new 'Delete Threads/Posts as Spam' command can be selected, which will load the spam management interface, which contains options on a single page for removing the spam posts and threads, banning the spammers and finding other spam they may have posted.

http://files.vbulletin.com/3.7/spam-management.png

[R1Lover]

Thread Tagging

A new way to facilitate searching and grouping of threads, it is now possible for users to add tags to threads they post or read.

http://files.vbulletin.com/3.7/thread-tags-newthread.png

Tags can be added when creating a new thread, or to an existing thread by any user (with appropriate permissions).

http://files.vbulletin.com/3.7/thread-tags-showthread.png

Any users who then click on these tags will not only find all thread that have the same tag as the one clicked, but will also contribute to the building of a search tag cloud, which gives users a quick guide as to what has been searched for recently and most frequently.

http://files.vbulletin.com/3.7/thread-tags-search-cloud.png

[R1Lover]

Thread Prefixes

Long requested by users, threads can now have administrator-defined prefixes to their titles.

http://files.vbulletin.com/3.7/thread-prefixes-forumdisplay.png

Thread prefixes are divided into groups by the administrator, allowing different prefixes to be available in different forums.

http://files.vbulletin.com/3.7/thread-prefixes.png

Update

Here is a new screengrab showing some of the thread prefix administration system, which should answer a lot of questions we have been receiving.

http://files.vbulletin.com/3.7/thread-prefixes-admin.png

[R1Lover]

Reciprocal Friendships Between Users

As part of our new social networking system, users can now request that people on their buddy list confirm their friendship, after which time a person's list of confirmed friends will be viewable to other users.

http://files.vbulletin.com/3.7/friends-edit.png

[R1Lover]

Public Messaging

While private messages between users have been in vBulletin since version 2.0, vBulletin 3.7 introduces the public messaging system, allowing users to communicate publicly via their profile pages.

http://files.vbulletin.com/3.7/public-messages-profile.png

[R1Lover]

User Picture Galleries

vBulletin users can now create albums and upload pictures to their account.

http://files.vbulletin.com/3.7/album-show-album.png

The ability to view these albums and pictures can be limited by the user to just board staff and people on their buddy list if they want privacy.

http://files.vbulletin.com/3.7/album-show-picture.png

[R1Lover]

User-Created Social Groups

To further social cohesion between users and to encourage people to make friends, vBulletin now includes a facility to allow users to create their own social/interest groups.

http://files.vbulletin.com/3.7/social-groups.png

These groups are enhanced by having their own public messaging system, and the ability to add pictures to the group from user albums.

http://files.vbulletin.com/3.7/social-groups-messages-and-pictures.png

[R1Lover]

New Member Profile Page

In order to accomodate all the new features in vBulletin 3.7, the member profile page has been completely redesigned from the ground up.

The new page presents information in a far cleaner and more logical manner, while dividing up information into manageable chunks using a tabbed interface.

Individual profile field categories can be displayed alone in blocks in the right column, in addition to appearing by default in the 'About Me' tab.

http://files.vbulletin.com/3.7/new-memberinfo-b.png

[R1Lover]

Member Customization of Profile Page

The administrator may choose to allow his members to use the profile page customization tool, which allows users to alter fonts, colors, background and borders etc. of their profile page in order to create a more personalized look.

http://files.vbulletin.com/3.7/customize-profile-editor.png

The administrator can lock-down customization permissions, in order to prevent the personalized pages being made too offensively awful by aesthetically challenged members... nobody wants to see some of those really ugly MySpace pages on your vBulletin installation!

http://files.vbulletin.com/3.7/full-memberinfo-compare.png

http://files.vbulletin.com/3.7/customize-profile-memberinfo-b.png

[R1Lover]

Inline Editing of Profile Field Values

The 'About Me' tab of each member's profile page has edit controls, allowing them to quickly change values without leaving their profile page.

http://files.vbulletin.com/3.7/profilefield-ajax-edit.png

[R1Lover]

Attachment Viewing Lightbox

Clicking on an attached image will now open a lightbox rather than open a new window, with the image scaled to fit the browser viewport. A click on the image in the lightbox will open it in a new window as before.

http://files.vbulletin.com/3.7/lightbox-showthread.png

[R1Lover]

Social Bookmarking of Threads

Administrators can now define a list of their favorite social bookmarking sites and have them available for use on the showthread page for bookmarking threads.

http://files.vbulletin.com/3.7/social-bookmarking.png

[R1Lover]

Not all of these features we will be using here, we will be turning on items as we feel they are needed.

If you have any question please let us know.

:beer

[riley42]

The lightbox is pretty sweet so far! :thumbup

[R1Lover]

yes we lost the ability to watermark images with the use of the lightbox, but it's only a matter of time before it will be coded into this new versions as well. :)

[walker]

User-Created Social Groups

To further social cohesion between users and to encourage people to make friends, vBulletin now includes a facility to allow users to create their own social/interest groups.

http://files.vbulletin.com/3.7/social-groups.png

These groups are enhanced by having their own public messaging system, and the ability to add pictures to the group from user albums.

http://files.vbulletin.com/3.7/social-groups-messages-and-pictures.png

I want vBulletin to make me a pizza... which menu is that under?

[eveR1ast]

Oops..sorry...thought I logged into YFN...somehow I got to Myspace instead. R1Lover...will you confirm my friendship? Please?





:lmao :mock

[Bogie]

Oops..sorry...thought I logged into YFN...somehow I got to Myspace instead. R1Lover...will you confirm my friendship? Please?





:lmao :mock

:lmao:lmao:lmao:lmao:lmao

[R1Lover]

Oops..sorry...thought I logged into YFN...somehow I got to Myspace instead. R1Lover...will you confirm my friendship? Please?





:lmao :mock

The gay features will not be turned on :lmao

[R1Lover]

With that in mind, look how many peole are on myspace lol maybo we should.

[rinn]

With that in mind, look how many peole are on myspace lol maybo we should.

maybo you should.. :lol


Vbulletin is just adding more social networking features.. :shrug


Why are old people so resistant to change.. :shakeshead :P

[walker]

don't give in R1Lover.... myspace is ghey :fact

[R1Lover]

oh I know it is.... :lmao

[shagzomatic]

With that in mind, look how many peole are on myspace lol maybo we should.

let 'em use myspace then :P

[R1Lover]

It's been turned off for now... :)

[Wicked1]

:jiggy