[RFC] VIP Paid Membership

[EXreaction]

Moving this to rejected. This isn't something a lot of people seem to want here and this seems quite far outside of the scope of phpBB.

[Pony99CA]

It seems a bit quick to reject this after barely a day of discussion.

However, perhaps M_C should post this in the phpBB Ideas area. Maybe the larger phpBB.com audience would like it more. It does seem reasonable to have some sort of automatic group mechanism (beyond "Newly Registered Users") with a definable trigger (of which payment could be a trigger).

Combine that with an abstracted payment plug-in (not just PayPal -- we should never be dependent on one third-party service) and you could probably do this.

Steve

[DavidIQ]

It does seem reasonable to have some sort of automatic group mechanism (beyond "Newly Registered Users") with a definable trigger (of which payment could be a trigger).

Sounds kind of like Auto Groups.

[Pony99CA]

It does seem reasonable to have some sort of automatic group mechanism (beyond "Newly Registered Users") with a definable trigger (of which payment could be a trigger).

Sounds kind of like Auto Groups.

Yes, but at least make sure that can be an extension (and, ideally, an offically-supported one).

Steve

[Master_Cylinder]

It seems a bit quick to reject this after barely a day of discussion.

However, perhaps M_C should post this in the phpBB Ideas area. Maybe the larger phpBB.com audience would like it more. It does seem reasonable to have some sort of automatic group mechanism (beyond "Newly Registered Users") with a definable trigger (of which payment could be a trigger).

Combine that with an abstracted payment plug-in (not just PayPal -- we should never be dependent on one third-party service) and you could probably do this.

Steve

I expected it...

I thought about that, I'm sure there is more demand than some around here want to admit...and it's obvious why too.

It would be *nice* to be able accept other payment gateways/merchant accounts but that would add more complexity that I can't add myself.

It does seem reasonable to have some sort of automatic group mechanism (beyond "Newly Registered Users") with a definable trigger (of which payment could be a trigger).

Sounds kind of like Auto Groups.

Actually there is already a [BETA] Membership Management with Paypal IPN MOD but it still needs work for my use and, as I've said many times, I'm an admin not a programmer.

Oddly enough, I do use the autogroup mod for something else though...

[Alien_Time]

It does seem reasonable to have some sort of automatic group mechanism (beyond "Newly Registered Users") with a definable trigger (of which payment could be a trigger).

I do like that the idea and I agree with Steve on this. ATM, if I need to put some special permission that only want that to take effect with a condition like after a minimum number of posts etc, the only way to do it is by adding them to NRU group. But the problem here is it can be done only once. But having the feature of the auto group mod in core itself make more sense so admins are able to add users to different groups as they progress in stages. This can also be useful were we can add add-on extensions based on this feature like adding users to VIP group etc after donations. Since a lot of admins already create additional groups with different permissions, there is no actual way to automate the adding of users to different groups for different conditions. ATM it needs to me done manually or only restricted to add them to NRU group once.

[Pony99CA]

It does seem reasonable to have some sort of automatic group mechanism (beyond "Newly Registered Users") with a definable trigger (of which payment could be a trigger).

I do like that the idea and I agree with Steve on this. ATM, if I need to put some special permission that only want that to take effect with a condition like after a minimum number of posts etc, the only way to do it is by adding them to NRU group. But the problem here is it can be done only once. But having the feature of the auto group mod in core itself make more sense so admins are able to add users to different groups as they progress in stages. This can also be useful were we can add add-on extensions based on this feature like adding users to VIP group etc after donations. Since a lot of admins already create additional groups with different permissions, there is no actual way to automate the adding of users to different groups for different conditions. ATM it needs to me done manually or only restricted to add them to NRU group once.

At one time, there was some discussion of adding "events" to phpBB. An event would be something that triggered an action. phpBB already has some events:

• The Newly Registered Users group: The event is getting enough posts, the action is getting out of the group.
• Ranks: The event is getting enough posts, action is getting a new rank.
• Subscriptions: The event is a topic or forum that you're subscribed to getting a reply, the action is getting notified.
• Notifications: The event is a getting a PM or being mentioned in a post or whatever, the action is getting notified. (This is a more generalized version of Subscriptions, of course.)

Auto Groups is just another event type, but things could be even more flexible.

• Donations (as mentioned above). You don't really need the system proposed here, of course, if you manually handle things. You easily put a PayPal donation button on your board and manually add people to the VIP group when a donation is made, but it would be nicer to have it automated.
• Badges/awards could be event based. If you've made enough posts or been a member long enough, you get a badge.
• Automatic replies when you get a PM and have turned automatic replies on.
• Welcome messages when somebody joins the board.

I'm sure that most people can think of several more, but that's probably beyond the scope here. The reason that I brought it up is because it would support this feature (among many others).

Steve

[Danielx64]

90% of the boards aren't going to be sending html spam/newsletters and more than 1% would have VIP sections if it was easier/possible to do so. Nice try though...

Anyhow for the idea, I do like the idea but it should be extension and not part of core.

[Master_Cylinder]

Anyhow for the idea, I do like the idea but it should be extension and not part of core.

A few people try to say that but they never explain why. It fits the core better than other suggestions that have been made recently...

[Danielx64]

Anyhow for the idea, I do like the idea but it should be extension and not part of core.

A few people try to say that but they never explain why. It fits the core better than other suggestions that have been made recently...

The reason shy it that it better of as an extension is that it something very specialize and I don't see many forums needing it. How many forums have you been to that have VIP plans?

and Why do you think that this is better than some of the other suggestions?

*gets ready to faceplam again or even fail if need be*