Display type of hosting as part of forums profile

[Alan B]

The forums contain support requests from both shared hosting clients and reseller hosting clients. Unfortunately it's not always obvious from the post as to which type of hosting the poster has. Obviously the solution or steps we can recommend are quite different depending upon the type of hosting.

Could a new field be added to the forums profile, that would display the forum member's hosting type alongside each of his posts?

[Alan B]

I would also recommend that the forum profile show the name of the client's server.

[stephenb]

I concur. (wow, messages must be atleast 10 characters.)

[stephenb]

I'd also like this to be added to the helpdesk system. After I inquired about personalized nameservers, I was asked what plan I had? I would think that would be obvious to the people providing support.

[JasonD]

I agree to that also, there should be more integration between communication pages. Even a simple POST with the data passed from one page to the next, or simply use one standard session, and get rid of all the cryptic website names.

It should only be...
webhostingbuzz.com
with these sub-domains...
support.webhostingbuzz.com
forum.webhostingbuzz.com
wiki.webhostingbuzz.com
sales.webhostingbuzz.com
billing.webhostingbuzz.com
tos.webhostingbuzz.com
advertise.webhostingbuzz.com

Just for the simplicity of the fact that you can use one "https" session for all of those domains. (You need new sessions for each full domain, even if you own them all.)

No security risk there, once logged-in, the entire site has access to your info, from behind the scenes. As-long as you confirm the password on any critical changes, like account info, or when deleting an account, then session theft is pointless to try. (Well, they could still post in the forums, I imagine. It would be annoying to have to re-enter your password on every posting. Hehe, but that would surely make people think more clearly, and double-check before they posted random thoughts!)

[casimedicos]

i like whbstatus.com without changes

[Alan B]

Could we enable this now? This would be very helpful when responding to forum questions and issues:

The forums contain support requests from both shared hosting clients and reseller hosting clients. Unfortunately it's not always obvious from the post as to which type of hosting the poster has. Obviously the solution or steps we can recommend are quite different depending upon the type of hosting.

Could a new field be added to the forums profile, that would display the forum member's hosting type alongside each of his posts? I would also recommend that the forum profile show the name of the client's server.

[Alan B]

Bump ....

Lately I have frequently seen staff asking forum posters for the name of their server, and/or the type of hosting. How about enabling this?:
add two new fields to the forums profile, one to display the forum member's hosting type and one to show the name of the client's server.

[Jef S.]

I had considered this before, but I assumed some clients like to remain 'anonymous' so to speak. Another problem is that some users who aren't resellers could view requests from resellers as higher priority, and give the argument "well i don't pay as much as Alan B, and that's why you don't pay attention to my posts" etc.

This could always be voluntary, using your forum sig. Kind of like how everyone puts their company name and all sorts of links in their sig on webhostingtalk.

[Alan B]

They can still choose to remain anonymous. It's their choice whether to fill in those fields or not, just as it's their choice whether to fill in the field for "Location". Those two new fields would appear in the same place as the current fields of "Join Date", "Location" and "Posts". It's better done there, as new fields, rather than as a signature because that way the user would see the blank fields when he initially joins as a forum user and edits his profile.

We used additional fields for years at the forum of another host, and I don't think we ever had a case where anyone claimed that some users were getting preferential treatment.

[Jef S.]

Let's leave this topic open, and see what some of the other users think. I've got no problem enabling anything you guys want. I mean, this is your forum.

[Alan B]

bump ..

[mpyusko]

It could get messy... I have 2 different plans on 2 different severs. i'm sure I'm not the only one, and I bet there are others with more.

[Alan B]

Sure, but that's not the majority of clients. In your case, you could do what such folks did at my last host: list both your servers, or just say "multiple servers".

[Tony]

No, he's got a good point. This isn't just a matter of adding a custom field. It's a matter of someone riding herd on everyone that registers.

I mean, I can't think of an automated way this could be done. Not without a lot of coding.

[Alan B]

I'm not asking for an automated method. Just add the field, and we can encourage forum members to use it. No riding herd, just encouragement. When someone asks for help with a problem, it's often useful to know their server so others on the server can check it. When someone posts such an issue, we can suggest that they add server name to their profile. This worked well at my last host.

[aztech]

Sounds like a reasonable thing to me. Not to hard for a user to update their profile to add their server / account type.

Happy to support this one.
Cheers,
Aaron

[ridebmx]

Another point is that you guys are using VBulletin which is probably one of the worse forum engines to customise anyway... so yes coding it is probably going to be a headache.

Could I suggest moving to phpBB3 as the Gold candidate allows custom fields to be generated from the ACP, it is more secure than VBulletin and IMHO more user friendly.

You could allow fields for multiple accounts and servers, leaving it up to the user to fill in if they want to, and only the completed fields will show.

I am more than happy to offer my help if needed as I am a Valued Contributor (ex-Styles Team) on phpBB.com and know the software pretty well.

[Alan B]

I don't know how tough it is just to add another field. My last host uses VBulletin and they added the field.

[Matt R.]

I like this idea. I know where Alan has seen it in place before, so I'll work with the powers that be on this forum and introduce it.