Point System

Point System rewards members for taking part. Views, likes and comments on their videos, new subscribers, publishing, coming back each day and bringing friends all earn points, and points can be exchanged for real balance in the member's wallet at a rate you set.

It suits a site that wants to reward its creators and regular viewers, on its own or next to advertising income.

Switching it on

Point System is a free plugin and works with every licence. Switch it on at Admin → Plugins. It makes its two tables (aio_points_balance and aio_points_ledger) and fills in the default rates shown below.

Its page is Point System in the Plugins group of the admin menu (admin/plugin.php?code=point-system).

Switching the plugin off stops all earning and hides the members' pages. Balances and history stay in the database and are back when you switch it on again.

What earns points

The table under What earns points sets the points for each action and Most a day: the most points a member can collect from that one action in a day (0 means no cap). The defaults:

Set a number to 0 to give nothing for that action. Press Save at the bottom of the card.

Rules that are built in:

• Nobody earns from a view or a like on their own video, and the owner gets no "commented" points for a comment on their own video.
• The same thing never counts twice. Reloading a page, or liking, removing the like and liking again, earns nothing more.
• Only a like counts, never a dislike. Points are not taken back when somebody unsubscribes.
• A view earns only when the site counts it as a view.

Give points out switches all earning off and on. Off freezes earning without touching anybody's balance.

Bringing friends

Each member's Points page shows a personal link, https://your-site/?ref=username, with a Copy button. A visitor who arrives through it is remembered for 30 days; when they register, the member who sent them gets the referral points and a notification. The affiliate link on Settings → My affiliates carries the same ?ref= and earns the points as well.

Turning points into money

Under Turning points into money:

• Let members exchange - points become balance in the member's wallet.
• Points for one ... (your currency) - the rate. The default 1000 means 1,000 points are worth one unit of your currency.
• Smallest exchange - the fewest points one exchange may use (default 1000). The hint shows what that is worth at the current rate.

An exchange takes the points away and adds the money to the wallet as a Points exchanged line. From there the wallet works as usual - a package, promoting a video, or a payout request, as your wallet settings allow. See Members.

Giving or taking points by hand

Give or take points takes a Username or e-mail, a number of Points (500 gives, -500 takes away) and a Note, which the member sees in their history. Press Apply. A balance never goes below zero.

What the admin page shows

• Four figures: Points ever given, Held by members, Exchanged or spent and What the held ones are worth. The last one is what you would pay out if every member exchanged today.
• The leaderboard: the top 15 members with their points, what they ever earned and what it is worth.
• The last twenty-five movements: the newest lines, with the member, the reason and the points.

What members see

• Points with the current balance in the account menu (behind their picture, top right), and Points in the Studio menu.
• A Points tab on their Settings page: the balance, their place on the board, how many lines their history has, the latest eight lines and an Open my points button.
• The Points page itself, /plugins/point-system/my-points (my-points.php when clean addresses are off): Points now, Worth, Ever earned and Where you stand; the Exchange for balance form while exchanging is on; the Bring a friend link; Where your points came from, 25 lines a page; and the top ten of the leaderboard.

Members who come over from PlayTube with PlayTube Migration keep their PlayTube points. They are given once, however often the move is run.

Tips and honest limits

• Choose the rate before members start exchanging. Raising Points for one ... later makes everybody's points worth less at once.
• Keep the daily caps. They are what stops somebody earning a fortune by reloading or by liking their way through a day.
• Referral points are given for every new account that arrives through a link. Look at The last twenty-five movements now and then: a member who suddenly brings in many friends may be making the accounts themselves.
• Points are not money until a member exchanges them. Switching Let members exchange off keeps everybody's points and stops new exchanges.
• The plugin adds no cron job; points are given the moment the action happens.