How to set up the Best Of page

To get started with Best Of, you need to have Reactions enabled. You will also want to ensure the “Promote” reaction is enabled. This ensures Moderators have the ability to promote the best posts in the community to the Best Of page (more on these permissions in a moment).

You’ll also want to review the “Advanced Settings” in the Reactions setting pages.

Once you are on the Advanced Settings page, this is where you can modify how Best Of is displayed. You can also control how many points it takes to get on the Best Of page. Points get attributed when a member selects a reaction, therefore you can make it easier or harder for content to be displayed on the Best Of page.

The standard Best of Style is “Tiles“, but if you choose “List“, the Best Of posts will be displayed one after the other, with an image and an excerpt.

When you change the “Promote Threshold”,  you can control how many points is required for a post to show on Best Of. By default it will take 5 points.

Also keep in mind, to start, Best Of will be blank. After some content is voted on, your Best Of page will start to be populated.

Setting Up Curate Permissions

if you wish to have someone have the Promote reaction, which adds 5 points to a posts score, you need to ensure they have the Garden.Curation.Manage permission. You can add this ability to any role you feel should have it, by going to Users > Roles & Permissions in the menu dashboard, selecting the appropriate role and checking the Curation box in Garden section, under Manage.

The following is a screenshot of what you’ll want to find once complete:

By selecting “Curation” this role will be able to “Promote” content with 5 points to the Best Of page.

Changing Your Homepage

Once you have enough content promoted, you will be offered a new view under Homepage, called Best Of. This gives you the option to have the Best Of page to welcome new users to your community.

By default, all reactions will be part of the filter on the Best Of page.

If you’d like to modify the Best Of filters on the page, this article covers some additional CSS tips. You can can also modify your nav links to only focus on one specific best of reaction.

Looking for more tips in using Vanilla Forums? Check out our Friday Tips section!