Limit guests to viewing 5 threads max.
 

This hack allows a guest to view 5 threads within the forums. After the 5th
thread, the hack will bring up the error_nopermission_loggedout template
to force them to register with the board.

This hack was requested by frozt and jjj0923.

Templates affected: 0
Files affected: showthread.php and admin/sessions.php
Tables affected: session

How to install this hack:

You need to alter the session table using the following command:

alter table session add visitcount smallint(5) unsigned DEFAULT 0;

The rest of the instructions are in the attached file.

Your comments will be greatly appreciated.

Thnxz man! its works great i think :-)

You're welcome. :)

does it re-direct them too register page... im gonna try installing now

They get sent to the screen that tells them they need to log in or register. :)

thank you - this is great.

- jeff

Can't he/she just clear the session and continue browsing!!

Yes, but I am sure it will get very annoying after a while. :)

Remi is right, it's only for the current session. :)

Unless your cookie times out, or you kill your browser, you won't be able to read another thread.

You will be able 5 threads every 15 minutes, or whatever the admin set the cookie timeout for. :)

Membership has its privileges. :D

I get parsing errors in "session" when trying to run this on 2.2.6 Please give me a hand to get it right. This is a great hack and I reaaaaallllllllllllyyyyyyy need it! session table altered (visitcount added) and code in both php scripts changed and verified.

Thanks!!!!!!

Wouldn't it be better to go to a template that says: "You cannot view any more than 5 threads"? :D

Yes it would. But I have a few different template sets, and blame this on my laziness, but I used what was already available. ;)

Please Email me a copy of your sessions.php.

My Email is edwink@seebeyond.com :)

how can this be altered to come up with a different template thanerror_nopermission_loggedout template ?

I want to specify a different template..

I thought this was a wonderful idea, and installed it. Then I remembered the googlebot and uninstalled it. I think I need to come back some time when I have a few brain cells working and see if I can't code it so that google and other bots that I like can stay and crawl.

Amy

Is there a way to change the value from say 5 to 10 or 15?

Look for all instances of the following code. There are 2 of them:

And replace the number 5 with any number you want. ;)

Hey would there be any way to base this on an IP basis? So instead of checking for cookies, it would check if the IP had already viewed 5 threads?

These visits are remembered per session. A guest does not use a cookie since cookies are given to registered users.
.
And to keep track of visits per IP address, you would need to create a brand new table to keep track of individual IP's and increment their visit count..