Add-On Releases - Limited Guest Viewing -- Improve community registration rates

Note: This addon works with the 3.6.x series only. Click Here for the 3.7.0 version of this addon.

With vBulletin, forum guests are able to view endless amounts of content without being directly asked or forced to register no matter how many times they come back. The purpose of the Limited Guest Viewing System is to drive in registrations by limiting the number of threads guests are able to view without interruption.

This plugin offers two options which can be used to drive in more registrations. The first option allows you to show a reminder message or advertisement after a guest has viewed a certain number of threads. The second option puts up a roadblock stopping guests from viewing threads altogether after reaching a certain number of views. Both options work together to encourage and ultimately force anonymous visitors to either register or login but can also be used separately based on your individual needs.

Because this plugin uses cookies, few if any bots will be impacted when it comes to spidering your site.

Modifications/ Instructions:
Template edits: 1
Plugins: 1 (adds 1 template and several settings)

This template hack should take under 5 minutes to implement and customize.

Customizing the content / messages
To customize which messages appear or what they say, go to vBulletin options, select the ?Limited Guest Viewing System? group and configure the options as desired. Each phase can be modified by adding translation text.

Through the ACP you can enable or disable each option, specify the number of threads that can be viewed before the option is enabled and input any forums you wish to exclude from being blocked.

About spiders/bots
This plugin works by setting a cookie to track the number of visits from a particular user. As bots do not tend to accept cookies, they should not be blocked. To further insure there is no spider accessibility issues, there script identifies major bots (google, yahoo, msn, aol) and explicitly lets them through -- you can easily add to this list by editing the plugin code should you so desire, however, unless a bot starts taking cookies this should not be necessary.


Welcome headers compatibility
The Limited Guest Viewing is designed to work with the Welcome Headers system without any conflict. To insure that welcome header messages do not show up at the same time as the limited guest viewing message, please be sure you are running welcome headers version 4.1.3 or greater (released 11/19).

Updates
5/9/2008 - Released update to prevent installs on 3.7 boards.
2/18/2007 - Minor update to fix register link. Updates optional.
11/20/2006 - Minor update released to fix error with links in some messaging. Updates recommended.

[treasureman]

Originally Posted by Ted S

Correct. This does not impact the archive what so ever.

In my forum is does not allow viewing of archived posts. It shows the post name, but they aren't live links. So users can't click on them.

So either a change was made in the mod or I have some sort of setting in my forum permissions that are different.

Anyway, I like restricting the archive as well as the forums, this is exactly what I need, thank you!

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by treasureman

In my forum is does not allow viewing of archived posts. It shows the post name, but they aren't live links. So users can't click on them.

So either a change was made in the mod or I have some sort of setting in my forum permissions that are different.

This plugin doesn't add anything to the archive scripts, language files or hooks so it's impossible that it altered how your archive worked.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by GamesBucket

I can see it checks if the bots are google|msnbot|zoints|aol|yahoo|slurp
What about the alexa bot?

Whats it called so to add it?
And anyone knows of any other bots?

Since bots don't use cookies the plugin won't affect them. I have a hardcoded list of the major spiders just as a matter of efficiency and for the future incase Google or anyone else decides to add cookie support.

[treasureman]

Originally Posted by Ted S

This plugin doesn't add anything to the archive scripts, language files or hooks so it's impossible that it altered how your archive worked.

Okay, I know why it does what it does. I have my archive set up to link directly to the "full version" posts by choosing "no" for Display Simple View of Threads in the Admin CP > Search Engine Friendly Archive.

So when someone clicks a link to view a post in the archive page they are taken to the full version of the post. Since it does that, it behaves the same on the archives as it does the full version.

Which is what I need. Why allow someone to view your entire site in the archives if you are going to block them after a few posts in the full version?

So anyone using this mod that also want the archives to be limited viewing for guests, check "no" for Admin CP > Search Engine Friendly Archive > Display Simple View of Threads

[Ted S]

Great tip, thanks for sharing!

[Jorrit787]

Great mod! This may have been mentioned already, but let me just put it out here just in case:

Hey there!<br \><br \>It appears that you've exceeded the maximum number of posts you can view, but wait, there's a simple solution. To unlock the forum and continue viewing messages, all you need to do is <a href="{2}">sign up</a> for a free account. The entire process takes just a few minutes so <a href="{2}/register.php">create your account now</a> and view as many threads as you like!<br \><br \>Already a member? Login at the top of this page to stop seeing this message.

Aren't both of those links supposed to point to the registration page? The way it is now only the second one does, and the first one redirects to the forum's home page.

[Ted S]

Yes they are. I will issue an updated version.

[Mudvayne]

Ted is it possible to create an option where we can put all the spiders rather than edit plugin? Or is it possible to read from ./includes/xml/vbulletin_spiders.xml ?

[Ted S]

It's possible but again, spiders don't use cookies so I don't see it as being necessary. Should someone disagree I am more than open to an addon to this addon.

[hellmet]

excellent stuff!! nominated!!