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.

[peterpigman]

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.

I just noticed we have lost some 2000 pages on google since we installed this. It might be an idea to turn it off once a month for a week as it appears to still block spiders.

[puertoblack2003]

Originally Posted by peterpigman

I just noticed we have lost some 2000 pages on google since we installed this. It might be an idea to turn it off once a month for a week as it appears to still block spiders.

i had reported that during the beginning of this hack when it came out but the author of this hack could not get this fix and said it works fine i long uninstall it so my googles stats is back up


i suggest the same thing since they won't do anything about it.

[rolfw1]

Nice mod, thanks very much.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by peterpigman

I just noticed we have lost some 2000 pages on google since we installed this. It might be an idea to turn it off once a month for a week as it appears to still block spiders.

I'm not sure how you're coming to this conclusion. Google does not use cookies and therefore it can't get blocked by this hack which is cookie based. Even if Google did use cookies the hack specifically excludes it (as well as yahoo, msn and a few others) from being impacted. Search rankings and indexing is dependant on a lot of factors, are you certain this is the only one on your site, outbound links, inbound links, content and so forth that has changed?

That said; if you don't think this addon is doing what you want it to do, please don't use it. My expertise is in helping communities become more marketable and to that end, I've released a few free addons to help sites out but not everything I make is ideal for every site.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by puertoblack2003

i had reported that during the beginning of this hack when it came out but the author of this hack could not get this fix and said it works fine i long uninstall it so my googles stats is back up

i suggest the same thing since they won't do anything about it.

I appreciate your concern but I'm a bit puzzled by the "bug" you are reporting. Can you explain exactly what this is doing to stop google from indexing your site? Do you have any logs, screenshots or google sitemap reports that indicate there is a problem that I can use to work off of? I'm all for updating the addon and fixing any known bugs but I can't fix something without evidence of what's broken.

[itsonlybarney]

I installed this, and set all the option, and followed the instructions. Yet I found there was no 'take-over' or 'blocking' of the website. Any help would be appreciated.

The website I'm talking about is http://userbars.ws

[Smoothie]

Originally Posted by itsonlybarney

I installed this, and set all the option, and followed the instructions. Yet I found there was no 'take-over' or 'blocking' of the website. Any help would be appreciated.

The website I'm talking about is http://userbars.ws

Got one when I visited your site. Think it was after 15 clicks

[itsonlybarney]

Originally Posted by Smoothie

Got one when I visited your site. Think it was after 15 clicks

Cheers.

Obviously I wasn't patient enough to get that far through my website.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by itsonlybarney

Obviously I wasn't patient enough to get that far through my website.

You can change the settings to lower the number of posts a user can view by going to your ACP --> vBulletin Options --> Limited Guest Viewing.

[Masiello]

This add-on works great with'out any problem, I confirm that this don't block any spiders.
I believe that Welcome Headers system and Limited Guest Viewing are the two must important and usefull hack ever made for vBulletin users.

Thanks Ted_S