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.

[theOZer]

Works in vB3.7.0 Beta 2 after upgrading from vB3.6.8 PL2 with this hack already installed. No changes of any kind or re-import required.

[makofu]

The Blocker seems to be working but the Take-Over does not. I'm using vB 3.7 Beta 3. Not sure if anybody else has tried on Beta 3 without having it previously installed on 3.6?

[newbuck]

I checked my last adsense Site Diagnostics and as of Jan 19th which was the last report of my site attempted crawl it shows my site as blocked and reason blocked being "not found"

I still see crawlers on my site but am not sure if this report is because of this hack

help please

[Ted S]

The hack has no known impact on spiders as it both excludes them and uses cookies, which they [spiders] do not use. Just like a guest on their first view aren't blocked, a spider (which has only one view) is also not blocked.

The error "not found" refers to a page that produced a 404 response when Google tried to crawl it. You should be able to drill in and see which pages produced this error and fix those links. LGV does not produce 404 errors at any point as it does not send out http headers.

[gamebrink]

3.68pl2 with vbseo i see nothing

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by gamebrink

3.68pl2 with vbseo i see nothing

What is your configuration set to? What template did you add the lgv variable to?

[amore1981]

Originally Posted by makofu

The Blocker seems to be working but the Take-Over does not. I'm using vB 3.7 Beta 3. Not sure if anybody else has tried on Beta 3 without having it previously installed on 3.6?

i have tryed it on this version and i get the same as yourself can anyone help thanks

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by amore1981

i have tryed it on this version and i get the same as yourself can anyone help thanks

This hack is not intended for 3.7. Once the final is released an updated version will be posted if applicable.

[tanujdude91]

Hello Ted S , I installed this plugin 5 days ago and its a great hack .
But Since I've installed this plugin , visitors from search engines have decreased heavily .
I just installed the plugin the way it was to be installed .
Any idea what the problem is?

Thanks

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by tanujdude91

Any idea what the problem is?

Nope. Have you seen a decrease in rankings? A decrease in spider activity? What does google webmaster tools show about your site? Have you made any other changes to your site including changing links, adding tools, having links from other sites or anything else?