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.

[ivanstanchev]

I wont try it.I still have very good rated of registrations.Anyway i will press installed and nominated because of the great work.

[peterpigman]

I have been fiddling with this to see what affect it has on new members etc, I turned the number of pages up to 30 and new memberships have gone up??? I guess I am saying don't assume the standard settings are the best for your forum.

[UltraFanatics]

Works fine mate

[IRANCITY]

i need this hack for vb 3.7 beta 6 help me

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by ivanstanchev

I wont try it.I still have very good rated of registrations.Anyway i will press installed and nominated because of the great work.

If you're not using it you don't need to mark it as installed as the updates won't pertain to you.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by IRANCITY

i need this hack for vb 3.7 beta 6 help me

This addon is for the 3.6 series and will be ported to 3.7 once it is released.

[jeff21up]

Installed and working thank you ;-)

[jeff21up]

Just one question, I have read every thread so as not to repeat something. I understand how it works for bots however on monitoring my who is online for over a week I only ever see the bots reading 1 thread and then they always end up viewing member profiles and never go to another post/thread?
I have settings set to view 1 post for guests, so it seems that after the 1 post they are then moving to member profile as if they cannot get to another post. I have monitored this by staying on the page and reloading page so i can track accurately.
Any thoughts please?
Jeff

[jeff21up]

Sorry to keep asking, what if i have my forum set to require admin approval.
It works fine however when i move someone from "registered" to "Unregistered/Not Logged in" they can still access all of the forum? because i think to enable it to work on the guests you have to have "unregistered/not logged in" to be able to view thread contents. For some reason it works for guests but not for people who have been moved from registered to unregistered/not logged in?
What could i be doing wrong?
Thanks
Jeff

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by jeff21up

Just one question, I have read every thread so as not to repeat something. I understand how it works for bots however on monitoring my who is online for over a week I only ever see the bots reading 1 thread and then they always end up viewing member profiles and never go to another post/thread?
I have settings set to view 1 post for guests, so it seems that after the 1 post they are then moving to member profile as if they cannot get to another post. I have monitored this by staying on the page and reloading page so i can track accurately.
Any thoughts please?
Jeff

If you feel bots can't navigate your site properly, disable the hack and see what happens (or adjust your settings to allow more than 1 thread to be viewed and see what happens).

That said, a bot will, by it's nature follow links on a thread which include member profiles. How exactly they hop around is a combination of your internal navigation, inbound links, the amount of new content and some other factors... it's not as if they go linear from thread to thread then profile to profile. If all your pages (or most of them) are in the index and updated regularly then you're getting spidered.