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.

[Ted S]

This product is not compatible with version 3.6.10 of vBulletin. (Compatible starting with 3.6.0 / Incompatible with 3.6.9 and greater)

The issue has been corrected and the mod will now install on 3.6.10.

Please download the modification again and use this version.

[SFertitta72]

Originally Posted by Ted S

The issue has been corrected and the mod will now install on 3.6.10.

Please download the modification again and use this version.

Awesome. Thank you very much Ted. :up::up::up:

[jl255]

wld love to try this mod but concerned the impact in terms of traffic due to visitors being turned off by this system. wld appreciate if current users can share your results after implementing this mod and whether it actually increases your membership numbers and traffic?

think many others will also benefit from hearing from you guys. Tks!

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by jl255

wld love to try this mod but concerned the impact in terms of traffic due to visitors being turned off by this system. wld appreciate if current users can share your results after implementing this mod and whether it actually increases your membership numbers and traffic?

think many others will also benefit from hearing from you guys. Tks!

There's 33 pages in this thread and a few dozen more in the other versions which contain many, many comments on the addon. I'd suggest reading them if you want feedback as few people running the addon will check the thread for questions from other members.

[Konstantinos]

how can we make that this mod instead of the showthread to work for header or headinclude so that user has limited viewing to ALL forum pages like profiles etc

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Konstantinos

how can we make that this mod instead of the showthread to work for header or headinclude so that user has limited viewing to ALL forum pages like profiles etc

Please limit your questions about this addon to one support thread or the other... trying to keep track of duplicate issues isn't a fun task and will cause me to delay responses.

[Ted S]

I am looking for ideas for the next upgrade of this addon.

The most common request I've received so far is to store access in the database making it harder for people to get around the block attempts (i.e. they can not just clear cookies). If this is something you would like please post to this thread indicating that. Based on feedback I will decide if this should be added (as an option of course).

Please let me know if you have any other suggestions as well.

[mahakala]

hi,

maybe you could add a feature, to reset the counter, when the guest posts. not all guests are only reading and/or willing to register.

the database idea is cool - why not but if you crypt the cookie, i don't think you need the db.

keep on going!

thomas

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by mahakala

hi,

maybe you could add a feature, to reset the counter, when the guest posts. not all guests are only reading and/or willing to register.

the database idea is cool - why not but if you crypt the cookie, i don't think you need the db.

keep on going!

thomas

Interesting... I never thought about someone using this with guest posting enabled. You could certainly edit the new post process to reset the cookie but really if you let guests engage with posts why limit them at all?

[mahakala]

oh, it's to limit the read-only users a bit and animate them to register - or to leave the board.
i fixed it by checking if user posted -> cookie = 0 (instead of count++) in your plugin.

regards!