Welcome headers - Improve community registration rates

vBulletin 3.6 users click here for the 3.6 compatible version of this plugin.

The out of the box vBulletin style does not have a robust method of informing users about their current activity status or user level. As a result, guests entering on a page other than the homepage (which is most often the case) have no idea what a forum is about or that they may need to register. Additionally, there are no visible status indicators, making it confusing for unconfirmed, unapproved or new members to know what to do or where to begin.

To help solve these problems, the welcome headers plugin creates a 5-part set of conditionals to better introduce members to your community while pushing them to register, activate or post. The default templates are just that, default ? I highly encourage you to tweak the language and functions to meet the needs of your actual community environment.

Modifications/ Instructions:
Template edits: 2
Plugins: 1 (adds 1 template and several settings)

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

What?s new in 4.1.0
The 4.1.0 version of this system is a complete rewrite from earlier versions. All of the original functionality still exists; however, the system has been improved to make it much more modular. With the new version, you can now turn on/off individual welcome header messages, configure the content and change other settings all from your ACP Options panel. Additionally, a 5th welcome header has been added for global announcements. With the exception of one small phrase change, this upgrade is seamless to upgrade.

Upgrade Instructions:
Full upgrade instructions can be found in the attached zip file. However, to avoid confusion anyone upgrading from the 4.0.x version of this plugin to 4.1.x should do the following:

1 ? Upload the new version of the plugin file based on your version of vBulletin (3.5 or 3.6). Be sure to set the override option to ?yes?.
2 ? Go to your phrase manager and search for the phrase ?first_visit_message?, copy any customizations you have made to this phrase into the phrase ?welcome_guest?.
3 ? Go to your vBulletin options, select the ?Welcome Header System? group and configure the options as desired.

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

Details on how it all works:
Step One: Turning lurkers into Members
For most websites, upwards of 50% of traffic (or more) comes through search engines or deep links to threads, profiles and categories. Out of the box, vBulletin only displays a welcome message on the forum-homepage, meaning someone who enters through any other page does not have the benefit of seeing an explanation of the site or welcome message. The guest welcome header is used to explain the purpose of your site, sell users on the benefits of joining the community and push them to proactively register.

Step Two: Making Users Confirm their Account
Many vBulletin sites require email confirmation prior to being able to post or access an account. However, activation emails are often misdirected to spam folders, ignored or simply deleted, leaving unconfirmed users with little access rights and no explanation as to what is wrong with their account. The unconfirmed welcome header is used to inform unconfirmed members of their account status and to direct them to automatically resend their activation email, or to contact the webmaster for support.

Step Three: Get non-posting users to post
Another chronic problem faced by many forums is insuring users post after registering. Many new visitors register in order to access certain features with the intent of posting, but never do so. The never posted welcome header is used to encourage users to post for their first time and should ideally be linked directly to an introductions or new member forum to help users "break the ice".

Step Four: Getting inactive users to become more active
Many members start out as lurkers, register, post once or twice and then go back to being lurkers. Often time these members are not actively thinking about participating in topics or are still shy about interacting. The inactivity welcome header reminds members to make a post after a predetermined amount of time as specified by the forum administrator.

Step Five: General Announcements
Unfortunately the standard announcements are often overlooked or never even seen by members who use the "new posts feature". As a result, urgent notices may be missed by users causing problems and high volumes of support requests. The global announcement welcome header creates a message shown to all members who do not fall into the other welcome header groups (guest, unconfirmed, never posted, inactive). Whether it be a scheduled outage/ upgrade, an important request or the need to display an advertisement in a prominent spot, global announcements allow an administrator to effectively and quickly display messages in a way that is certain to be read.

The results:
At first glance this system may seem a bit superfluous, however, the numbers rarely lie, nor does the feedback. Since posting this plugin in October, it has risen to over 1700 confirmed installations and is now one of the top 5 vBulletin plugins. On ScubaBoard.Com, the site the system was originally tested on, posting rates have increased by over 100%; new user registration rates by over 60%; user activity by 50% and the welcome/ intro & greets forum has exploded over 400%. If you browse through the pages of this thread you will find even more real life testimonials and experiences from the thousands of people using the system.

But enough about why -- give it a shot yourself and let me know how your results turn out.

vBulletin 3.6 users click here for the 3.6 compatible version of this plugin.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by CrossBones

I have installed this ad-on but wonering if it is working properly.

http://www.afcwestforums.com/

When I go to the front page of my CMPS or the forum index the headers seem to be there. But if I go to a thread (forum) the header doesn't seem to be there. Is this correct? I was under the impression that the header should appear on any page that a guest would find his/her way to...isn't that the whole point?

Please advise. I wonder if I did something worng. :cross-eyed:

That is exactly how it works. However, if you have modified your site to use a CMS system it may impact the code in a way I can not predict.

[CrossBones]

Originally Posted by Ted S

That is exactly how it works. However, if you have modified your site to use a CMS system it may impact the code in a way I can not predict.

So you're saying it isn't working properly on my site? Meaning that when somebody enters a forum from a link someplace they are not getting the Welcome Header unless they are entering on the Portal page or the forum index page.

Just trying to clarify...I think it's not working properly but just want to clarity what you're saying.

Thanks.

[DementedMindz]

I changed mine around big time as i didn't want it on every page there was... I have mine just on my vbadvanced page and thats all... Cause i think google was blocking alot of my site and not indexing it cause it gave duplicate content with the same thing being on each page even with the vbseo version... Also i found that just adding $welcome headers didnt work on vbadvanced... I had to do a few php edits in order to get it set up just on my portal page.. I have to look up the edits if anyone wants them also...

[DementedMindz]

This is how i made mine show up on my vbadvanced page and no other page...

In includes/vba_cmps_include_bottom.php

Find this:

// ########################### Strip Body Tag #################################
function strip_body_tags($content)
{
	global $header, $navbar, $footer, $headinclude;

I changed mine to this:

// ########################### Strip Body Tag #################################
function strip_body_tags($content)
{
	global $header, $navbar, $welcomeheaders, $footer, $headinclude;

Also in the same file a few lines down find:

return str_replace(array($header, $navbar, $footer, $headinclude, '</body>', '</html>') , '', $content);

I changed mine to this:

return str_replace(array($header, $navbar, $welcomeheaders, $footer, $headinclude, '</body>', '</html>') , '', $content);

Also in the same file a few lines down find:

	global $pages, $stylevar, $headinclude, $header, $footer, $vbulletin, $vbphrase, $stylevar, $show, $pmbox, $vba_options, $vba_style, $navbar, $cusid, $_REQUEST, $gobutton, $pagetitle, $pagecache, $db;

I changed mine to this:

	global $pages, $stylevar, $headinclude, $header, $footer, $vbulletin, $vbphrase, $stylevar, $show, $pmbox, $vba_options, $vba_style, $navbar, $welcomeheaders, $cusid, $_REQUEST, $gobutton, $pagetitle, $pagecache, $db;

Then i went into my admin cp and went to Styles & Templates and from there i went to my adv_portal template and looked for

$header
$navbar

And after i added $welcomeheaders so it looks like this

$header
$navbar
$welcomeheaders

Note I also did the steps in the Installation Instructions in the FORUMHOME template.

This worked for me and it will only display it on the portal page and no other page in your forum.

[CrossBones]

Yeah well I want the Welocme Headers on every page. So I guess I must have installed it wrong or something.

Any ideas?

[Ted S]

Unfortunately I have no experience with that plugin/ system. I can take a look at your site if you like but I'm not sure what else to suggest.

[Nuguru]

Hello Everyone,

First of all I just want to thank you for making the "welcomeheaders" plugin available to all of us. It looks like a great tool and I can't wait to see the difference it should make on my site.

However I have a 2 little problems with spacing that I am hoping someone can help me with. I've included an attachment to help here.

Problem #1:
Take a look at the oval labled #1, you'll see that there is a extra space below the navbar and above the welcomeheaders box. I want the extra space to go away somehow. I went into navbar template to the very bottom of it, but there is no <br> there to take out, so I don't know what to do.

Problem #2 ( a little more tricky to explain, but I will try.)

I have Photopost installed for my gallery, so what has happened here since the install of welcomeheaders is that it has put a space to left and right of the gallery in comparison to other cells in the page.

Let me explain...If you look at the white spacing on the left of the welcomeheaders box in oval #2, you will see that it is correct in comparison to the navabr and header. However if you look down to oval #3 you will see that there is extra white space. This has happened on both sides of the cell on both sides of the page. Basically it squishes the gallery on the left and right side of the page.

Other than that, everything else looks great, the menu in the control panel is straight forward and very easy to use.

If someone can help me here, I would really appreciate it.

Thank You,

Nuguru

[R-n-R]

OK, I followed the NEW Install instructions (seemed pretty straight forward) to install and the installed seemed to have gone with no problems. I have installed this on 3.6 RC1.

My problem is when I do step and when I go to Step 4) Configuration Options (Recommended). When I go to vBulletin Options > Welcome Header System ns when I click any of the "click here links" in the pharse To edit the phrase for this message click here (enter your custom text in the translation box). I get this Message:

No Phrases Matched Your Query

I have looked backed over the steps to install this addon several times and I just dont see where I have gone wrong. :cross-eyed:

Can someone give me some insite as to what I might have over looked?

Thanks in advance!

[jilly]

putting a user into a 'moderated' group is causing the 'you should post more often' header to appear to them, when it wasn't there before. There's been no change in their post count, or when they last posted, but they can see the header - any ideas?

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by R-n-R

I have installed this on 3.6 RC1.

You need to install the 3.6 version of this hack. Then the links will work.