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 Oblivion Knight

Does this run any queries when displaying a welcome header?

No queries, just a few new phrases, and a few conditionals. All the other info is pulled from the "normal" vb calls to the user account and forum settings.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by 99SIVTEC

I already stated that one forum is a fresh install with no plugins

I'm not sure what to tell you, I've got this running on several sites without incident. I am of course taking a look as to why this could be happening but so far nothing seems to be standing out.

As an example you can see that http://www.scubaboard.com/member.php?u=1 is working properly. Same plugin, slightly altered phrases but that's all.

To disable plugins in the event of a failure see http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...=disable_hooks

[Ted S]

	<plugins>
		<plugin active="1">
			<title><![CDATA[Inactivity Timer [Optional]]]></title>
			<hookname>global_start</hookname>
			<phpcode><![CDATA[$headerstime = time();]]></phpcode>
		</plugin>
		<plugin active="1">
			<title><![CDATA[Welcome Headers [Alteration]]]></title>
			<hookname>parse_templates</hookname>
			<phpcode><![CDATA[
				eval('$welcomeheaders = "' . fetch_template('welcome_headers') . '";');
			]]></phpcode>
		</plugin>
		<plugin active="1">
			<title><![CDATA[Welcome Headers [Template Cache]]]></title>
			<hookname>fetch_userinfo</hookname>
			<phpcode><![CDATA[
				global $globaltemplates;
				$globaltemplates  = array_merge($globaltemplates, array('forumhome_welcomeheaders'));
			]]></phpcode>
		</plugin>
	</plugins>

That's the extent of the actual php code, as you can see all we do is define a variable, open a template and cache a template. If anyone seens anything wrong please let me know.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by jugo

This is strictly template modifications. No queries are run.

I had one suggestion ted.

Would it be better to just use templates in stead for the ads instead pf phrases. Since the ads would be mostly template based anyway like html code or such.

I've removed the ad phrase entirely. I figure if anyone wants an ad they can put it in the actual phrases or the template just as easily.

[GrendelKhan{TSU]

Originally Posted by Ted S

I've removed the ad phrase entirely. I figure if anyone wants an ad they can put it in the actual phrases or the template just as easily.

how do we remove it in the meantime? (untill you get to the update?)

[Ted S]

It is in the update already, but, since this is the only change you can just modify the template welcomeheaders and remove all 4 instances of $vbphrase[welcome_ads].

[Blind Guardian]

I modified this a little so it shows a message under the navigation bar, rather than the header, but it's a good idea. Thank you.

[Oblivion Knight]

Originally Posted by Ted S

No queries, just a few new phrases, and a few conditionals. All the other info is pulled from the "normal" vb calls to the user account and forum settings.

Thank you for the quick reply.

I've made the switch to your modification and I'm most impressed! Thank you for sharing this with us, your instructions are also very clear so kudos to you!

[tanyeri24]

Bad that I cannot use this mod because it's really nice........

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by tanyeri24

Bad that I cannot use this mod because it's really nice........

I've got a few other vb sites that I will be upgrading tonight to test this on further. In the mean time, could you please PM me with some basics about your forum such as what, if any hacks/ plugins you are running now, what os you are using and how you use the datastore file for caching? Thanks.