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Welcome headers - Improve community registration rates
Version: 4.1.2, by Ted S Ted S is offline
Developer Last Online: Nov 2020 Show Printable Version Email this Page

Version: 3.5.5 Rating:
Released: 10-28-2005 Last Update: 08-14-2006 Installs: 1474
Uses Plugins Template Edits
 
No support by the author.

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.

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  • This modification may not be copied, reproduced or published elsewhere without author's permission.

Comments
  #902  
Old 06-01-2006, 12:45 PM
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CrossBones CrossBones is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by davelacey
*Clicks installed*
One of the best hacks around.

However, I do seem to have a slight problem with two of my styles, ("Black & Gold" and "Heavy Metal") where the initial wm duplicates itself - the second one as below.

"Welcome to the [ARG:3 UNDEFINED] forums.

You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions, articles and access our other FREE features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload your own photos and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today!"

If anyone would care to take a look, they'll see what I mean.

Any suggestions will be gratefully received. Thanks.
Yeah I see what you mean.

And, I also see what some are saying about the "Shout Box" appearing larger than it should be when viewed in Safari. Not cool.
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  #903  
Old 06-01-2006, 12:46 PM
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CrossBones CrossBones is offline
 
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nm...it appears larger than I've seen normally in FF too!
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  #904  
Old 06-01-2006, 01:55 PM
MotoUp MotoUp is offline
 
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If I update this, am I going to have to re-edit my phrases?
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  #905  
Old 06-01-2006, 03:49 PM
davelacey davelacey is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CrossBones
Yeah I see what you mean.

And, I also see what some are saying about the "Shout Box" appearing larger than it should be when viewed in Safari. Not cool.
Very helpful.
Thankyou.
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  #906  
Old 06-02-2006, 01:04 AM
Ted S Ted S is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tommyxv
So if i don't use vbseo and already have v4.06 installed, there is no need to upgrade as it's only an update to the install instructions???
Nope. The update does not change any behavoir in the main version of the script.
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  #907  
Old 06-02-2006, 01:06 AM
Ted S Ted S is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MotoUp
If I update this, am I going to have to re-edit my phrases?
You shouldn't need to, but the update is very minor so really there's no reason to install it at this point. In the future if anything substantial is changed, an announcement will be posted.

vbSEO compliance can be achieved by moving the $welcomeheaders variable out of the header template and into the end of the navbar template.
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  #908  
Old 06-02-2006, 01:07 AM
Ted S Ted S is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by davelacey
Any suggestions will be gratefully received. Thanks.
It looks like you didn't quite manage to follow all of the instruction steps. Open your forumhome template and remove the code as stated in the instructions, that should clear up the duplicate message!
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  #909  
Old 06-02-2006, 01:10 AM
skooby skooby is offline
 
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This is really awesome, thanks a lot

Just having a slight problem. I am using VB 3.54 with CMPS. On the homepage CMPS, it looks great, but if I go to the forum, the welcome header is appearing twice. I'm not sure if it has something to do with the template I'm using. I included a screenshot if anyone has an idea of how to fix this. Thanks again

PS: I"m using the non-VBSeo version
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  #910  
Old 06-02-2006, 01:13 AM
peterska2 peterska2 is offline
 
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skooby, have you done the template edit in the forumhome template? That is to remove the lower box to stop it appearing twice.
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  #911  
Old 06-02-2006, 01:33 AM
DementedMindz DementedMindz is offline
 
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ok i installed the vbseo one well not really i had the old one installed i seen you moved $welcomeheaders to navbar temmplate now... instead of header so i tried to move $welcomeheaders to my navbar... all went fine but the thing is when you do that with vbadvanced it dont show the welcome message on the portal page... is there a way to fix that? it shows fine on my forums page though
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