End-User Options - Welcome Headers: Template System Messages & Settings to Drive Participation

Out of the box, your forum isn't personalized to assist or address your visitors. As a result, guests entering on a page other than the homepage (which is most often the case) have no idea what to do or why 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. But with a little customization, the use of the vBulletin Notices System and Welcome Headers, you can solve these issues in just a few minutes.

What is Welcome Headers?

Welcome Headers is a set of predefined messages and rules designed to help you get started in personalizing your site's notices using the vBulletin notice feature. The default templates are just that, default ? I highly encourage you to modify and add to the language and rules 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.

Installation/ Upgrade Instructions

1 ? Install the attached plugin file
2 ? Add the variable {vb:raw welcome_headers} to the end of your navbar template
3 - Customize the phrases to match your forum

For detailed instructions on each step please view the install file included with this addon.

Support

Please post any enhancement or technical questions you may have and I will do my best to respond in a timely manner. Please note: I can not guarantee an immediate response and am unable to assist with integrating this addon with other addons or with HTML related questions.

Should I use this version or the notices version?

Welcome Headers have been around since vBulletin 2.0 and for many people the template conditionals give more flexibility than the notices manager. If you're looking to click and go I suggest the notices version but if you want more control over what messages show and how, this version is right for you.

Please be sure to customize and add to the messages from this addon to match the individual needs of your forum!

Upgrading from 3.7/3.8

Significant changes were made to work with the new vb4 code structure. Please be sure to backup any template changes before updating as the new version will override your existing phrase and templates.

[Dr.osamA]

nice won

thanxxx very mutch man

installed
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Hawaii Medical Marijuana Dispensaries

[Charlie98902]

I would use this but I have learned to use the notices to do the same as a welcome header. I am sure this will help a lot of those that don't want to figure it out though.

[AzzidReign]

Is there a reason to install this rather than just use the default notice system?

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by AzzidReign

Is there a reason to install this rather than just use the default notice system?

Absolutely not! Ok... kidding.

To elaborate on the main post, some people find the notices system limiting as it uses predefined rule sets and a basic template. For this reason I support (and continue to develop) the template version. It's not for everyone but for some people with specific needs like wanting to use an image or build a custom set of messages it's here.

Figured someone would ask quickly.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Charlie98902

I would use this but I have learned to use the notices to do the same as a welcome header. I am sure this will help a lot of those that don't want to figure it out though.

Definitely! There's also a notices version of this mod for those who want the templates but use the notices system.

[frogster]

Is there anyway to only show the non-registered notice on the forum and not the cms?

[radmoose]

Thanks! I have set up most of my notices before so it was nice to augment them with yours.

One coment/suggestion: As I already had many notices set up, it was hard to imediately distringush your new ones from the existing ones. As we have to (or at least should) edit yours, it would be nice if the titles had some sort of unqiue prefix like (EDIT THIS) or [Ted S]

Just would make it a bit easier to incorporate quickly.

Thanks again for sharing these notices.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by frogster

Is there anyway to only show the non-registered notice on the forum and not the cms?

Absolutely. At the top of the welcome_headers template you will see a condition with THIS_SCRIPT mentioned, you can use this to change what scripts are not shown the welcome headers.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by radmoose

Thanks! I have set up most of my notices before so it was nice to augment them with yours.

One coment/suggestion: As I already had many notices set up, it was hard to imediately distringush your new ones from the existing ones. As we have to (or at least should) edit yours, it would be nice if the titles had some sort of unqiue prefix like (EDIT THIS) or [Ted S]

Just would make it a bit easier to incorporate quickly.

Thanks again for sharing these notices.

Great idea! You posted in the template version of this mod but I'll see that the notices one gets updated.