Add-On Releases - Welcome headers - Improve community registration rates

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:

Plugins: 1 (notices entries, rules and phrases)
This template hack should take under 5 minutes to implement and customize.

Installation/ Upgrade Instructions

1 ? Backup any existing welcome header messages (upgrading)
2 ? Remove the default welcome header from your forum home template (new installs)
3 ? Install the attached plugin file
4 ? Now Required: Customize the messages to include your site's name

For detailed instructions on each step please view the install.html 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.

Why use this when the notices system exists?

Welcome Headers have been around since before vBulletin 3.0 but as of 3.7 the functionality of the system was no longer needed as vBulletin added its own native feature to handle notices. However while the notices feature lets you show welcome header style messages it doesn't give you any to start with. This addon no longer adds functionality but instead provides a set of 4 notices that have been time-tested and help your forum grow and function better for guests and members.

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

Older Version Support

While most users are choosing to upgrade to the notices system, there are some advantages to the "old" system mainly in that it does not rely on a rules system and can be configured as designed with code changes. Additionally, the "old" version has automatic interfacing with several other addons which the notices system does not. For this reason, the old version is still supported and remains fully compatible with 3.8.

Updates from 3.7

No changes have been made; the code needed for both is the same so upgrading is not necessary.

[samuelss]

Thanks once again. Much appreciated.

[funinthesun]

I have installed this mod but the pre-defined templates aren't showing up under the Notices menu?

[Ted S]

Some users have found reinsalling (uninstall then install again) gets them to show.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by dholt

Fast Question.

Is this the one for vb 3.8.0 as I see the version# Just making sure

as for vb3.7.0 is version 5.0.2
...........vb 3.8.0 version 1

This thread is in the vb 3.8 forum so yes, that's where the 3.8 version is.

Originally Posted by dholt

oh and what one of these do I download

version36_TEMPLATES-OLD.zip
version37_NOTICES.zip

version38_NOTICES is the current version.

version36_TEMPLATES-OLD is the old version as explained in the main hack thread (the old indicating old).

If you prefer to run version37_NOTICES that will work as well. There are no changes between the 3.7 and 3.8 versions.

Hope that helps.

[funinthesun]

Originally Posted by Ted S

Some users have found reinsalling (uninstall then install again) gets them to show.

Thanks, that worked.

[VampireG]

Superb! Simple but oh so effective. Nice one thanks.

[DebtFree]

I appreciate as much as everyone the work that developers put in to modifications (I know, I am a developer myself), but honestly ...

The original version of this feature was a great addition to any board as there simply was no way to accomplish this in native vB. I even used the original version myself back in vB3.0(???).

But this is now a standard 'OUT OF THE BOX' feature and so installing an addon that does the same thing does not seem logical. I think that if you can't utilize the vB feature to do what you need, then you probably shouldn't be installing new addons.

Just my 2cents (or is that now 1cent in light of the recession?)

[M3xital]

Great!

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by DebtFree

I appreciate as much as everyone the work that developers put in to modifications (I know, I am a developer myself), but honestly ...

The original version of this feature was a great addition to any board as there simply was no way to accomplish this in native vB. I even used the original version myself back in vB3.0(???).

But this is now a standard 'OUT OF THE BOX' feature and so installing an addon that does the same thing does not seem logical. I think that if you can't utilize the vB feature to do what you need, then you probably shouldn't be installing new addons.

Just my 2cents (or is that now 1cent in light of the recession?)

It's always great to get feedback but I don't think you read through the addon description... As of 3.7 (and 3.8 now) this addon is simply a set of notice rules and phrases which get inserted into that OUT OF THE BOX feature you mentioned. So yes, the feature is out of the box. But simply because people can build messages out of the box doesn't mean they want to start with nothing... This addon gets them jump started using the same phrases welcome headers has always provided.

Make sense?

[mikem164]

I am getting bad zip file for latest,tried downloading a few times?