Add-On Releases - Limited Guest Viewing -- Improve community registration rates

Note: This addon works with the 3.6.x series only. Click Here for the 3.7.0 version of this addon.

With vBulletin, forum guests are able to view endless amounts of content without being directly asked or forced to register no matter how many times they come back. The purpose of the Limited Guest Viewing System is to drive in registrations by limiting the number of threads guests are able to view without interruption.

This plugin offers two options which can be used to drive in more registrations. The first option allows you to show a reminder message or advertisement after a guest has viewed a certain number of threads. The second option puts up a roadblock stopping guests from viewing threads altogether after reaching a certain number of views. Both options work together to encourage and ultimately force anonymous visitors to either register or login but can also be used separately based on your individual needs.

Because this plugin uses cookies, few if any bots will be impacted when it comes to spidering your site.

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

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

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

Through the ACP you can enable or disable each option, specify the number of threads that can be viewed before the option is enabled and input any forums you wish to exclude from being blocked.

About spiders/bots
This plugin works by setting a cookie to track the number of visits from a particular user. As bots do not tend to accept cookies, they should not be blocked. To further insure there is no spider accessibility issues, there script identifies major bots (google, yahoo, msn, aol) and explicitly lets them through -- you can easily add to this list by editing the plugin code should you so desire, however, unless a bot starts taking cookies this should not be necessary.


Welcome headers compatibility
The Limited Guest Viewing is designed to work with the Welcome Headers system without any conflict. To insure that welcome header messages do not show up at the same time as the limited guest viewing message, please be sure you are running welcome headers version 4.1.3 or greater (released 11/19).

Updates
5/9/2008 - Released update to prevent installs on 3.7 boards.
2/18/2007 - Minor update to fix register link. Updates optional.
11/20/2006 - Minor update released to fix error with links in some messaging. Updates recommended.

[Fusion2]

Originally Posted by Ted S

No. As stated in several threads and the original post, the plugin uses cookies. Bots don't use cookies. Thus bots are fine. However, to be extra sure I have added a routine to check for and skip processing for several major bots which represent 90%+ of searching. Other bots should be fine too.

Ok thanks, I just installed and Love it.

But, does this reset after 24hrs?

Meaning that when they hit the block, does it limit them to a total of 10 views or just 10 views for today?

Im hoping it only limits them during a 24hr period. Thus i can set it low to just 5 per day etc..

[ICY ICE]

Thanks works perfectly!

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Fusion2

Im hoping it only limits them during a 24hr period. Thus i can set it low to just 5 per day etc..

It's views until you clear your cookies, be that every hour, day or never.

[agitated]

Thanks for this Ted S

Installed and working fine. Only wanted to restrict one forum at the moment and it works perfectly well.

One thing though, it does not appear to restrict access via the Archive.
Is this correct ?

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by agitated

Thanks for this Ted S

Installed and working fine. Only wanted to restrict one forum at the moment and it works perfectly well.

One thing though, it does not appear to restrict access via the Archive.
Is this correct ?

Correct. This does not impact the archive what so ever.

[agitated]

In that case spiders will still be able to spider via the archive so no worries there.

Are there any plans to add the archive to the restriction. ?

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by agitated

Are there any plans to add the archive to the restriction. ?

I hadn't planned on it but I suppose I could take a look.

[rex_b]

Gonna give this a shot

[Rebecca217]

This hack is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you so much!

I second the above about also limiting the archive--that would be a handy feature.

Rebecca

[HUMMERh3]

yes a good add on to the next update would be to allow "clear cookies" so that if the user comes back in 24 hours they can view the threads again up to the limit you set i.e 10 views.

By the way this works for vb3.54 as well