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.

[Thinkinstein]

Well.. what would happen if the guest view your archive or printed version?

[Beller]

Installed .. Thank You!

[phdev]

Hi,

I have 3.6.0 and the register take-over message never shows up.

What should I do to make it work?

Thanks,

Ian

[s25]

Hi I posted this a while back but I got no reply now I understand your a busy man and I love your work and you probably just missed it

Originally Posted by s25

I get this error when using it :s
Warning: strstr() [function.strstr]: Empty delimiter. in /includes/class_postbit.php(296) : eval()'d code on line 26

Warning: strstr() [function.strstr]: Empty delimiter. in /includes/class_postbit.php(296) : eval()'d code on line 26

Warning: strstr() [function.strstr]: Empty delimiter. in /includes/class_postbit.php(296) : eval()'d code on line 26

The adress is a0tu.com/bbs

The plugins I have installed are:

Originally Posted by s25

Sorry for taking so long to reply was just busy!
I don understand what you mean by values in the exclude field :s But I have the following addons installed:

Geek Auto-Link 4.5.0

Hide Links From Guests 1.32

Limited Guest Viewing 1.0.5

Link Anonymizer 1.10

Prevent Spam 1.0

Shoutcast Status Forumhome 2.0 (not working at the moment)

vB Importance 1.0.0

Welcome Headers 4.1.3
Zoints SEO 2.2.2

Zoints Thread Tags 1.2.1

[Ted S]

s25, I can't diagnose conflicts with other plugins as I don't write their code. My suggestion is to disable all hacks then enable welcome headers and another hack one at a time until you find the conflict.

[s25]

Ok no problem its just earlier in the thread you had asked for a list of my installed plugins but I will do that tonight

Hehhe amazing how these things happen,I just re-did it and now it is working I dont know why but hey if it works

[wolfyman]

yeah this hack sucks.

:P

So much so, in fact, that I just nominated it as MOTM. Thanks.

Canyou guess when I installed it?

[Ted S]

Great stats, thanks for sharing those with us!

[trd167]

this mod doesnt work for me?

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by trd167

this mod doesnt work for me?

That depends on what you want it to do for you I suppose.