Show Thread Enhancements - Limited Guest Viewing -- Motivate Guests to Register

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 [or membership upgrades] by limiting the number of threads guests [or certain membergroups] 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.

Install Instructions: Read the install file. Customize via admin settings & templates.

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.

Search Engine Bots (Spiders): Anything that changes your forum viewing can impact how search engines treat it. The cookie approach used by this modification is bypassed by many bots and, since people can still view posts, cloaking should not apply. Users with IP logging may face more restrictions although a filtering system lets defined spiders pass. This plugin is intended to limit repetitive viewing and not restrict people from single views.

For a full explanation of the impact on bots read the install file before asking questions.

Usergroup Limitations:
Version 2.1 introduces basic usergroup limiting with the same rules & messages guests get. Based on demand this may be extended to a per-usergroup level restriction and messaging in the future.

Change Log:
- 7.21.2012 - Update to 2.1.0 which adds usergroup limiting, fixes mySQL 5.5 support, removes the need for template editing, cleans up install guide. Upgrading is optional.

Mod Philosophy -- Drive Your Own Success:
All of my mods are inspired by my work in the digital industry and are designed to drive registrations, interaction or other engagement activities the core platform does not address. Each is designed to fit a general need by providing a starting point but it's on you to decide how to make things work to their best possible outcome. Don't stay in the box.

[Neptun]

is there a possibility to get this hack working also with the articles in dem CMS of vb4 suite - this would be great

[osayidan]

Originally Posted by Ted S

That's a much different function but certainly doable.

Originally Posted by giorgino

Great plugin. Really. Fantastic!

There is the future option to limit guests to read only the first post for each topic?

This would be even better if it can be on a per-forum basis. Allowing guests to view entire threads in some sections, and say in a questions&help section, they can only read the first post (question) and must register for the rest of the posts(solutions).

Already installed + nominated, and if the above was implemented i'd wish i could do it again.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by osayidan

This would be even better if it can be on a per-forum basis. Allowing guests to view entire threads in some sections, and say in a questions&help section, they can only read the first post (question) and must register for the rest of the posts(solutions).

Already installed + nominated, and if the above was implemented i'd wish i could do it again.

Check out the options. You can exclude specific forums.

[osayidan]

Originally Posted by Ted S

Check out the options. You can exclude specific forums.

I was referring to the implementation of giorgino's suggestion, unless you're implying that such an implementation would make use of the same list of excluded forums.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by osayidan

I was referring to the implementation of giorgino's suggestion, unless you're implying that such an implementation would make use of the same list of excluded forums.

Showing only the first post would be a different mod. I'm sure someone will come up with this, hopefully with a forum exclude list.

[insidedesign]

I believe this MOD is causing problems with Google's spider. I logged into Webmaster Tools and noticed I had 14,000 'Not followed' errors within my /forum section of the website. Just about all of them said 'Redirect URL too long'

More information on this error here:
http://www.google.com/support/webmas...n&answer=35156


I think this is due to the plugin tracking via sessions. right?

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by insidedesign

I believe this MOD is causing problems with Google's spider. I logged into Webmaster Tools and noticed I had 14,000 'Not followed' errors within my /forum section of the website. Just about all of them said 'Redirect URL too long'

More information on this error here:
http://www.google.com/support/webmas...n&answer=35156


I think this is due to the plugin tracking via sessions. right?

The plugin tracks via cookies or ip address depending on your settings. It also checks the user agent to try and avoid spiders. If Google or another engine wishes to spoof and use cookies there's little more I can do.

Google has generally been ok with this approach on sites provided that people can see the content at times. For example, many news sites show Google the full article and paid members. This isn't 'tricking' google as the content is really there for people, you just have to be logged in.

As I say in the main thread, I do NOT suggest setting this to 1 or 0 views.

[mmacrypt]

This looks very good Ted, I will be installing on my Xampp side tomorrow then up live it I do everything right the first time

[insidedesign]

Originally Posted by Ted S

The plugin tracks via cookies or ip address depending on your settings. It also checks the user agent to try and avoid spiders. If Google or another engine wishes to spoof and use cookies there's little more I can do.

Google has generally been ok with this approach on sites provided that people can see the content at times. For example, many news sites show Google the full article and paid members. This isn't 'tricking' google as the content is really there for people, you just have to be logged in.

As I say in the main thread, I do NOT suggest setting this to 1 or 0 views.

Alright, so it sounds like this plug-in is NOT the issue then. This error is referring to session urls or something else that would cause the URL to be very long. Does not seem to be related to cookies or other tracking methods your plug-in uses.

hmm... maybe vbseo then. Ill check over there.

[Red Spider]

EDIT:

Working now