Welcome headers - Improve community registration rates

vBulletin 3.6 users click here for the 3.6 compatible version of this plugin.

The out of the box vBulletin style does not have a robust method of informing users about their current activity status or user level. As a result, guests entering on a page other than the homepage (which is most often the case) have no idea what a forum is about or that they may need 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.

To help solve these problems, the welcome headers plugin creates a 5-part set of conditionals to better introduce members to your community while pushing them to register, activate or post. The default templates are just that, default ? I highly encourage you to tweak the language and functions 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.

What?s new in 4.1.0
The 4.1.0 version of this system is a complete rewrite from earlier versions. All of the original functionality still exists; however, the system has been improved to make it much more modular. With the new version, you can now turn on/off individual welcome header messages, configure the content and change other settings all from your ACP Options panel. Additionally, a 5th welcome header has been added for global announcements. With the exception of one small phrase change, this upgrade is seamless to upgrade.

Upgrade Instructions:
Full upgrade instructions can be found in the attached zip file. However, to avoid confusion anyone upgrading from the 4.0.x version of this plugin to 4.1.x should do the following:

1 ? Upload the new version of the plugin file based on your version of vBulletin (3.5 or 3.6). Be sure to set the override option to ?yes?.
2 ? Go to your phrase manager and search for the phrase ?first_visit_message?, copy any customizations you have made to this phrase into the phrase ?welcome_guest?.
3 ? Go to your vBulletin options, select the ?Welcome Header System? group and configure the options as desired.

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

Details on how it all works:
Step One: Turning lurkers into Members
For most websites, upwards of 50% of traffic (or more) comes through search engines or deep links to threads, profiles and categories. Out of the box, vBulletin only displays a welcome message on the forum-homepage, meaning someone who enters through any other page does not have the benefit of seeing an explanation of the site or welcome message. The guest welcome header is used to explain the purpose of your site, sell users on the benefits of joining the community and push them to proactively register.

Step Two: Making Users Confirm their Account
Many vBulletin sites require email confirmation prior to being able to post or access an account. However, activation emails are often misdirected to spam folders, ignored or simply deleted, leaving unconfirmed users with little access rights and no explanation as to what is wrong with their account. The unconfirmed welcome header is used to inform unconfirmed members of their account status and to direct them to automatically resend their activation email, or to contact the webmaster for support.

Step Three: Get non-posting users to post
Another chronic problem faced by many forums is insuring users post after registering. Many new visitors register in order to access certain features with the intent of posting, but never do so. The never posted welcome header is used to encourage users to post for their first time and should ideally be linked directly to an introductions or new member forum to help users "break the ice".

Step Four: Getting inactive users to become more active
Many members start out as lurkers, register, post once or twice and then go back to being lurkers. Often time these members are not actively thinking about participating in topics or are still shy about interacting. The inactivity welcome header reminds members to make a post after a predetermined amount of time as specified by the forum administrator.

Step Five: General Announcements
Unfortunately the standard announcements are often overlooked or never even seen by members who use the "new posts feature". As a result, urgent notices may be missed by users causing problems and high volumes of support requests. The global announcement welcome header creates a message shown to all members who do not fall into the other welcome header groups (guest, unconfirmed, never posted, inactive). Whether it be a scheduled outage/ upgrade, an important request or the need to display an advertisement in a prominent spot, global announcements allow an administrator to effectively and quickly display messages in a way that is certain to be read.

The results:
At first glance this system may seem a bit superfluous, however, the numbers rarely lie, nor does the feedback. Since posting this plugin in October, it has risen to over 1700 confirmed installations and is now one of the top 5 vBulletin plugins. On ScubaBoard.Com, the site the system was originally tested on, posting rates have increased by over 100%; new user registration rates by over 60%; user activity by 50% and the welcome/ intro & greets forum has exploded over 400%. If you browse through the pages of this thread you will find even more real life testimonials and experiences from the thousands of people using the system.

But enough about why -- give it a shot yourself and let me know how your results turn out.

vBulletin 3.6 users click here for the 3.6 compatible version of this plugin.

[Milez]

Originally Posted by Ted S

But of course, just go to your ACP, click on phrase manager and search for any of the following phrases (by phrase name, not contents).

True but you cannot edit the phrase entry directly but rather the translation of that phrase. I have been just manually editing the database to change it.

No biggie really! I can see this hack working wonders on my board in only 24 hours.

[PET]

Originally Posted by HumourForum.com

I have the latest version of the plugin installed and I even tried re-installing it but I still get:
"Welcome to the [ARG:3 UNDEFINED] forums. " (for guests).
Please explain how to fix this - thanks.
I have managed to get the hack to work without the plugin as it was causing the "Admin CP Lockout" problem.

same problem here

[admin0]

Installed and working great!

[Robbed]

Originally Posted by Ted S

Simple enough! Just open up the welcome_headers template, and find:

<if condition="$bbuserinfo[posts]<1">

Above this add:

<if condition="is_member_of($bbuserinfo, 4)">
	<!-- unapproved user message -->
	<br />
	<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
	<thead>
	<tr> 
		<td class="alt1">
			<phrase 1="$vboptions[bbtitle]">$vbphrase[welcome_coppa]</phrase>
		</td>
	</tr> 
	</thead>
	</table>
	<!-- / unapproved user message -->
<else />

At the very end of the template, add </if>.

Then create a new GLOBAL phrase named welcome_coppa with whatever text you want to show to the user. Let me know if you have any problems...

Thanks man, I will give it a try tonight. It should stop all the pm and emails on why they can't post yet etc.

Also alot of new members are already posting to the welcome thread, that I included in the no post phrase.

Good Hack.

[C_P]

Originally Posted by Aftermath

Ah man that is just SWEET! This hack deserves a special title "Hack of the World"

Thank you very much!! Now with this hack, it really helps!

I must agree. This is a fantastic modification and nice addition to the forum system.
This is one of those modifications you wonder why is not in the base product.
Great job with this one Ted! :up:

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by C_P

This is one of those modifications you wonder why is not in the base product.

I first released this mod (I really shouldn't call it a hack, it's not) about a year ago during version 3.0.3. When 3.5 was being developed I simply assumed this was something they would include with the base product, perhaps not exactly like this but in some capacity. Oh well.

[HC.]

I will be installing this soon I REALLY LIKE THE IDEA and vB should look into adding it to there base software that is for sure
just my .02 cents without installing yet
I will install this later tonight

[HC.]

quick question
Step Two: Making Users Confirm their Account
what if X user entered a fake email thinking that they would get more rights to the site is there away for X user to change his email and have a new activtion sent to him?

Step Three: Get non-posting users to post AND Step Four: Getting inactive users to become more active
Is there a conditional that says after X # of days that there user acount will be deleted?
Hope this makes since
step 3 and 4 would be great to have for boards that post true number of active members

[Robbed]

Thanks Ted_S, added your COPA code to the xml file...works great.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by HC.

quick question
Step Two: Making Users Confirm their Account
what if X user entered a fake email thinking that they would get more rights to the site is there away for X user to change his email and have a new activtion sent to him?

They could go to their profile and update it, but they often don't. However, just telling people they are unconfirmed and giving them a link to (a) resend the confirmation email and (b) contact support for assistance is a huge boost. There will always be people who do not confirm for a host of reasons and there are always those who enter information incorrectly. By telling them why they can't post and what exactly they need to do to fix the problem, you can confirm as many as are willing to confirm. It's when they don't know that what's wrong that you lose the ones who actually intend to be on the site.

Is there a conditional that says after X # of days that there user acount will be deleted?

Nope but there is nothing stopping you from adding one using the code I gave as a starting place. My welcome headers are only meant to be the beginning... customizing them to match your needs and your community is where the real funds begin.

For your coding use: 86400 seconds is a day, 604800 is a week and 2678400 is a month.