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.

[Alien]

It might be that you have to move the actual code to BELOW the "Are you sure you want to log out" code right beneath it? Maybe that would allow it to validate?

[Alien]

Hmm, I gave it a try and placed it in the navbar under the logout script code.. No luck. Also placed it at the BOTTOM of the navbar completely. No luck either.

/me commits harikari.

[divided_by_fear]

yeah this gives one html complaint issues...

[b6gm6n]

Originally Posted by Alien

I get the same invalid html issue so i temporarily have this turned off..

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=ht...com%2Fforum%2F

Using site above as an example (check first error on that page involving table issue, other errors are unrelated to this hack). This bug even slows down the page loading for those who login and logout every day.. When they login there is a lengthy pause at times, and sometimes they timeout altogether until they refresh a couple of times or try a few more times. This does not occur on firefox just internet explorer. It is 100% linked to this modification.

The actual html LOOKS fine on your end, so I can't figure out how to fix it and it's driving me bonkers. Any idea? Does it hate so many if statements or something?

why dont you just re-write the tags in this hack to be XHTML valid and not HTML... your problem doesn't sound like this mod...i use it on a large board with no problems

-b6

[King Kovifor]

Ted, I have another welcome panel by it, could that be the problem?

[Alien]

Originally Posted by b6gm6n

why dont you just re-write the tags in this hack to be XHTML valid and not HTML... your problem doesn't sound like this mod...i use it on a large board with no problems

-b6

I've already tried that for a few hours using every possible method I could think of, the code *looks* fine. I did the best I could (it's the only error I get on my board after squashing any and all xhtml bugs on my forumhome).

What is your large board? I'd like to test it to see if I get the login pause issues? This hack is the source of the problems. Just commenting out $welcomeheaders removes the issue. The html looks valid, but it might not like the layout of the if statements or something...

[testpig]

Originally Posted by Ted S

King Kovifor,
As I said before, this hack does not use any queries thus it can not cause an error with one unless you have changed something else.

Hi Ted.

My install seemed straightforward, and I only carried out the instructions as per the readme file.

I am now getting the attached database error. I've had 18 occurences since installing the plugin aprox 48 hrs ago. Any thoughts?

Database error in vBulletin :

mysql_connect():
/home/webadmin/hemi6pack.com/html/forum/includes/class_core.php on line 273

MySQL Error :
Error Number :
Date : Monday, November 21st 2005 @ 04:24:59 PM
Script : http://www.hemi6pack.com/forum/image...s/lastpost.gif
Referrer :
IP Address : 61.88.251.47
Username :
Classname : vb_database

[Ted S]

snappy,
This plugin does not add any queries so I am uncertain as to what could cause this. More important the error you pasted does not contain an actual sql error thus I can't really delve into it. Is there any specific sql error listed in any of the messages?

Line 273 of class_core refers to a line dealing with database connections which is certainly not anything we touch in welcome headers.

[testpig]

Originally Posted by Ted S

snappy,
This plugin does not add any queries so I am uncertain as to what could cause this. More important the error you pasted does not contain an actual sql error thus I can't really delve into it. Is there any specific sql error listed in any of the messages?

Line 273 of class_core refers to a line dealing with database connections which is certainly not anything we touch in welcome headers.

Hi Ted.

I'm at a loss mate. Followed instructions to the letter (and it seemed to work fine) so I dont know. I cut the error message straight into the post (from the email).

If I find out more info I'll let you know. Everything seems to work fine, but when I get home from work I download more messages! Wether its a coincidence, or the plugin.....I'm not sure. Maybe someone with more knowledge will understand what this message is relating to.

[testpig]

Added info...the link listed is to my vB Portal. It copies its style /headers into a seperate file, so "maybe" its causing the problem?

Anyone else running this hack with a portal?