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.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Mikevet1984

At least do you examine if your mods are compatible with the latest vBulletin versions when released?

For example I see in the mods install info inside the rar file that this mod is 4.o.x compatible. Did you check if this mod is 4.1.3 compatible?

My contributions are exactly what they are, no reason to sell them as anything else, right?

"dot" updates are fairly minor and rarely conflict with mods, especially mods that add new features [rather than extending core ones]. When I was a heavy vB user I'd test within hours, but these days I find that to rarely be needed. So yes, I do check but other users generally check far faster and report issues back. Crowd sourcing is awesome.

Bugs are squashed when discovered.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Videx

You can never count on a mod's author to check function in the newest releases. They can only guarantee it works with whatever release they are using. They, like the rest of us, depend on people with the latest versions to let us know if there are problems.

Since it's incumbent on you to read the entire thread before installing any mod, chances are you'll know just from the last page if anyone's having trouble. In this specific case your answer appears not more than a half dozen posts above yours: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....postcount=314.

Good answer, thanks for chiming in!

Even testing it's easy to miss an issue or not experience one due to a different combination of settings. As such crowd sourced information is hugely important in an open develop system like vB mods and it's great to have the help of users in developing and handling updates.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Mikevet1984

I see....You are hosest. Thank you for that!

I've gotten out of the habit of mentioning this lately, but since your question brings it up, I should reiterate a little wisdom on my mods.

I'm a marketer before a programmer and my mods, while now many years old, stemmed from making experience improvements to drive up registrations and activity. The idea was to share relatively portable solutions that my startup, and later on my client's sites, had success with. But while it's tempting to just download and install what you see, websites thrive when they are driven relative to their userbase. As such I have the high hopes that no one just uses my mods out of the box... whether it's extending the features or customizing the messaging, generic is never the ideal solution.

These days forums are taking a back seat to the social networks of the world and that's a function of our own creation. One can point fingers as the software vendor and while there's fault there, ultimately as community owners we should be ideating as much, if not more, for ourselves and as a community of communities. The more we innovate in sharing, interaction, and even integration with networks, the more opportunity we have.

While I'm not the active contributor to this community that I was 7 or 8 years ago, I'm supportive of those looking to build and grow their sites. So if you need a little help, by all means ask, but if you want to do something novel, that's when I get really interested.

[ChromeDome]

Anyone use this for a new forum? Any comments about registration rates before and after using this plugin?

[Videx]

Personally I would not use it on a new forum myself, for fear of scaring away potential members. But once the forum starts generating some traffic, that's when you can set the hook.

[rajubd]

Originally Posted by Videx

Personally I would not use it on a new forum myself, for fear of scaring away potential members. But once the forum starts generating some traffic, that's when you can set the hook.

fine I am using this mod in pick hour to reduce server load...

[ChromeDome]

Originally Posted by Videx

Personally I would not use it on a new forum myself, for fear of scaring away potential members. But once the forum starts generating some traffic, that's when you can set the hook.

I feel the same way, thanks. I'll just row with the welcome headers for now.

[sweetpotato]

Thank you for the nice mod, it's very useful for my site. Is there any way I can change style of the reminder message? I want to make it look like vb default notice style.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by sweetpotato

Thank you for the nice mod, it's very useful for my site. Is there any way I can change style of the reminder message? I want to make it look like vb default notice style.

You can customize the css style however you like, or just edit the template to use the notices class elements.

[sweetpotato]

How to find css style of this mod message and replace it by notices style?
Thanks,