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.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by insidedesign

I have installed the system and it is a great system. I am using the Register Block Page feature, however it seems to be interfering with the Welcome Header MOD...

For example, the Welcome Header displays properly in a forum view:
http://www.genxglow.com/f37/

However, in a thread view - the Welcome Header is not displayed:
http://www.genxglow.com/f37/gxg-taki...on-strom-1440/

I would still like the Welcome Header MOD displayed on thread pages as well. How do I acheive this?

Thanks in advance!

You can change how the two systems work by modifying the options.

[insidedesign]

Originally Posted by Ted S

You can change how the two systems work by modifying the options.

Disable welcome headers if limited guest viewing system is on?
Set to no

I don't see how any of my settings would be conflicting. Can you provide any more input? Thanks for your support thus far!

[Ted S]

Be sure you're using the latest versions and that setting should work.

[insidedesign]

Originally Posted by Ted S

Be sure you're using the latest versions and that setting should work.

Welcome Headers 4.2.2
Limited Guest Viewing 1.0.6

[CP,]

I presume this affects search engine spiders from indexing pages to search engines as it will prevent SEO bots aswell?

[Rebecca217]

Originally Posted by CP,

I presume this affects search engine spiders from indexing pages to search engines as it will prevent SEO bots aswell?

No, it doesn't. Search engines and spiders can still access and crawl your site just as they did before. It's only guests who are restricted.

Rebecca

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by CP,

I presume this affects search engine spiders from indexing pages to search engines as it will prevent SEO bots aswell?

Review the first post and/or instructions for an explanation of how this works with robots.

[Adam21]

Hi.How and where do we change the codes to edit instead of unregistered users,to registered users?

[Ted S]

Edit the plugin file to change the conditions from guests to !guests.

[BadgerDog]

Hi Ted...

Right thread this time ...

If I change the user title (it's currently blank) of the Usergroup #3 "Users Awaiting Email Confirmation" to "Guest", just like it currently is for Usergroup #1 "Unregistered / Not Logged In", will that cause these two groups to be treated by your code below cumulatively, and keep the "read" block in place until they become Usergroup #2 "Registered"?

Faling that, what do I add to the line below as an AND statement to cause that same effect?

// check if user is a guest and if system is enabled
if ($show['guest'] AND !$lvgbot AND $vbulletin->options['lgvon'])

Sorry, I'm an old Fortran programmer out of the 60's and this new stuff is a little bit of a reach for me....

Thanks for your help....

Regards,
Badger