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 gox

Ted,

On occasion, BOTH messages appear at the same time. For example, a fresh visitor comes to the forum, after three post views, they get the first message, i.e., "... enjoying ...". After another two post views, BOTH messages appear, i.e., "... enjoying ...", and "... exceeded ...". On subsequent post views, only the "... exceeded ..." shows up.

Why would this be happening?

Thanks.

Do you have the thresholds set to the same value?

Even then this should not happen as the block produces a hard error which doesn't call in the template variable...

[gox]

No, but I did adjust them to be further apart since discovering this behavior. Seems to be working okay for now.

Any ideas on what might cause this to happen?

[Andrei29]

Great mod! Installed and work perfectly!

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by gox

No, but I did adjust them to be further apart since discovering this behavior. Seems to be working okay for now.

Any ideas on what might cause this to happen?

It shouldn't be possible but then again, if it's happening, it's possible.

Maybe a cache issue? Or someone opening multiple windows and hitting counts differently over time?

[gox]

Originally Posted by Ted S

It shouldn't be possible but then again, if it's happening, it's possible.

Maybe a cache issue? Or someone opening multiple windows and hitting counts differently over time?

Yea, possibly. I'll advise if it crops us again.

Thanks.

[Davey-UK]

Could this be made so that it could also be used for regular members to be persuaded to upgrade to a paid/subscribed member?

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Davey-UK

Could this be made so that it could also be used for regular members to be persuaded to upgrade to a paid/subscribed member?

Sure but it's neither foolproof nor designed that way out of the box. Fixing the design is easy as it just takes 3 lines of code editing... making it impossible to stop, well, that's another story.

[Davey-UK]

Originally Posted by Ted S

Sure but it's neither foolproof nor designed that way out of the box. Fixing the design is easy as it just takes 3 lines of code editing... making it impossible to stop, well, that's another story.

Any chance of sharing the edits please?

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by Davey-UK

Any chance of sharing the edits please?

It's not code I've written but in short you'd find all the spots that check for a guest, change that to see if it's not a guest and they're not in a certain group and you're done.

[Davey-UK]

Oh, i thought you said its simply 3 lines of code to edit, as though it was a quicky that you had already done.