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.

[Bad Bunny]

So, I have tested this a bit, and it seems really useful. What exactly is the problem from the spider perspective? Is it blocking them or is it not? Also, wouldn't using only the message bypass any problems with the cookies anyway?

[Distance]

Thanks!! I love your hacks

Ahhh this is a good point!! Does it block spiders!!

[redlabour]

Originally Posted by JimmyN

so this hack still allows all search engine bots to view?

But limits normal guests?

thanks

No it does not - read the Thread. It only works at the most important but not at all. And sometimes it can block the important Ones if they change their Crawlers.

Originally Posted by Distance

Thanks!! I love your hacks


Ahhh this is a good point!! Does it block spiders!!

Is anybody reading before installing ? *omg*

[scottreeve]

Originally Posted by Ntfu2

Try to reimport the product XML and overwrite the old one.

Thanks for your help.

I've reimported, and still the same problem

[Distance]

Bots dont work then.... great shame

*uninstalls*

[InTeNsE-HuMoR]

This hack is great but it looks like everyone overlooked this simple mistake:

On the "Register block page" the create a new account links are invalid and thus a guest is unable to sign up for an account through that page. Other than that, great hack.

[sensimilla]

Its a great hack I was in need of,
thanks

[puertoblack2003]

i like this very much and by far a good hack..thanks **INSTALLED**

[Robru]

Marvelous hack, thanX

[hotwheels]

It let's the bot's on your site........After 12am when my site stat's reset, here is what i show currently for my bot's: Yahoo! Slurp(11) , WorldIndexer , Google and Yahoo! Slurp Spiders (283), Majestics MJ12bot Spiders (1), Technorati Spiders (1), WiseNut Spiders (1), MSNBot Spiders (1), WorldIndexer Spiders (2), FeedBurner Spiders (2), Voyager Spiders (1), Google Spiders (1), FeedFetcher-Google Spiders (1)........

Hotwheels