Official - Paid Make replies and comments unreadable for Guests to encourage signups

[glennrocksvb]

One way to encourage user signups is to prevent guests from seeing non-image attachments and codes.

Another way is to blur out replies and comments for guests in such a way that only the starter post is visible and the replies and comments are unreadable.

For the vB4 version of this mod, please go here.

Screenshot:



Instructions:
Please refer to the installation document included in the download file.

Disclaimer:
The solution used here is using CSS. This means that web-savvy users might be able to figure out how to bypass it and be able to obtain the content. But for average users, this would be enough deterrent for them and would encourage them to likely signup to your forum to obtain access to the content they like/need. This all boils down to quality content on your site which gives value to the users that they would sign up to obtain it.

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[William]

Hi Glenn,

Is there a way to have the notice requiring registration show on each additional page in a thread? As of now, the notice saying one needs to register to view replies only shows after the op. If there was a way to keep that notice center of screen and on each additional page of a thread it would be perfect.

Thanks,
William

[glennrocksvb]

That was originally what I was doing but the message becomes blurred too. I will look into that further if there's any solution.

[William]

Just an idea. What about a watermark type text/image overlay that repeats? As I typed this, I realized the same problem would probably happen with it blurring. Shame that Vbulletin doesn't have a pop notification that can be set!

[glennrocksvb]

I think I found a solution. But the message will not be vertically centered on the page. It will be on top. I'll update the first post once I'm done. And William I'll PM you the updated code.

[William]

Can't wait to see Glenn.

For the time being I added a javascript app:

[glennrocksvb]

It's nice to have that feature but I tried to do a simple CSS-only solution. Although that can be also implemented in CSS by adding background image but without links as adding dynamically generated content in CSS only allows text.

[glennrocksvb]

Fixed. PM sent.

[William]

Works perfectly Glenn. Many Thanks!

William

[glennrocksvb]

You're welcome William. Monitor user registration on your site and see if this mod is effective

[KimK]

Hi glennrocksvb I bought this mod, and it is blocking my articles and blog pages /blogs and /articles, not just the comments/replies. See attached screenshots. VB 5.2.2. Do you know how I can correct?

[glennrocksvb]

Thanks for reporting this. Looking...

[glennrocksvb]

Sent the fix to your PM. Please confirm here if it's working and I'll update this mod officially.

[NumNum]

Did it block your help manual as well?

[KimK]

Hey Glenn, the forums are still working perfectly. Now blogs and articles are visible, but the comments are visible in all blogs and articles. I checked Chrome and Internet Explorer, same result in both.

[glennrocksvb]

Thanks for confirming. I'll look into that.

[glennrocksvb]

PM sent for the fix.

[glennrocksvb]

KimK, have you gotten my fix for blog/article comments issue? Is it working?

[glennrocksvb]

FYI. I have officially updated the zip file that is being sent when you purchase this mod with the fix for the blog/article post issues that KimK reported.

[William]

Hi Glenn,

If we have purchased this and downloaded earlier, how do we download the new package?

Enjoy,
William

[glennrocksvb]

I'll reopen your order shortly so you can download the new file.

[glennrocksvb]

Check your email. The new download link was sent to you.

[William]

Thank you Glenn!

[Felix2]

Because this is one of your paid mods I won't go too deep into this, but you really made a simple fix very complicated.
In all matters of hiding areas from select users, it is a simple matter of going to the module and wrapping it in a conditional statement.
Such as,

<vb:if condition="is_member_of($user, 2)">
 the birthday module
</vb:if>

If the USER is a MEMBER of GROUP 2 (registered users) then show the Birthday module, otherwise, not registered, you don't need to see it.

This is a mass security flaw of lazy programmers and such conditions can be applied to many modules not only for basic function, but also forum security.
In most cases, if a person is NOT a registered member, why would you want them to have access to most of the modules?
You would not want to do it to the Registration module, as that is required by not registered members.

But lets say for example, you only want VIPs, Mods and Admins to use the Chat module, but not even registered users.
Set the 3 GROUP numbers, wrap the module and there you have it. Only those 3 get to see chat.
Some modules have this feature as an option. Many do not and have to be set manually.

[glennrocksvb]

Thanks for your feedback Felix2. But this mod is not for totally hiding the replies and comments but only to make them unreadable. It's a different effect for guests not to see the replies at all than seeing them but blurred. The primary purpose of this mod is to encourage user signups and allowing them to see blurred content might entice them to register to your forum.

In general, whenever I create a plugin, I try to avoid template editing as this is a maintenance nightmare. If you edit existing vBulletin templates, chances are there are merge conflicts during an upgrade and you have to resolve the conflicts, otherwise, the template might not work.

Btw, are you sure is_member_of() works in vB5?