[SC] Limit Guest Viewing 1.2.9

Turn anonymous traffic into registered community members with flexible guest-viewing limits, customizable warning notices, and detailed conversion reporting.

[SC] Limit Guest Viewing allows guests to browse a configurable amount of content before displaying a registration prompt. You decide what content counts, how long an allowance lasts, when warnings begin, and which areas remain freely accessible.

The add-on works with standard XenForo content and includes optional integration with XenForo Resource Manager and XenForo Media Gallery.

RECENTLY UPDATED!!! V1.2.6

• Added an optional Require content cookie setting. Guests must return the viewing cookie before accessing pages covered by the viewing limit. The setting is off by default.
• Added a brief cookie-check page that retries once. Visitors who block cookies remain on the check page with a Try again button.
• Applied the cookie check to AJAX and JSON requests so they cannot be used to bypass it.
• Kept DNS-verified Google, Bing, and Apple crawlers exempt from the check.
• Updated the setting’s guidance about crawler verification and WAF protection

What 1.2.6 does: adds an opt-in "Require content cookie" option. With it on:

• A visitor with no cookie gets a short "Checking your browser" page instead of the content. It sets the cookie and reloads once.
• Real browsers pass automatically and see content after about a second, on their first page only.
• Bots that don't keep cookies never get past the check page, whichever IP they come from, so they can't scrape counted pages. That now includes AJAX and JSON requests.
• Real Google, Bing and Apple crawlers are still let through after a DNS check, so search indexing isn't affected.

What it doesn't do:

• It doesn't stop the traffic. The bots still hit his server; they just get a tiny page instead of a full thread. Blocking or rate-limiting the swarm is Cloudflare's job.
• Bots that do keep cookies aren't stopped by the check. A headless browser passes it, then gets counted and limited like any guest.
• Some link previews will show the check page. Discord, Facebook and Slack don't keep cookies.

V1.2.4

• Added optional guest posting limits for selected forums. Set separate allowances for new threads and replies within a configurable rolling window.
• Added thread exclusions and an additional per-IP posting cap.
• Added a warning that shows guests how many posts remain, followed by a limit-reached notice.
• Combined viewing and posting notices into one panel when both apply, with a divider and one set of buttons. Warnings use the warning color; reached limits use the limit color.
• Added style properties for notice colors, accents, borders, radius, padding, and shadows.

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Guest Viewing Controls​

• Set the maximum number of pages a guest may view
• Choose when the viewing allowance resets, from hours to months
• Remember guests between browser sessions
• Optionally count only distinct content
• Optionally count each pagination page separately
• Enable or disable guest-view limiting at any time
• Existing registered members remain unaffected

Custom Warning and Registration Notices​

• Display a warning before the guest reaches the viewing limit
• Choose exactly when the warning begins
• Show the guest’s remaining views using the {remaining} placeholder
• Customize the warning title and message
• Customize the maximum-allowance title and message
• Optional Register and Log in actions
• Separate styled Register and Log in buttons on the final registration notice
• Responsive layouts for desktop, tablet, and mobile devices
• Dedicated public preview page for administrators
• Preview notices without consuming views or affecting statistics

Choose Which Content Counts​

Every supported content area can be enabled or disabled independently.

• Forum and node pages
• Thread pages
• Search results
• Member profiles
• Member lists and notable members
• What’s New pages
• Online members list
• Tag result pages

XenForo Resource Manager Support​

• Resource index
• Resource category pages
• Individual resources
• Resource updates
• Resource reviews

XenForo Media Gallery Support​

• Media Gallery index
• Media category pages
• Individual media items
• Albums

XenForo Resource Manager and Media Gallery integrations are optional. The add-on continues working normally when either product is not installed.

Flexible Exclusions​

• Exclude specific forum or node IDs
• Optionally exclude all child forums automatically
• Exclude selected Resource Manager categories
• Exclude selected Media Gallery categories
• Exclude verified search-engine crawlers
• Add custom crawler user-agent tokens

Registration and Conversion Statistics​

A dedicated administrator dashboard helps you understand how guest limits affect registrations.

• Counted guest content views
• Warning displays
• Maximum-allowance block displays
• Guest windows that reached their first warning
• Guest windows that reached their first block
• Registrations following a warning
• Registrations following a block
• Total registrations for the selected reporting period
• Percentage of registrations associated with a guest notice
• Number of notices viewed before registration
• Daily registration trends
• Current-period versus previous-period comparisons
• Configurable registration-attribution window
• CSV report export
• Selectable 7, 14, 30, or 90-day reporting periods
• Custom report ending date

Statistics are presented as attribution rather than guaranteed causation. This gives administrators useful conversion insight without presenting misleading claims.

Privacy and Reliability​

• Guest tokens are hashed before database storage
• No external analytics service is required
• Cookie and session verification can prevent cookie-less bots from creating tracking rows
• Verified crawler detection for major search engines
• Configurable statistics-retention period
• Automatic scheduled cleanup of expired visitor and reporting data
• Fail-open tracking design prevents a temporary statistics error from taking the guest-facing board offline
• Deferred registration-stat processing reduces interference with account creation
• Cache-control headers are limited to pages actively processed by the guest-viewing system

SEO-Friendly Registration Gate​

• Soft registration gate uses a normal HTTP response
• Automatic noindex and nofollow directives
• Prevents the registration notice from being treated as indexable page content
• Does not expose restricted page content inside the gate

Style and Appearance​

• Designed for XenForo light and dark variations
• Native XenForo color-variable support
• Consistent 8px notice corner radius
• Responsive warning and registration layouts
• Customizable notice colors, backgrounds, borders, padding, typography, and titles through XenForo style properties
• Uses native XenForo button styling for broad third-party style compatibility
• Separate visual treatment for Register and Log in actions

Administrator Features​

• Organized option groups for General, Notices, Content Types, Exclusions, and Advanced settings
• Dedicated ACP navigation
• Dedicated permission for viewing guest-viewing reports
• Administrators can preview the rendered notices using the currently selected public style
• Statistics can be enabled or disabled independently from guest limiting
• No template editing required

Compatibility​

• XenForo 2.3.0 or newer
• PHP 8.0 or newer
• Optional XenForo Resource Manager integration
• Optional XenForo Media Gallery integration
• Supports XenForo default light and dark variations
• Responsive across desktop and mobile layouts

Ideal For​

• Communities that want guests to preview content before registering
• Premium forums that need controlled guest access
• Resource and download communities
• Membership-focused discussion boards
• Administrators who want measurable registration-conversion data
• Boards that need flexible limits without blocking every public page

Encourage registration without completely closing your community to new visitors. Give guests enough access to discover the value of your content, then present a clear and professional path to becoming a member.