A more enticing prompt to register

[cmeinck]

As with most forums, folks enter into threads directly from search engines. In a typical Xenforo thread, the prompt to register (You must log in or sign up to reply here) in order to reply gets lost in the shuffle. It would be great to have more exposure visually, perhaps by having a Post Reply button that would redirect to registration if they were not registered.



Thoughts? Suggestions?

 

[Chris D]

My notifications add-on is good for this.

It basically uses the same criteria as the Notices system so you can target Notifications to guests and other users and pages based on certain criteria.

A good example of that usage is here: http://www.sociallyuncensored.eu/forums

 

[iLight]

could you chris say how you do that?

 

[yavuz]

I saw on one site where the editor was active for visitors. You can write your text and as soon as hitting the "Post Reply" button (equivalent) a popup screen appears where the user is asked to register in order to post the message. The message is saved and upon successfull registration (and account confirmation) you'll be redirected to the page where you can resume.

 

[iLight]

I saw on one site where the editor was active for visitors. You can write your text and as soon as hitting the "Post Reply" button (equivalent) a popup screen appears where the user is asked to register in order to post the message. The message is saved and upon successfull registration (and account confirmation) you'll be redirected to the page where you can resume.

it's beautiful!!! which site?

 

[erich37]

how to turn this text "(You must log in or sign up to reply here)" into a button ?
The same button-style as we have for the "Post New Thread" button ?

 

[fattony69]

how to turn this text "(You must log in or sign up to reply here)" into a button ?
The same button-style as we have for the "Post New Thread" button ?

That part isn't hard. Just search for the phrase and replace it with a button since HTML is allowed.

 

[TheBigK]

I'd like to make the reply editor visible to the guests. When they compose and click 'post', they should be asked to register/login

 

[MagnusB]

how to turn this text "(You must log in or sign up to reply here)" into a button ?
The same button-style as we have for the "Post New Thread" button ?

Good idea, I have this semi working, but for the life of me some css refuses to apply. Anyway, a quick and dirty way to do this is to open the template thread_view, then search for:

<label for="LoginControl"><a href="{xen:link login}" class="concealed">({xen:phrase log_in_or_sign_up_to_reply})</a></label>

Replace with:

<label for="LoginControl"><a href="{xen:link login}" class="concealed button">({xen:phrase log_in_or_sign_up_to_reply})</a></label>

However, the paddings and text decoration on hover might be off, so you need to do some additional CSS on that. I am working on it, but for some reason my code refuses to work and I am completely stomped as to why it wont apply my CSS (in fact, it won't even acknowledge my CSS being applicable to it at all, and I can't understand why it isn't).

As it is looking now, for me, I might just end up copying the sign up button instead, and change the phrase, so it is prettier.

 

[AzzidReign]

I saw on one site where the editor was active for visitors. You can write your text and as soon as hitting the "Post Reply" button (equivalent) a popup screen appears where the user is asked to register in order to post the message. The message is saved and upon successfull registration (and account confirmation) you'll be redirected to the page where you can resume.

I've been suggesting this for YEARS to forum developers. This would be amazing to have for forums and would result in a massive increase in activity and registrations.

 

[MagnusB]

I've been suggesting this for YEARS to forum developers. This would be amazing to have for forums and would result in a massive increase in activity and registrations.

Looking at the template, it could very well be possible to do this, as the template only checks if you can quick reply. Removing this if statement should load the quick reply editor on all pages, however I think xF doesn't throw back a login page when you access pages you aren't allowed to view, so when users try to reply without being logged in they will get a error page just saying they aren't allowed to do that.

I would think how youtube were / is doing it, would be better. If you are logged out, the comment editor box is visible, but when you hover over it, it will grey out and show a link to sign in or up. As I think it is doable, and sounds like a fun challenge, I might take a look at this if I get some time, but I won't make any promises, and I won't be able to release this as an addon.

 

[MagnusB]

Well, I tried to play around a bit with having the quick reply editor visible for guests, however, there is a snag, xF absolutely refuses to load the quickreply editor for guests.... I get the post profile etc to display correctly, but the editor does not load. I tried a couple of methods, even copying over the already rendered html, but it wouldn't work.

So instead I went ahead and experimented using a text editor field, and having an overlay when hovering over it. I got a very crude and basic version working, which in theory should work well if you can get the quick reply editor to load. I have not played around with adding in buttons etc, but that isn't really important, as long as I get the basic working, and since the overlay will prevent any text from being inserted, there is no need to have it. I was thinking about just building the look of the editor manually, but I had a look through it, and that seems very time consuming. I am not really sure if I want to spend more time on this, cause the way I am doing it, you can just as well just include an image of the editor. The reason why I didn't do it that way, was so it would work on a multiple of styles, and screen resolutions.

I used this to get the overlay, and it worked OK, but I noticed some minor loading issues (but the connection have been wonky here today). My plan was to show something ala the quick reply editor, then use the overlay to show the login form if guests tried to write a reply, with a big nice sign up button as well.

 

[MagnusB]

So this is what I have so far:

That is the view by default. When you hover, you get this overlay:


As I said, this is just a crude version, more a proof of concept. I have not experimented much with the overlay yet, but in theory you should be able to have a login form there, or basically whatever you want (within reason). I am also a bit disheartened about the fact I can't get the editor to load for guests, in fact, even enabling guest posting won't load the quickreply editor, so my guess this is a conscious design decision by xF, and would most likely require a addon to load, and I am by no means able to make that, and it would be rather wasteful to load this just to have guests not being able to use it anyway. I even tried the quick and dirty way, enabling guest posting and tried to load the full editor, but no such luck.

I was thinking about rebuilding the look of the editor, but the more I think of it, the more I think it is a crap idea. For one, it would take me forever as most of the editor is fetched via js, I would basically have to rebuild the basic look of it and then copy over the relevant css, and secondly, it would be very vulnerable to any change made to the editor, and then we are back at loading the full editor which again is wasteful...

I am willing to move a bit forward with this, and maybe emulate the look and feel of the BBCode editor, but this depends on the interest for this (which I guess is small to none). So far this only requires two new templates (html and css), the mosaic js file and 2 template edits. Or if anyone a bit more competent is willing to do this, I can share the little work I have done so far.

 

[Digital Doctor]

which site has an enticing comments / reply box ?

(1) Any Wordpress site.

(2) Any Disqus site.



Demo: http://www.crazyengineers.com/millionshort-removes-top-x-web-sites-from-search-results-5022/

 

[MagnusB]

As I am bored at work from time to time (read: all the time), I did more experimentation today:


I got a working login form as an overlay over a text edit field. I also included a small text block on the right of the login field, but it can pretty much be styled any way you want. In fact, I had to redo most of the styling to make the login stuff. If you really wanted too, you could just set the height to about 170px, and just include the login template used at the top of every page (in fact, that was how I did it to begin with, but it was to high, so I had to redo most of it).

The buttons you see (post reply and register to post) are just there for visual representation, they serve no function. In fact, Post reply links to the login page, the other to register page, if for some reason the user manage to click them (blocking javascript would prevent the overlay from working).

 

[AzzidReign]

As I am bored at work from time to time (read: all the time), I did more experimentation today:


I got a working login form as an overlay over a text edit field. I also included a small text block on the right of the login field, but it can pretty much be styled any way you want. In fact, I had to redo most of the styling to make the login stuff. If you really wanted too, you could just set the height to about 170px, and just include the login template used at the top of every page (in fact, that was how I did it to begin with, but it was to high, so I had to redo most of it).

The buttons you see (post reply and register to post) are just there for visual representation, they serve no function. In fact, Post reply links to the login page, the other to register page, if for some reason the user manage to click them (blocking javascript would prevent the overlay from working).

<3

And you are right, I doubt many people would be interested in this. Kind of sad though. Especially since people use bad tactics like allowing search engines to index their content as a member but then make all guests have to log in to view that content. At least this way the user may think they can reply and then will see they have to register.

 

[MagnusB]

<3

And you are right, I doubt many people would be interested in this. Kind of sad though. Especially since people use bad tactics like allowing search engines to index their content as a member but then make all guests have to log in to view that content. At least this way the user may think they can reply and then will see they have to register.

Well, I originally only did this because I thought it was fun, not because I wanted to use it for my self. If you want the edits, I can give them to you, but until I get some more time to clean them up, I wont be putting anything out. It also needs more work, for example, I need to use absolute positioning for some, which means breaking containers, which means hacking the width a bit. It seems that what I did works ok on the default style (on multiple resolutions), but I have no idea how it will behave on any other style, so expect to work some at it (CSS only though). I also want to fix the overlay up a bit, which I will do at any rate, so that it is bigger than the "editor". Right now, the top and sides of the overlay is perfectly aligned with the text field, and it kinda looks a bit wonky (when looking very closely).

Be warned though, it is just a text edit field, with a few things that looks like buttons, and an overlay that prevents anything from being used. It is also completely manual install, though you only need to edit two templates and create two new ones, and requires a 3rd party javascript file (Mosaic jQuery plugin).

Ohh, and as I have been working on it, I have been wanting to add it to my own site, especially after I added in animation slow

 

[MagnusB]

http://xenforo.com/community/resources/quickreply-for-guests.1034/

This is what I have so far, and I am not sure if I am able to take it much further. I just published that guide so that others can benefit from the work, and preferably make it better and maybe clean it up a bit. I also spent quite some time on it, and didn't want to let it go to waste...