Does XF allow hiding of all posts except the 1st one?

[steve_aust]

Hi XF users,
I am currently using VBulletin.
I currently can hide all posts in a thread, except the 1st post (as a means to increase registrations)
In other words, anyone can read the 1st post in a thread, but subsequent posts are each shown to guests as "This post hidden to guests - sign up and become a member to read (free to register)". Members can of course see the content in the post(s).

So if there are 4 posts in a thread, anyone (i.e. guest & members) can read the 1st post (the starting post) but guests see "Post hidden to guests etc." three times, for each subsequent post. Guests can however still still see the person making the post, just not the content.

I hope I have explained this clearly, it really made a difference to our registrations, as people get drawn into an interesting thread title / 1st posts, and then want to read subsequent responses / answers, so they register.

Is this in the core with XF 1.5?

 

[borbole]

No, this is not in the core with xf. It will require a custom mod.

 

[steve_aust]

Thanks Borbole, I guessed as much.
I guess I now have an incentive to learn XF's templating system / OOP / MVC /Zend etc. and have a crack at the mod.
On first glance, it sounds like an easy mod.
i.e. when displaying a thread (like this one) check if guest or member logged in and display post (for member) or alternatively display "sign up etc." message (for guest/robot).
I could do the mod if it was simple procedural PHP, but I've seen some of the OOP-code in the programmer forums here on XF.com and I can see there is a very steep learning curve!

 

[steve_aust]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Guest!
This post is hidden to guests, but fully viewable to members.
Sign up now to read. (Its free, quick & easy!)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Cyb3r]

It would only require a simple modification to the message template, so you don't have to worry about that, xenforo is more flexible than any script I ever used.

 

[steve_aust]

Thanks Cyb3r, you have given me some confidence to consider buying a copy of XF and peek at the message template, and do the mod.
How hard can it be?
Famous last words...

 

[Cyb3r]

Thanks Cyb3r, you have given me some confidence to consider buying a copy of XF and peek at the message template, and do the mod.
How hard can it be?
Famous last words...

It's as simple as replacing a text in a txt file.

 

[Snog]

I did a quick add-on to do just this.

https://xenforo.com/community/resources/hide-all-but-first-post.4591/

You should be able to modify it to look the way you want it to look.

 

[Raitsa]

https://xenforo.com/community/resources/first-post-only-forum.3613/

 

[Snog]

https://xenforo.com/community/resources/first-post-only-forum.3613/

Did a search and didn't find that one.

 

[steve_aust]

Wow, fast work snog!
Your "mod" looks like it will do exactly what I was asking about. And yes, I wanted the mod to be "forum wide" (all forums)
So brilliant work.

 

[steve_aust]

Andy's mod looks great too, with option to select forums to mod. But I will peek at snog's code first, as it probably is simpler to follow.

 

[Snog]

Andy's mod looks great too, with option to select forums to mod. But I will peek at snog's code first, as it probably is simpler to follow.

In my case, it's a simple template modification and a couple of phrases. The best place to see it all at once would probably be in the install XML itself.

 

[AndyB]

Andy's mod looks great too, with option to select forums to mod.

This is an important feature. You only want to use this on a few forums to entice new membership. The reason is that robots are also excluded and you don't want your forum not being indexed.

 

[steve_aust]

Just to update this thread, Andy created an update to his mod to achieve exactly what I was after.
His mod (currently v1.2) can be found here-
https://xenforo.com/community/resources/show-first-post-only.4637/
I have tested it on a demo board and it is sensational.

Thanks @AndyB