Guest Posting for XenForo 2.x by AddonsLab [Paid] 1.8.0

[doublespaces]

Also could you clarify the behavior of disable email verification. Is this only used when they click the email link? What about social login? What about direct to registration(without clicking the email link)?

 

[Mr. Jinx]

Small suggestion: would it be possible to provide some stats or logging so I can see which newly registered users used the quick registration?

 

[doublespaces]

Small suggestion: would it be possible to provide some stats or logging so I can see which newly registered users used the quick registration?

Also is there any metrics available for users who have converted into registered members this way?

Hello everyone,

We will work on this and release an update soon.



Fo users who actually ended up registering there will be a record in the table xf_algp_guest_content with has_registered column being set to 1. if you have enabled the option "Keep Guest Content" the table will also contain rows for each thread/post that has been created but did not end up with registration. You can use this information to extract the conversion rate.

Thank you!

There is really no better way to prove the effectiveness of your product than to provide this metric. I think it should be a core feature.

 

[lightspeed]

Please let me know what kind of difference that change makes in registrations I'm very curious.

@doublespaces It works much better now by redirecting to the sign up page. I get more sign ups now and that means less moderating guest comments. The guests who self register then get notifications of reply's to their posts, so they come back and make more posts and become part of the community.

 

[doublespaces]

@doublespaces It works much better now by redirecting to the sign up page. I get more sign ups now and that means less moderating guest comments. The guests who self register then get notifications of reply's to their posts, so they come back and make more posts and become part of the community.

That makes sense to me, but can you show some stats?

 

[doublespaces]

Can you add an option to approve posts held for moderation once they register the account? Depending on the board admin, I don't think there is a reason to treat it any differently than a normal registration, then posting.

if you have enabled the option "Keep Guest Content" the table will also contain rows for each thread/post that has been created but did not end up with registration. You can use this information to extract the conversion rate.

If Keep Guest Content is disabled, will it hard or soft delete? I want these stats, but I want content to be deleted automatically.

 

[lightspeed]

That makes sense to me, but can you show some stats?

The only stats I can see are by manually going into List all users > Sort by: Join date and then clicking on each individual user. If they joined via the Guest Posting plugin it says Today at 3:30 AM (via Guest Posting).

If I sample the past 20 new users, 5 of them joined via Guest Posting and combined they posted 10 posts.

 

[doublespaces]

@AddonsLab It seems I've gotten a few people who are creating duplicate accounts with other emails or not finishing the registration process when they already have an account. Can we have a second option to redirect to login in addition to the existing redirect to registration page? I think part of this is happening as on Facebook, opening links uses the facebook browser which doesn't have the same cookies as your PC.

As a side note, I wish there was a 'smarter' login page that was better worded for dual usage. Perhaps something like:

"Continue with email"
or
"Continue with Facebook"

@DragonByte Tech used to do something like this for XF1 but it wasn't as social login minded. Logging in with a username and a password should be an afterthought rather than the main option(in my opinion). People don't want to fill all that crap out, they already know whats about to be asked of them.

 

[doublespaces]

Can you add an option to approve posts held for moderation once they register the account? Depending on the board admin, I don't think there is a reason to treat it any differently than a normal registration, then posting.

Ok, so I misunderstood, this actually does happen already.

 

[doublespaces]

Also regarding this:

Also could you clarify the behavior of disable email verification. Is this only used when they click the email link? What about social login? What about direct to registration(without clicking the email link)?

Since I use the 'immediately redirect to registration' option, I have changed these phrases:

algp_guest_message_post:
Activate your reply by creating a username:

algp_guest_message_post_email_confirm:
Please follow the link sent to your email address to activate your post.

---

The previous wording doesn't prompt them to finish the registration process initially. At first, it states "Your reply in thread <b><a href="{thread_link}">{title}</a></b> has been posted. "

This is a mis-communication, it makes the registration seem optional. Have you ever used a service like DocuSign and after giving the e-signature online they say, "Hey, by the way, if you want you can also create an account so it is easier next time". That is what it seems like to me. I think we are losing a few registrations because of the phrase choice.

I know this is true because there are people leaving replies asking to be contacted so they can buy something and they don't finish the signup. They think they are done.

The most important part about that phrase:

"Please <a href="{register_link}">register</a> or <a href="{login_link}">login</a> to activate it. "

This is stuck at the very end after three unnecessary links. People don't read everything these days, expecting most users to read this whole line is not wise.

Also, we are asking them to register or login again, something the user thinks they just did, this doesn't really make sense, so my vote is to change these phrases, telling them to finish the process rather than what we currently have.

 

[doublespaces]

I had a user who had finished registering and they were still sitting in the approval queue? So I'm not certain what the verdict is on that. @AddonsLab could you clarify the expected result?

Also, I have seen that users cannot attach a file, even when upload attachments permission is given to unregistered users. Is that fixable? Otherwise there is no way for them to upload an image for example.

 

[doublespaces]

I have done more testing and it appears the post is approved from the manual queue once they complete registration. I'm not sure why in some cases it won't occur, but it has in the past.

In any case, I feel like dumping the user off at the "/complete" page is pretty worthless, can we please send the user an alert letting them know their post was approved? This way they can at least click on it and go back to the thread.

I had an addon made that forces the "/login?_xfRedirect=" to be honored in all scenarios (even social registrations), if you wanted to talk about how to get users back to the exact post they came from upon registration, it is possible to do by adding that URL param and the addon I have.

 

[AddonsLab]

@doublespaces Thank you for your insightful updates. I agree with most of your notes regarding phrasing, registration workflow. Unfortunately, we are really overloaded with tasks and can't manage any update to the product right now except supporting to make sure it functions as intended and there are no bugs left unfixed.

Here are some comments regarding some of your notes:

I have done more testing and it appears the post is approved from the manual queue once they complete registration. I'm not sure why in some cases it won't occur, but it has in the past.

The general rule is that the user is put back in the state that they would have with a usual registration, not envolving guest posting. In some cases, this state is not a "valid" but "awaiting approval", which is a result of the board's configuration. If it happens just sometimes, I assume the reason for it in your case is spam check trigger classifying the user to be approved manually. Please investigate this possibility.

In any case, I feel like dumping the user off at the "/complete" page is pretty worthless, can we please send the user an alert letting them know their post was approved? This way they can at least click on it and go back to the thread.

It is possible to redirect to their thread/post after registration, as we know exactly which content they have created, so we can implement it as an alert or redirect after registration. Sending an alert seems to be a better option and less invasive, as some admins may prefer the users to see some custom message on registration completion, in case of redirection this page will be completely skipped. We will implement it as soon as possible.

Thank you!

 

[doublespaces]

@doublespaces Thank you for your insightful updates. I agree with most of your notes regarding phrasing, registration workflow.

Understandable.

May I ask, is there a way to insert a notice on the registration/login page as well? The one where the user is initially redirected to immediately after posting.

It seems I get a number of people dropping off here and perhaps some words of encouragement can help generate more registration. They may feel like their posting is lost, so perhaps we can suggest to them "To activate your post, please login or register"?

 

[doublespaces]

@AddonsLab It seems I've gotten a few people who are creating duplicate accounts with other emails or not finishing the registration process when they already have an account. Can we have a second option to redirect to login in addition to the existing redirect to registration page? I think part of this is happening as on Facebook, opening links uses the facebook browser which doesn't have the same cookies as your PC.

Going to add this case as an example. Someone who had an account replied but it asked them to register so they went back and logged into their actual account and replied again. If we switched this to redirect to the login page, then they can choose to login or register.

 

[doublespaces]

The dev is busy so I managed to change the redirect from 'register' to 'login' by editing the file located in:
\upload\src\addons\AddonsLab\GuestPosting\XF\Pub\Controller\Thread.php

public function actionAddReply(ParameterBag $params)
    {
        if (
            ($guestEmail = $this->filter('_guestEmail', 'str'))
            && App::getProductOptionProvider()->enableQuickRegistration()
        )
        {
            App::getRegistryProvider()->set(Flags::LAST_GUEST_EMAIL, $guestEmail);
        }

        $reply = parent::actionAddReply($params);

        if ($reply instanceof Redirect)
        {
            $url = $reply->getUrl();
            if (App::getGuestSession()->getLastContent())
            {
                if (\XF::options()->algp_redirect_immediately)
                {
                    $reply->setUrl($this->buildLink('register'));
                }
                elseif (strpos($url, 'pending_approval') !== false)
                {
                    $thread = $this->assertViewableThread($params->thread_id, ['Watch|' . \XF::visitor()->user_id]);
                    $reply->setUrl($this->buildLink('threads', $thread));
                }
            }
        }

        return $reply;
    }

Change the line from:

$reply->setUrl($this->buildLink('register'));

To:

$reply->setUrl($this->buildLink('login'));

Now, I'm trying to get it to redirect the user back to the original post they just made once they've registered. Instead of dumping them off at that worthless "Thanks for registering" page. This is partially blocked by a XF design issue which I've resolved via a custom addon. Just need to get it integrated with this addon.

 

[doublespaces]

Small update, I managed to get the addon to return you back to the post the guest just made after registering the account. It requires an addon that I had developed as well as a small code modification to Guest Posting. I've sent this information to @AddonsLab but I haven't received a response about the subject. If you would like this feature, unofficially, feel free to PM me, no charge involved.

 

[Earl]

In the add-on's overview page you have

Users are redirected to their content immediately after logging-in.

But I couldn't get this working.
I can't find this feature

 

[AddonsLab]

In the add-on's overview page you have

But I couldn't get this working.
I can't find this feature

This feature is indeed missing in the XenForo 2.x version of this add-on and we are working on it right now. For login, the redirection will be automatic, and for registration, we will implement it as an option that admins can decide if they want users to see the standard registration completion page or redirect automatically to their content.

This feature will be released soon.

Thank you!

 

[lightspeed]

This is a really good plugin but I think it needs some changes.

1. Like @doublespaces said, the Immediate redirect to the registration option doesn't show any notice on the registration page. Therefore the user doesn't know why they have to register, so they probably don't register.

2. I've also noticed that when Enable Quick Registration Workflow is active, guests don't have to enter an email address to post the reply, therefore many guest probably don't enter an email address. There is nothing telling them what the email address field is for, so why would they enter one? Another problem is they can just enter a fake one and then they will never get the verification email.

3. If both the above options are disabled, then we get the notice at the top of the forum. At least we can change the phrasing ourselves, because the default phrasing makes it sound like the message has been posted without taking any further action just like @doublespaces said.

I've gone back to using just the notices and disabled the other settings, I'm posting my new notices here for anyone to use. I'm using some nice little font awesome icons to make the notices eye catching like this:



Phrase:
algp_guest_message_post

<i class="fas fa-user-plus"></i> New user? Please <a href="{register_link}">register now </a>to activate your reply in thread <b>''{title}''</b>. Registering is simple - you can use Email, Facebook or Google.
<hr>
<i class="fas fa-user-check"></i> Existing user? Please <a href="{login_link}">login now</a> to activate your reply. Looks like you were logged out while posting.

Phrase:
algp_guest_message_thread

<i class="fas fa-user-plus"></i> New user? Please <a href="{register_link}">register now </a>to activate your thread <b>''{title}''</b>. Registering is simple - you can use Email, Facebook or Google.
<hr>
<i class="fas fa-user-check"></i> Existing user? Please <a href="{login_link}">login now</a> to activate your thread. Looks like you were logged out while posting.