VPester - Pester Lurkers to Register

[Virgil Sovereign]

kittymay: As the plugin is currently coded, you are correct that it's not suitable for your purposes since it disregards multiple visits to the same thread.

Thinking about it, however, it should be a simple matter to add a setting to the plugin that instructs it to count the number of thread visits rather than the number of threads visited. This would render it suitable for your site.

I have another project currently in the queue, but I could get around to adding this as a feature by the end of March. I'll notify you here when I put out the update.

[kittymay]

Virgil Sovereign,
           Thank- You so much. This would be absolutely what Is needed for my forum. Most of my visitors visit the same thread every day twice a day as I had said earlier. What I didn't say is that most of the visitors are from another forum that no longer exists. I started my forum for all these people when the other forum was ending. They all followed to my forum but for whatever reason, they are not registering. I really want to remind them that they need to register and show their support for what my staff and other members are doing. I have tried the shoutbox and reminders in posts, but if they look don't look there it does nothing. A polite popup that they can't miss would be exactly what I need. I would guess that there are others who could use this feature as well. I look forward to hearing from you, late March sounds great.
Thanks Again
Kitty

[blc]

Virgil Sovereign

Hi. I had an older version of this plug in and had to disable it because it was constantly pestering me, the admin, to post.

I just installed the latest version the other day and just got this.



Needless to say, I have made many posts since installing it. I have just disabled it once again. Just thought you might want to know, something is wrong.

trueblueliberty.com/

[Akadeanna Hawk]

I tried using the plugin; but it was pestering me too when I was logged into my account looking at things on my site

[kittymay]

Feb 12, 2015 9:18:33 GMT -8 Virgil Sovereign said:

kittymay: As the plugin is currently coded, you are correct that it's not suitable for your purposes since it disregards multiple visits to the same thread.

Thinking about it, however, it should be a simple matter to add a setting to the plugin that instructs it to count the number of thread visits rather than the number of threads visited. This would render it suitable for your site.

I have another project currently in the queue, but I could get around to adding this as a feature by the end of March. I'll notify you here when I put out the update.

Hi Virgil Sovereign,
      I just wanted to touch base with you and let you know that I'm still very interested in this. Have you had any time to look into this?
I am very excited about having the ability to tell all my guest that they could show their support by becoming a member.
Kittymay

[Former Member]

love this plug in thank you

[Maude Fealy]

I finally installed this but I can't get it to work

Most of our board is invisible to lurkers so we have a lot of people who sign up and just read without doing any posting. We want to use this plugin to gently try and convince them to post.

So I configured all my settings the way I want them to be, made a long list of excluded members who I never want pestered then decided to test the plugin with my "testing" ID. I tried it on Chrome, Firefox and IE. For the purpose of my test, I set it to pester after visiting 2 unique threads within 24 hours. I visited more threads than that on each browser but I never saw the pester message on any of the three browsers I tried.

I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Help!

[Virgil Sovereign]

Jul 4, 2015 16:09:59 GMT -8 Maude Fealy said:

I finally installed this but I can't get it to work

Most of our board is invisible to lurkers so we have a lot of people who sign up and just read without doing any posting. We want to use this plugin to gently try and convince them to post.

So I configured all my settings the way I want them to be, made a long list of excluded members who I never want pestered then decided to test the plugin with my "testing" ID. I tried it on Chrome, Firefox and IE. For the purpose of my test, I set it to pester after visiting 2 unique threads within 24 hours. I visited more threads than that on each browser but I never saw the pester message on any of the three browsers I tried.

I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Help!

Maude Fealy: There could be a few causes.

Firstly, be certain that you're configuring the settings for "Lurkers" if you're dealing with guests, or "Mutes" if you're dealing with members.

Secondly, if you're dealing with lurkers (guests), there's the problem of browser cache wipes. Because there's no reliable way to associate data with non-member browsers, the plugin uses something called the localStorage facilities of guest's browsers. Unfortunately, this data is often wiped out when the browser history/cache is cleared, meaning the plugin "loses track" of how many threads have been viewed and must restart the count.

Thirdly, one of the plugin settings prevents the plugin from pestering users immediately after the required number of forums is visited. Make sure this setting isn't checked.

Otherwise, perhaps you could enable the plugin for one of your sub-boards only and provide me with a link to the sub-board. I'll check out what the problem might be.

[Virgil Sovereign]

Apr 10, 2015 21:39:24 GMT -8 kittymay said:

Feb 12, 2015 9:18:33 GMT -8 Virgil Sovereign said:

kittymay: As the plugin is currently coded, you are correct that it's not suitable for your purposes since it disregards multiple visits to the same thread.

Thinking about it, however, it should be a simple matter to add a setting to the plugin that instructs it to count the number of thread visits rather than the number of threads visited. This would render it suitable for your site.

I have another project currently in the queue, but I could get around to adding this as a feature by the end of March. I'll notify you here when I put out the update.

Hi Virgil Sovereign,
      I just wanted to touch base with you and let you know that I'm still very interested in this. Have you had any time to look into this?
I am very excited about having the ability to tell all my guest that they could show their support by becoming a member.
Kittymay

Sorry, kittymay, it's still in the queue.

I'll get to it eventually, but I can't make any time guarantees at this point. Sorry.

[Maude Fealy]

Jul 8, 2015 7:39:52 GMT -8 Virgil Sovereign said:

Maude Fealy: There could be a few causes.

Firstly, be certain that you're configuring the settings for "Lurkers" if you're dealing with guests, or "Mutes" if you're dealing with members.

Secondly, if you're dealing with lurkers (guests), there's the problem of browser cache wipes. Because there's no reliable way to associate data with non-member browsers, the plugin uses something called the localStorage facilities of guest's browsers. Unfortunately, this data is often wiped out when the browser history/cache is cleared, meaning the plugin "loses track" of how many threads have been viewed and must restart the count.

Thirdly, one of the plugin settings prevents the plugin from pestering users immediately after the required number of forums is visited. Make sure this setting isn't checked.

Otherwise, perhaps you could enable the plugin for one of your sub-boards only and provide me with a link to the sub-board. I'll check out what the problem might be.

Thank you so much for getting back to me!

I wrote a message for lurkers but I'm not really interested in them so I used rather high settings and I didn't test the lurker portion of the plugin. What I'm really after is mutes. I want them pestered, and often.

I'm thinking that the problem may be the setting you are referring to, which prevents immediate pestering. But I can't find it to deactivate it. I am using version 1.0.6 of the plugin.

The plugin is (supposedly) activated on all our boards and sub-boards. You can try it on this board and its sub-board, which are both public. If you are testing the lurker portion, the number of unique threads visited before pestering starts is set to 20.

Thank you again for any help you can provide!

[Virgil Sovereign]

Maude Fealy, kittymay, and interested parties: I've updated to v1.1.0, which should be available in the plugin library shortly.

v1.1.0:

• should fix the bug where the plugin appears not to run on some boards (let me know if it doesn't)
  
• adds support for triggering pesters based on total number of thread accesses (as well as number of unique thread accesses, which is still the default)
  
• stores member settings in a Proboards user key as well as using the localStorage facility; this should prevent cache wipes from causing problems with the plugin
• fixes various other small bugs and issues

I've attached the plugin below for those who don't want to wait for the library version.

VPester.pbp (5.54 KB)

[Maude Fealy]

Jul 8, 2015 16:16:00 GMT -8 Virgil Sovereign said:

Maude Fealy, kittymay, and interested parties: I've updated to v1.1.0, which should be available in the plugin library shortly.

v1.1.0:

• should fix the bug where the plugin appears not to run on some boards (let me know if it doesn't)
  
• adds support for triggering pesters based on total number of thread accesses (as well as number of unique thread accesses, which is still the default)
  
• stores member settings in a Proboards user key as well as using the localStorage facility; this should prevent cache wipes from causing problems with the plugin
• fixes various other small bugs and issues

I've attached the plugin below for those who don't want to wait for the library version.

Awesome!!! I installed the new version and tested it. The pester message appeared right on cue!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

[evforumadmin]

I just installed the plug-in on my forum and when you open a thread, you get "Invalid Item, Error Code 2". Do you know what this could be?

[Virgil Sovereign]

evforumadmin: This plugin doesn't generate that particular error. It sounds like you may also have a "shop" plugin installed, and perhaps made recent changes?

If you're certain the error is related to VPester, limit the plugin to running on one particular board and post a link to the board here. I'll check out if there's a conflict between plugins.

[Maude Fealy]

Jul 10, 2015 18:44:16 GMT -8 evforumadmin said:

I just installed the plug-in on my forum and when you open a thread, you get "Invalid Item, Error Code 2". Do you know what this could be?

I'm getting the same error with the "Lurkers" part of the plugin. The "Mutes" section is working beautifully and we've already had a few posts from mutes

This is what I saw when I tested the "Lurker" part of the plugin:



I do not have any "shop" plugins enabled. Here are the ones we use:

Disable Editing After a Set Time 1.0.7
Hide Recent Edits 1.0.0
Reply Button in Posts and Recent Posts 1.0.0
Simple Image Upload 1.5.0
Shoutbox Links 2.0.0
Auto-Embed Image Links 1.1.0
Mini-Profile for Welcome PM 1.1.0
New PM Alert 2.0.4
Welcome Header Below Ad 1.0.3
IP Lookup 0.0.7
Different On/Off Icons for Different Boards 1.0.5
Images in Thread Titles 1.2.5
Post Specific Avatars 0.0.4
GIF Blocker 1.0.0
VPester 1.1.0

Since I was really interested in the Mutes part of the plugin, I wasn't going to mention this problem until I saw the post I quoted above. Right now I have the Lurkers portion set to trigger after 999 posts, to make sure that no one encounters the error.