Quora-like overlay for non-signed in visitors

justshipit

How can I in simplest way possible, modify the code to show to the visitor an overlay with a call to action to sign-in to view the content?

Scenario: You are coming from Google search and to read the thread you need to sign-in.

BlackSheep

I hate when forums or website do this sort of thing. I prefer that you have to log-in to answer in discussions not to see them.

But i think that can easily be done with the actual permission system.

justshipit

BlackSheep you might hate it but there is a reason behind it - it's a perfect way to boost up the signups if done properly. I like Quora style a lot because it teases you with partially visible content and the only way for you is either do inspect element and remove overlay or sign in. Since average Joe is not that tech savvy, in most of the cases he will do the latter.

I know there is an option to switch off showing the posts to outsiders, but I do want to let them see it - just with an overlay so they either sign up or quit 😉

viet

It is effective in growing community and gaining new users, but needs to be done differently from Quora. What Quora does is kind of excessive, especially when browsing on phone.

It's up to the dev team to implement it in the far future, I hope that important features are done first so it can get out of private beta.

flame

justshipit so they either sign up or quit

Nope: they sign up AND quit, not OR.
This type of childish stuff is what makes your forum have 1000 members with 990 that have never posted.

As written from BlackSheep you can implement something similar with the permission system. But instead of having an overlay you just simply can't reply if not a member (that's valid and professional).

Putting an overlay is like charging ads that moves your layout after a few seconds the page is load: just shameful

justshipit

flame Nope: they sign up AND quit, not OR.
This type of childish stuff is what makes your forum have 1000 members with 990 that have never posted.

That's not an issue with your signup - thats an issue with engagement. No matter how you design sign-up part, if you don't have engagement, it will be a ghost town anyway.

Its not about putting a forum out there, its about building Community.

Franz

justshipit Its not about putting a forum out there, its about building Community.

But that part happens through interesting content and nice community members, not through forcing people to sign up to read content.

justshipit

Franz But that part happens through interesting content and nice community members, not through forcing people to sign up to read content.

The best if you can have all 3. I am in charge of big Community and in my case the content is exclusive to our members so we don't want someone simply land from Google and start reading - we do require from him a small effort upfront and yes, you can afford doing so if you have nice community and good content in place 🙂

Hint: this works incredibly well and its not a rocket science.