Andy Millne Posted August 16, 2009 Posted August 16, 2009 Sometimes the error messages thrown by IPB can be a little bit abrupt and not very user friendly. Particularly those that involve viewing permissions. Perhaps these could be made to be a bit more helpful to the end user in a future version? For example instead of the current "[#103139] You do not have permission to view this forum." how about offering up some reasons as to why this might be the case. e.g "not logged in" followed by links to register or log in. etc.
bfarber Posted August 17, 2009 Posted August 17, 2009 If you aren't logged in it IS followed by a message stating as such. It would make no sense to say that "you might not be logged in" when in fact the user is (for the record, that was how it worked in 2.3 and we received feedback to make it conditional - only show if the user is actually not logged in - which we implemented).
Andy Millne Posted August 17, 2009 Author Posted August 17, 2009 [quote name='bfarber' date='17 August 2009 - 04:40 PM' timestamp='1250523649' post='1845082'] If you aren't logged in it IS followed by a message stating as such. It would make no sense to say that "you might not be logged in" when in fact the user is (for the record, that was how it worked in 2.3 and we received feedback to make it conditional - only show if the user is actually not logged in - which we implemented). No, I might not have made myself clear but that isn't quite what I meant. I am not suggesting saying "you might not be logged in" Here is what shows now when logged out... Now if I'm a guest and see "You do not have permission to post" with no suggestion as to why I have no permission it is not very helpful. Yes I might assume that I have to log in to view because of the text below (which could be easily missed as it kind of loses focus when a big red alert takes your focus) but it still relies on an assumption. What I suggest is "Only registered and signed in users are able to view this post." or words to that effect. It is not that I don't have permission it is just that I haven't signed in. If I am signed in and it genuinely is a permission error it should say "You do not have permission" as it does currently but even then a link to a help topic explaining why certain users don't have permission to do things and how they are able to obtain permission would be much better. I hope I have explained myself better. I know a lot of things are overlooked because the majority of forum users are particularly tech savvy but when you are trying to bring an archaic offline community into the 21st century then these seemingly minor issues do need to be looked at. Hope that helps, keep up the great work on what truly is an exceptional group of products.
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.