Instead of error message, show lightbox pop-up with registration & sign-in option

[Lux Aeterna]

I would like to suggest that you add functionality to pop-up a lightbox with a "Registration" or "Sign-In" screen whenever a guest tries to access something that requires a user to be logged in. Rather than showing the error message screen, pop-up this registration lightbox so you get more members to join your website. Some people think the error message screen means that the website has an error and they may leave the website.

Example:

- Click on link that requires user to be logged in (Chat, etc.)

- Pop-up registration lightbox that says:

"Oops, you must be signed-in to do that. How about you register now? It's Free!"
[Display registration input fields here] [Display sign-in fields here]


I think this registration lightbox pop-up (rather than an error message screen) is more user friendly and better for site owners. This will surely get more people to register on your site.

[Sheffielder]

Simple

Brilliant

DEFINITELY !

[bfarber]

I like this idea from a usability standpoint, but it's generally not quite as simple as it sounds. For instance, what if only moderators can access chat? Guest accesses and we see he doesn't have permission, so we say "You must be logged in to do that, please login below". They do so, and they end up with the same "You do not have permission to access this page" error message. I think that would be just as confusing to the user. They're told they must log in, they do so, and still can't access the page.

And because we have no idea who the guest would login *as*, we can't know if they'd have permission post-login or not before hand.

[Sheffielder]

How about one just for the main forum page - that shows up just once ?

[OHIO]

If I were to edit the phrase from the ACP "An Error Occurred"... where would I do that specifically?