forum interface not user friendly - About xda-developers.com

I understand the desire to keep the spammers out, but it seems that you went for the brute force approach here.
When I tried to reply to someone's message that contained a link, as new member I was not allowed to do so because my message now contained a link, even though it was only a quote. Fine.
When I wrote a message, filled out the image verification field and clicked on "preview post", I had to do image verification all over again before posting. This is simply annoying and does nothing to prevent spam, it only prevents good user experience and discourages people from previewing their posts. Maybe I don't even need to do the verification when I preview the post, I didn't experiment, but in any case this is a pretty badly constructed interface.
Finally, when I wanted to edit my post immediately after posting, I got a message that new users have to wait five minutes before posting again. Obviously, the restriction doesn't distinguish between posting a new message and editing an old one. Again, in this case it's simply annoying.
Ironically, the forum pages are teeming with flashy advertisements.

biggvsdiccvs said:
I understand the desire to keep the spammers out, but it seems that you went for the brute force approach here.
When I tried to reply to someone's message that contained a link, as new member I was not allowed to do so because my message now contained a link, even though it was only a quote. Fine.
When I wrote a message, filled out the image verification field and clicked on "preview post", I had to do image verification all over again before posting. This is simply annoying and does nothing to prevent spam, it only prevents good user experience and discourages people from previewing their posts. Maybe I don't even need to do the verification when I preview the post, I didn't experiment, but in any case this is a pretty badly constructed interface.
Finally, when I wanted to edit my post immediately after posting, I got a message that new users have to wait five minutes before posting again. Obviously, the restriction doesn't distinguish between posting a new message and editing an old one. Again, in this case it's simply annoying.
Ironically, the forum pages are teeming with flashy advertisements.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These are measures put in place only for new users. As you post more, it'll be easier.
It's something we have to do.

Too many new user to do differently.
Inviato dal mio Nexus 4 usando Tapatalk 4

Related

[Request] allow original poster to close his own thread and delete double posts...NOW

Please allow posters to close their own threads and delete double posts. It's ridiculous not to have this feature!!!
What is so harmful about us closing our own threads?
I think it is beneficial, for example:
1) OP feels harassed: closes thread
2) OP learns that there was already another, more prominent thread of the same issue: closes thread
3) OP wants too closes his upcoming software update but doesn't want to read other's post issues that he has fixed on the next version.
etc...
Why can't we close our own threads? Delete our own posts?
For ***sakes look at these threads:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=4120834#post4120834
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=535393&highlight=deleted
If you aren't going to implement this then atleast tell us why in the world we can't delete our posts!
Here is my previous thread posted at the wrong forum:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=535157
After reading Mike´s post it is clear that the best and easyest way is to click on the red button asking an experienced Mod to do the action, otherwise it can be a democratic chaos...
Just my opinion.
mikechannon said:
It sounds obvious that you should be able to delete your own posts. However, it can cause chaos! Once you create a thread you do not own it, particularly if other users have contributed posts to the thread.
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I agree, Just because you posted a thread, doesn't mean it's your thread. This is a community with no personal ownership of posts or threads.
mikechannon said:
Deleting the first post in a thread deletes the whole thread. This could be a long running thread with many posts and pages. To allow this thread to suddenly vanish because the OP deletes the first post can upset many contributing users.
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Mike Speaks from Experience here.
mikechannon said:
However, it's relatively easy to have the odd post removed by clicking on the report post (red triangle) that appears on all posts. All you need do is say something like "please delete my double post" or "delete my post it's in the wrong forum" etc etc
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Once again I reinforce Mike's statement. The Mods are here to assist you, please make use of our services.
mikechannon said:
There are also a couple of other fiddly reasons why it's best for a Mod to delete posts - one is that a Mod can also move the post to Trash. You may not know that deleted posts are still visible to Mods and leaving them kicking around forums makes things look very messy to Mods even if other users see a nice tidy board. Another reason not to allow user delete is that a very few users could use this to cover up "provocative posting" or just to cause trouble with other members. (You can imagine for example, that a ROM thread suddenly disappearing because the cook is bored with it could lead to lots of frustration amongst users and extra work for Admin and Mods.)
Just use the report icon or contact a Mod - quick and easy
Mike
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Click to collapse
Just basically report to mods is the summation here.
Got a question about deleting a post:
Once a post is deleted, then all posts after it in the same thread will be changed a post#. E.g, if post#2 is deleted, then post#3 became #2, #4 become #3 etc. But if the original post#3 is cross-linked to another thread using the 'view single post' function. In such a case, will the cross-link url address be updated accordingly?
The link will be to the deleted post, no re-shuffle will occur.
The URL is showpost.php and p=4153097 ("p" is the post number, not the thread number, that will be "t").
Here is one I deleted from this thread : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=4153097&postcount=6
As a moderator, I can see deleted posts. Try that URL above
Dave
In the above case, seems you deleted the whole thread.This is the url you pointed:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=4153097&postcount=6,
And I can not access these:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=4153097&postcount=5
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=4153097&postcount=7
My question is for example in this thread we are talking in,
if you deleted this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=4121794&postcount=3.
But I already crosslinked this post (next one to the deleted) with this url: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=4132664&postcount=4.
So my above url will become this post, is that right?
BTW, sometimes I can see the contents of deleted post from a google search result.
Edit: Ok, seems I got it, you said no re-shuffle. That means if #3 deleted, , #5 is still #5, so there is no influance on crosslink address of posts. Thanks.

Had problems submitting my first post.

Hello,
I had some problems submitting my first post to this forum. I always got this error message:
1.To prevent spam to the forums, new users are not permitted to post outside links in their messages. All new user accounts will be verified by moderators before this restriction is removed.
... and wondered what went wrong. I had no outside links in my posting and decided to wait for some time, maybe it was a temporary problem with the forum. After then I tried to post my message again. Same error.
After some brain work I noticed my mistake:
in my nickname I have a (at). Maybe the rule set for the e-mail-filter is a bit restrictive, so it wrongly validates every (at) in the posting.
Should be only taken as an advice to maybe adjust the filtering or at least the error message a bit.
best regards
gu(at)no
[email protected] said:
Hello,
I had some problems submitting my first post to this forum. I always got this error message:
1.To prevent spam to the forums, new users are not permitted to post outside links in their messages. All new user accounts will be verified by moderators before this restriction is removed.
... and wondered what went wrong. I had no outside links in my posting and decided to wait for some time, maybe it was a temporary problem with the forum. After then I tried to post my message again. Same error.
After some brain work I noticed my mistake:
in my nickname I have a (at). Maybe the rule set for the e-mail-filter is a bit restrictive, so it wrongly validates every (at) in the posting.
Should be only taken as an advice to maybe adjust the filtering or at least the error message a bit.
best regards
gu(at)no
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe trying to find clever ways to put sh*t as your user name, wasn't as clever as you thought ?
Hello, I have a problem in my first Thread. I would send a new ROM for the raphael, but it gives me this error "To prevent spam to the forums, new users are not permitted to post outside links in their messages. All new user accounts will be verified by moderators before this restriction is removed."
how can I do?
thanks for all answers.
blaste said:
Hello, I have a problem in my first Thread. I would send a new ROM for the raphael, but it gives me this error "To prevent spam to the forums, new users are not permitted to post outside links in their messages. All new user accounts will be verified by moderators before this restriction is removed."
how can I do?
thanks for all answers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check your PMs
Mike
ok, thaks!
i have the some problem like friends up
Bartezz612 said:
i have the some problem like friends up
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Click to collapse
I would do what the warning/restriction says and contact a moderator.
JAguirre1231 said:
I would do what the warning/restriction says and contact a moderator.
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Click to collapse
I wouldn't
There's nothing we can do. The restriction is on posting links and images. It automatically lifts after the member posts enough times.
It was added to prevent spam bots and it has worked wonders.
Dave
DaveShaw said:
I wouldn't
There's nothing we can do. The restriction is on posting links and images. It automatically lifts after the member posts enough times.
It was added to prevent spam bots and it has worked wonders.
Dave
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Click to collapse
So...... it was a lie? False advertising I say, even if the product is the ability to post links.
JAguirre1231 said:
So...... it was a lie? False advertising I say, even if the product is the ability to post links.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Contact us by all means, but we will tell you we can't help .
I have asked if this can be re-worded at some point in the future.
Dave
work in progress said:
If you can't help new users post questions, then this forum isn't worth a**** !!!!! I will go to another site where the people aren't as useless and ***** as you are!!!!!
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You will be dearly missed. New members are allowed to post questions...just not links without mod approval. Have fun at your new site.
I'm having the same issue. I get the following message, which is different from the one above:
"To prevent spam to the forums, ALL new users are not permitted to post outside links in their messages. After approximately eight posts, you will be able to post outside links. Thanks for understanding!"
But I do not have any links in my message.
What are the characters the forum SW parses as links?
bozothedeathmachine said:
I'm having the same issue. I get the following message, which is different from the one above:
"To prevent spam to the forums, ALL new users are not permitted to post outside links in their messages. After approximately eight posts, you will be able to post outside links. Thanks for understanding!"
But I do not have any links in my message.
What are the characters the forum SW parses as links?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Images also count as part of the check, or anything starting http:// (IIRC).
If you are still having problems, try uploading the BB Code to pastebin (or similar).
Dave
bozothedeathmachine said:
I'm having the same issue. I get the following message, which is different from the one above:
"To prevent spam to the forums, ALL new users are not permitted to post outside links in their messages. After approximately eight posts, you will be able to post outside links. Thanks for understanding!"
But I do not have any links in my message.
What are the characters the forum SW parses as links?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe it can also detect links as being strings separated by at least one dot, with a slash "/" present...
But I think Dave might be right about the http part. Try a basic post, removing anything other than plain text, then add the suspected parts in via edit, and see what it is rejecting.
I think I found the issue. I didn't have any "http", slashes, or images.
I was trying to post the handset info from my HTC Hero, which contains all manner of random characters, including the hash sign. I'm thinking it was that which was marked as spam.
Three posts down, 5 to go before I can start making sense.
Thanks for the assist.

"You may" permits at bottom of page not true?

While trying to get past my 10 post "presumed noob" penalty (I am a professional dev IRL), I tried to reply to a thread where the box at the bottom of the page said that in that particular area I could post replies, but not new threads. As a good netizen I skimmed through the entire 100 pages+ of the thread before pressing reply, only to get an error page which (somewhat indirectly) told my I had no posting rights in that subforum.
This is quite disheartening. Not only are new devs forced to do 10 posts worth of "noob help duty", but the things telling us where we can carry out this penal work seems to be wrong, thus redoubling the penalty for signing up.
What is wrong with this picture?
Is the error page wrong, or the indicators at the bottom of the thread pages?
Either needs to be fixed.
P.S.
The "Is this thread a question" box is another harassment trick. I tried to tick it to indicate this posts needs a reaction of some kind (to fix the bug or explain what I got wrong about the UI), but all I get is a message that general questions belong elsewhere.

Can you please remove the single-click unsubscribe from emails?

I don't know if it's just me, but I frequently end up unsubscribing from threads when I what I really wanted to do was view them.
The layout of various email notifications from different forums are all different, and in my experience most of the time the "visit this thread on the web" is the first link under the response. In the case here the first link completely unsubscribes you from the thread without any confirmation request. I then have to go and resubscribe again.
Most other forums have a confirmation page when unsubscribing - is there a reason there isn't one here?
Telek said:
I don't know if it's just me, but I frequently end up unsubscribing from threads when I what I really wanted to do was view them.
The layout of various email notifications from different forums are all different, and in my experience most of the time the "visit this thread on the web" is the first link under the response. In the case here the first link completely unsubscribes you from the thread without any confirmation request. I then have to go and resubscribe again.
Most other forums have a confirmation page when unsubscribing - is there a reason there isn't one here?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We balance ease of unsubscribing with having a confirmation dialog to ensure member wishes to actually unsubscribe. Given that balance we err to the side of unsubscribing right away because we don't want people to mark our emails as spam. It is easy enough to re-subscribe to a topic as well. But I'd be interested in hearing others opinion on this.
Nothing makes me more mad then having to sign in when I want to cancel a subscription. That being said, I usually enjoy the XDA emails I get, but for other sites that I need to sign in to cancel email bombs, but don't know my login information. I get angry.
Keep as is.
I appreciate the perspective, but I don't see either of these points as a barrier.
How does requiring a simple one-click confirmation inside the web page change if the email is viewed as spam? In both cases the email is identical. If someone manually is flagging the email as spam then they obviously aren't active in the first place (anyone who is active wouldn't do that).
Also I didn't say that you had to log in to unsubscribe. A simple one-click confirmation inside the web page is all I'm proposing. Considering how it currently launches the site to complete the unsubscribe this would only add 2 seconds.
Personally I don't see any issues with the current email layout.
The link to the thread is at the top of the email, and the unsubscribe is WAAAAY at the bottom. I have no idea how manage to click the wrong one
Because a lot of other forums have their links all at the bottom, and the first link is usually the one to go to the web version. I'm on a lot of different forums, and I have (unfortunately) developed the habit of just clicking the first link after the response in order to see the response in it's full context.
Oddly enough other forums also have a confirmation for unsubscription.
When there's a 1-line reply it's also not "all the way at the bottom".
How about this then: Instead of a confirmation, how about just a "Did you click this by accident? Click _here_ to resubscribe" after the "You have successfully unsubscribed" message?
That way if you intended to do that then there is no change at all, but if you did it by accident it's easy to undo the action.

Banner signature frenzy - A plea to Moderators

All of us are XS users, since we're posting at an XS sub-forum, what's the point of showing it off with a banner? The pages are now completely cluttered, take more time to load and makes every page a mess. Picture signatures should be banned. Or at least be made at reasonable sizes.
Now I gotta disable signature showing to make the forums look clean, which in turn removes useful signatures like FXP, who has download links in his signature.
Please people, be reasonable. We all know you're an Xperia user since you're posting here, no need to show it off with a huge picture on every post.
This happens everywhere..not just here.
I would like to suggest people to use
tags
Need help with CyanogenMod??Go here CM Help Thread ​Sent via the muffin launch _/^\_
I know, but it wasn't the case in this subforum before. But lately it's been picking up insanely fast.
I noticed this too, and wrote a letter to moderators. No answer since them. So Adblock is my new banner eraser
Isn't there an option in user CP to "hide signatures"?
EDIT
Yep!
Edit Options>>Visible options, uncheck signatures.
EDIT
Sorry just reread your first post, so this isn't helpful
I have to go with Ortega1, just use Adblock if the mods won't stop those ginormous sigs.
revan17 said:
All of us are XS users, since we're posting at an XS sub-forum, what's the point of showing it off with a banner? The pages are now completely cluttered, take more time to load and makes every page a mess. Picture signatures should be banned. Or at least be made at reasonable sizes.
Now I gotta disable signature showing to make the forums look clean, which in turn removes useful signatures like FXP, who has download links in his signature.
Please people, be reasonable. We all know you're an Xperia user since you're posting here, no need to show it off with a huge picture on every post.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please read the last 10 pages of this thread....
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1987254
The problem has been dealt with a few days ago by the moderators/admins
I like the new policy
From my Xperia LT28at ION
OP thank you for your input, yes this is under review, once an agreement is made...I would say an announcement will be made. Thanks Again.

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