Bug 1188 - Topic subscription defaults wrong in forum
Summary: Topic subscription defaults wrong in forum
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: Websites
Classification: Unclassified
Component: forums.mageia.org (show other bugs)
Version: trunk
Hardware: All Linux
Priority: Normal major
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Forums Team
QA Contact:
URL: https://forums.mageia.org/en/index.php
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2011-05-07 13:50 CEST by Barry Jackson
Modified: 2014-05-08 18:07 CEST (History)
6 users (show)

See Also:
Source RPM:
CVE:
Status comment:


Attachments

Description Barry Jackson 2011-05-07 13:50:52 CEST
Description of problem:
When replying to a forum post I expect to be automatically subscribed to that topic in order to get a topic reply notification by email.

At present the forum appears to be set up to *not* send email notification unless the subscription link is clicked.

What is very confusing is that the subscription link looks like a check box that is *already* checked to enable subscription to the topic.

This bound to confuse users - it has me!

Can we :-
1. Change the default to always send topic reply notifications.
2. Change the icon to not give the impression that notification is already subscribed.

Without this the forum will be dead IMHO.


Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):


How reproducible:


Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.
Comment 1 James Kerr 2011-05-07 15:39:58 CEST
I've been receiving email notifications of new posts to threads to which I've posted. I haven't had to select the subscription option; I've been automatically subscribed. Most forums provide an option in the User Control Panel where this can be set globally, and I thought that I had found it once, but I cant find it now!
Comment 2 Barry Jackson 2011-05-07 15:51:45 CEST
(In reply to comment #1)
>I've been receiving email notifications of new posts to threads to which I've
>posted. I haven't had to select the subscription option; I've been
>automatically subscribed.

Well I have not - strange.

>Most forums provide an option in the User Control
>Panel where this can be set globally, and I thought that I had found it once,
>but I cant find it now!

Neither can I.
All I find is a section that says that I am not subscribed to any topics, despite making several posts last night.
Comment 3 Wolfgang Bornath 2011-05-07 16:12:05 CEST
Same here. I've been active in some threads and also started threads of my own, never received any notification.

CC: (none) => molch.b

Comment 4 James Kerr 2011-05-07 17:04:42 CEST
I have a vague recollection of editing my email address in the Account Settings. IIRC it wasn't displayed properly, but my memory is very unreliable these days.
I really should keep notes of things like this :)
Comment 5 Barry Jackson 2011-05-07 17:25:17 CEST
This may help get to the bottom of it ;-)
https://forums.mageia.org/en/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=210
Comment 6 Ahmad Samir 2011-05-07 18:12:41 CEST
The option to get notifications upon replies is still there: https://forums.mageia.org/en/ucp.php?i=prefs&mode=post

User Control Panel -> Board Preferences -> Edit posting defaults.

I can't remember what the default was...
Comment 7 Barry Jackson 2011-05-07 19:07:43 CEST
(In reply to comment #6)
Thanks Ahmad - that option is fairly well hidden and the default is "No" which explains why people are missing it and not getting notifications.

If Jim, Wolfgang and I failed to find it then it needs attention IMHO. ;)
 
So both points of this bug report still apply.
Comment 8 Ahmad Samir 2011-05-07 19:17:36 CEST
I didn't negate the purpose of the bug report; that option should be opt-out.
Comment 9 James Kerr 2011-05-07 19:33:18 CEST
(In reply to comment #7)
> 
> If Jim, Wolfgang and I failed to find it then it needs attention IMHO. ;)

Usually when I subscribe to a Forum, I go through all the options, to make sure that they are set the way I want them. I suppose that's how I found it the first time.
Comment 10 Ahmad Samir 2011-05-07 19:37:40 CEST
(In reply to comment #9)
> (In reply to comment #7)
> > 
> > If Jim, Wolfgang and I failed to find it then it needs attention IMHO. ;)
> 
> Usually when I subscribe to a Forum, I go through all the options, to make sure
> that they are set the way I want them. I suppose that's how I found it the
> first time.

(Ditto here, old habit... :)).
Comment 11 Wolfgang Bornath 2011-05-07 20:38:34 CEST
(In reply to comment #8)
> I didn't negate the purpose of the bug report; that option should be opt-out.

Yes, that's the way I am used to, so I never cared for that option because I don't want to opt out. But it seems that the version of phpbb3 we are using sets the option default at "No", so we have to opt in.
Comment 12 Barry Jackson 2011-05-07 22:47:40 CEST
(In reply to comment #11)
>... But it seems that the version of phpbb3 we are using
> sets the option default at "No", so we have to opt in.

Surely this must be configurable in the board setup, so I hope it will be changed.

No one else has mentioned the graphic. 
It is really confusing as it gives the impression that a subscription is enabled when it is not.
Comment 13 Ahmad Samir 2011-05-07 23:20:42 CEST
That would be an upstream "bug", it looks like that in a couple of forums I use... e.g. http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=1883415
Comment 14 Samuel Verschelde 2011-05-12 19:25:45 CEST
I told maat about this problem in the days following the launch of the forum, I thought he would fix it :/

CC: (none) => stormi

Comment 15 Michael Scherer 2011-05-26 11:33:14 CEST
We can force the configuration from all forums I guess, it just requires to digg in the code to know the name of the option ( so we do not forget later when we deploy a new one ).

CC: (none) => misc

Comment 16 Michael Scherer 2011-05-26 11:38:03 CEST
Ok, there is either no obvious configuration option in the db, or this is already enabled.
Comment 17 Barry Jackson 2011-05-26 14:30:04 CEST
Well it's not enabled - I just created a new user to test and the Notify me.... is still checked as "no" by default.
Comment 18 Barry Jackson 2011-05-26 15:10:19 CEST
It seems from the following that this is not possible without hacking phpbb.
http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=2126972
I have added a post to that but it is being moderated :\
Comment 19 Barry Jackson 2011-05-26 17:57:57 CEST
From #phpBB today :-
{
[16:18] <barjac> Is there no board default setting to make "Notify me upon replies by default:" default to yes ?
[16:33] <Fire-Fox> you mean PM ?
[16:39] <barjac> Fire-Fox: I mean the normal email topic reply notifications - the phpBB default seems to be "off" 
[16:39] <Dicky> No, there is no default setting, because it is a user preference. It should be up to the  user, not the board owner, if the user wants their email spammed with topic notifications.
[16:41] <barjac> Dicky: Well surely that is for the board owner to decide - the user can always change it
[16:42] <Fire-Fox> well if the user will be spammed then the user can change to yes
[16:43] <barjac> May I ask you to read this https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1188
[16:43] *** ChanServ gives channel operator privileges to erikfrerejean.
[16:49] <barjac> Fire-Fox: I really don't see how getting notification of a topic to which you are contributing could be regarded as spam by anyone.
}
Then it went quiet ....
Comment 20 Wolfgang Bornath 2011-05-26 18:12:51 CEST
Ok, so I checked in the ACP (in the mandrivauser.de forum, phpbb3). As I set this up myself I know what I did there.

There is a general setting in "Board functionality" which is "Yes" by default. I don't know which version of phpbb3 this Dicky in the chat referred to, I'm referring to phpbb3 standard installation.

If the admin never touches this, the individual settings in the user profile is the same. If the admin sets this to "No" in the ACP the individual user setting will also be "No". In both cases the user can change this for his individual profile.
Comment 21 Wolfgang Bornath 2011-05-26 18:15:23 CEST
Sorry, adding this:

All we have to do is look at the ACP setting at forums.mageia.org and either change the setting there or leave it as it is.

Admins of other (future) forums will have to look at the settings anyway and it may be that different forums may need different settings in such matters.
Comment 22 Barry Jackson 2011-05-26 18:52:05 CEST
(In reply to comment #21)
> Sorry, adding this:
> 
> All we have to do is look at the ACP setting at forums.mageia.org and either
> change the setting there or leave it as it is.
> 
> Admins of other (future) forums will have to look at the settings anyway and it
> may be that different forums may need different settings in such matters.

I just had a reply from the forum pointing at this which may help :-
http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=2105886
Comment 23 Wolfgang Bornath 2011-05-26 19:12:55 CEST
Yes, in case this setting "No" is the default, the way to change it in the db (and in the configuration file) is correct. I did change some other things in our setup in the same way.

Following user requests I did a lot of such modifications (like adding links to pages where they are not by default, etc.)
Comment 24 Barry Jackson 2011-05-31 12:37:59 CEST
Has this been fixed yet?

I looks pretty simple from the link in #22.

With the launch of mga1 many new users will be registering.
Comment 25 Samuel Verschelde 2011-07-03 16:58:19 CEST
up ?
Comment 26 Barry Jackson 2011-08-14 01:38:09 CEST
What is happening - has this been fixed or not?
Comment 27 Florian Hubold 2011-08-17 14:19:18 CEST
Well this is assigned to webteam, and maat or ashledombos are not CC'ed ...

CC: (none) => doktor5000

Nicolas Vigier 2011-08-17 14:20:59 CEST

CC: (none) => boklm, maat-ml

Comment 28 Romain d'Alverny 2011-08-17 15:42:30 CEST
Reassigning.

CC: (none) => rdalverny
Assignee: mageia-webteam => forums-discuss

Comment 29 Maat 2011-08-19 09:11:05 CEST
maat and ash *are* in webteam and webteam hackers is much more the good target for such issue...

By the way : 

commit c13fcc4cb41adc83a70b5f01490b5b91c48f7004
Date:   Sun Jul 3 17:35:11 2011 +0200

    Config default tweak to enable default notification
    People disliking being spammed will have to opt out :-/
    See https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1188
Comment 30 Florian Hubold 2011-08-19 11:55:38 CEST
Well, nice. Don't you see the problem here? It's communication.
If the commit happened one and a half months ago, why not tell the people here if you even reference the bugreport in the VCS commit?
Comment 31 Barry Jackson 2011-08-19 12:18:46 CEST
Well yes - I had no idea that this was fixed. 
The person who fixes it should also close the bug report as RESOLVED, or at least comment and ask for testing in the report.
Comment 32 Barry Jackson 2011-08-24 00:47:28 CEST
I have tested this with a new account and it is fixed.
Marking as resolved.

Status: NEW => RESOLVED
Resolution: (none) => FIXED

Nicolas Vigier 2014-05-08 18:07:15 CEST

CC: boklm => (none)


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