Hi
I just had this problem on another SMF forums where I was not receiving my notification email after I signed up on the site, their was no admin contact info to be found any place on the whole site.
Later I found out the admin of the website had a email contact info buried inside the "Read this first before you post" post he had created.
I never bothered to read the "Read this first before you post" thing simply because I was unable to register to the site the last thing on my mind at that point was reading before posting.
Long story short about 1.5 hours of my life used up trying to contact the administration of the site.
Consider building in a Contact Administration link at the bottom or top of the main page of SMF and use the email address they picked for contacting administrators, maybe add a option for a phone number.
Hopefully this will not fall on deaf ears.
Thanks!
I was trying to convince the powers that be to add this months ago, but it got to the point where unless I sat and implemented it myself, no-one else was that bothered about it.
well, there are two or three mods that do this.... not all that popular from the downloads.
It's not a bad idea... but also not something that I think has to go into 2.1 at this time, given the current state.
If it doesn't go in now, it's never going to make it in, looking at the state of Github seeing how you're gearing up for beta (which is when you feature lock)
By having an admin contact link on the index page, wouldn't that just increase the chances of being mass spammed by bots, if it could be accessible to guests?
oh, it definitely would be br360 -- which is one of the main arguments against it....
and yes, Arantor, that is also correct. At this point, although the code itself is fairly simple, the complexity it would add based on the usefullness versus the spaminess is not something I want to have to deal with when we're close to an actual release.
You'd presumably stick a CAPTCHA in it, maybe questions - no more so than registration. You'd reuse all the same code.
yep... but look at all of the complaints and requests we get centered around people not figuring out how to prevent spammer registrations.
(just playing devil's advocate here, I have no specific dog in this fight)
Drop it in as an issue in GitHub and see what the current devs think about putting it in.
Quote from: br360 on September 10, 2014, 05:18:43 PM
By having an admin contact link on the index page, wouldn't that just increase the chances of being mass spammed by bots, if it could be accessible to guests?
Have been using this for a long time now > http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=377 it's very good. Uses the verification questions form the forum, so zero spam. Recommended++
If it does somehow ever find it's way into core, at least have there be a setting somewhere so that an admin can completely disable it from showing. ;)
Quote from: a10 on September 10, 2014, 05:30:20 PM
Have been using this for a long time now > http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=377 it's very good. Uses the verification questions form the forum, so zero spam. Recommended++
Yeah, that one isn't bad- at least nowhere can an email address be seen before contacting an admin.
There are ways to mitigate all of that, without even adding much code. But it requires being prepared to think outside of boxes.
but it's nice and cozy inside boxes.... :P
And stagnant.
No shortage of excuses makes me feel I am at the PHPBB site suggesting something simple and only based on commonsense .
I learned a long time ago in life to move forward and improve your life you must first push aside all those who say the word "cant" because cant means wont, if I took the advice of the negative nellys in my life I would be living in a mound of debt and working two jobs just to get by.
I could care less if the problem is ever fixed I will never use SMF as a forum on my site I just happen to run across a site that I had no choice but to sign up to gain tech support and discovered the problem.
Its been probably 5 years since the last time I signed up to a SMF site, though I would do you guys a favor by letting you know about a problem through a different set of eyes.
The contact page is one of the first mod I install in every smf forum. I didn't have it in the first years and was a mistake. Not everybody who install smf for the first time does know that there is a contact mod or it could be useful.
As for spam messages I don't have any problems for now using the contact page from smfhacks. I have more spam problems with XF builtin contact page
ummmm.... just FYI- no one at all said it CAN'T be done nor were there any excuses - which puts your whole argument to pasture.
I clearly stated that - given the current status of the next release, it is unlikely to be included as a core feature. The rest of it was Arantor and I hashing over an old argument for fun.
Except he's absolutely right.
The thing is, most of the rest of it - like encouraging admins to put in questions - you're acting like this is a problem still to deal with. From my perspective it's a solved problem. Unfortunately it's a problem whose solution I didn't even get down to on the list...
hey, I was just presenting the arguments. I'm not acting like anything... :P
As I said, given the current state, I'm not going to push the devs to drop anything like this into the codebase. If they choose to do so because it was submitted as an issue/request, then all is good. If they choose not to, then it's on the list for things which have been requested.
That's just it, though.
You have a user completely outside of the groupthink giving you a *perfect* example of why this is needed - because they had to come here rather than getting help directly from the site. How many more users don't come here and move on? How many sites have lost members because of this problem?
As for the technical objections raised, it may not have occurred that I had already solved every objection on the list. Every single one. Only I did it months ago, I just didn't communicate that I had. I'm notorious for overthinking my way through problems, anticipating problems before they happen and I invariably pursue it too far.
Ultimately I'd solved every legitimate concern I saw and it was just a matter of sitting and implementing. I also solved the concerns around indicating to admins about solving the spam (I even gave Wedge a mild proof of concept on the form, but would have done it more effectively here if I'd been given the chance)
Unfortunately I felt that it would have been wasted because I already realised how many people thought this shouldn't have been core and should have remained a mod, despite how much of a disservice I feel that does for both the product and the userbase.
An old team leader of mine used to hate me bringing problems and objections to the table just as has been done here. I was new to the company, and he told me that if I couldn't bring a possible solution to the table, I wasn't allowed to bring the problem to the table either. I didn't have to have completely solved, but I had to put as much effort into trying to solve it as I did in observing it.
It was an extremely valuable lesson to learn for me in the career I would find myself. I would strongly urge people to try it for things that are not implementation problems. If there is anything that is a design issue or a usability issue, before saying it's a problem, think about how it could be improved. And think about it without constraint or fear. Because once you let go of those concerns, all things become possible and every problem can be solved effectively.
^^^ Some very good words there.
About the contact page, if I ever have to reinstall forum from scratch, that will be the 1st mod I install. Can't imagine not having it. Not used often here by guests\members, but when used it has been important and very useful.
My two cents here, if I may, fwiw.
Re having some sort of contact info feature added to the SMF stock: would this be mandatory or optional for the admin(s)? (Right now, I could make the case for optional, and having the OP's issue in mind, with a strong reminder for the admin(s) to fill in the blanks. Maybe even a nagging one...)
Personally, I try to read the small print, the bylaws and so on before I sign up anywhere, and it is hardly ever an easy or pleasant job, but a working, active contact info is close to the top of my priorities list.
Also, in the past, I sometimes managed to resolve issues similar to the OP's by way of whois-type services - then again, some webmasters choose to pay extra for anonimity.
In any case, this is a most interesting topic; the PHP behind it may be the easier part... :)
I agree...if this is to be part of the default stock SMF, it should be optional, kind of like CAPTCHA is on registration.
The thing is... I never said it was a bad idea.. or that it should not be done. my only argument, aside from raising possible spam concerns was that, with a beta close, should we delay the beta to add yet anotber feature?
seriously, we have to draw a line somewhere... if we ever want to finish a release. At this point that is my sole concern
Do it this way. It's a mod.