Show sign up button to guests

Started by Sir Osis of Liver, May 18, 2022, 01:15:26 PM

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Sir Osis of Liver

Thought this had been fixed.  If registration is disabled guests don't see sign up button.  This is confusing because there's no way to join forum and no explanation why not.  If you remove the conditional it works like 2.0 -


// if ($context['can_register'])
echo '
<li class="button_signup">


This was discussed elsewhere, thought it had been decided to restore the button.

Ashes and diamonds, foe and friend,
 we were all equal in the end.

                                     - R. Waters

Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen

Yes, this has been discussed, probably more than once too - But I'm not sure if something was already decided or not. I do agree there was a reason for the button being visible to guests even if registration is disabled, since there is no other way to see that registration is indeed disabled.
Slava
Ukraini!


"Before you allow people access to your forum, especially in an administrative position, you must be aware that that person can seriously damage your forum. Therefore, you should only allow people that you trust, implicitly, to have such access." -Douglas

How you can help SMF

Arantor

It was removed precisely because people moaned (and IIRC you were one of them!) that the button showed up when it was disabled *because you couldn't register* and just got an error. In no universe does the error message tell you how to join unless you edit it, but that's not the intent, because there's no way to know if it's simply a closed community or what the method is to get registered.

The original intent: show the button either way so users don't spend time hunting for the button only for it to not be usable.

Antechinus

If there is no registration button, it stands to reason that registration is disabled. Why would you need to display a non-functional button for this to be obvious? All that displaying a non-functional button will do is make people click it repeatedly, because it's there but it doesn't seem to work properly.

If you really want to do something constructive, echo a message to guests that actually informs them that registration is disabled. This is easy to do, and ideal for a tiny mod.

Arantor

The 2.0 version of this gives you the button but it leads to a message that says it's disabled... and it was changed because this was not a clever behaviour.

Diego Andrés

The forums I've visited with registration disabled, they usually setup a guest board that provides info in the description and has notice topics inside.
This is more in the lines of the admin setting up some contact info or a contact page if they aren't providing details.

SMF Tricks - Free & Premium Responsive Themes for SMF.

Antechinus

True story: the site for a local variant of Mastercard has a login button that is a bit buggy on Firefox. Now I happen to know it works, but you have to be a bit patient, and click it several times, before it will wake up and log you in.

I found this out via the obvious method: needing to log in, and being a bit (im)patient and clicking the thing several times. :P

If it was actually non-functional...

Arantor

I think there's some confusion here.

The old register button was not non-functional. It *did* something - it took you to a page to tell you registration was disabled. It wasn't an elegant choice - and it had its defenders who argued 'this way you're not looking around for a registration button that doesn't exist', but it did correctly tell you that you couldn't register.

Then the choice was made to remove the button if it wasn't relevant (like all other buttons in SMF, if you can see it, you can do it) with the theory that anyone who decided to have a site whose registration was closed and had some other process would tell people by way of a board or a page or something, for which plenty of choices exist to make this work for you.

Should SMF go out of its way to handle the edge case of 'closed forum, closed registration, but provide features to tell people how they might do something super specific to get an account'? Ehhhhh maybe not.

Antechinus

Yup, sounds good to me. Like I said, ideal for a tiny mod that does a custom "welcome" message.

Arantor

Use a portal mod, add a block for it. Or use the news feature. Or a redirect board to whatever process you need people to fill in.

No shortage of solutions to what in my mind is a non problem.

Antechinus

I just had a wonderful idea. I could write a mod that is a variation on the "peekaboo" mode of my Stupid Bouncy BBC mod. IOW, if registration is disabled echo the registration button...

but...

every time someone clicks it, it disappears from that location and reappears somewhere else. :D

Oldiesmann

Doing that will do nothing more than cause potential new members to give up and go elsewhere, rather than finding out how to actually register for the site.
Michael Eshom
Christian Metal Fans

Sir Osis of Liver

Hasn't anyone tried this?  If registration is disabled and guest clicks sign up button, it returns same message as 2.0, that registration is disabled.  I don't see what's wrong with that.  A guest should have a reasonable expectation that if there's a login button, there's some way to register so they can login.
Ashes and diamonds, foe and friend,
 we were all equal in the end.

                                     - R. Waters

Sesquipedalian

"Show the button!"

"Hide the button!"

"No! Show the button!"

"No! Hide the button!"

 ::)

There is no right answer. This argument is tedious. Anyone who doesn't like the current behaviour can change it on their own install.
I promise you nothing.

Sesqu... Sesqui... what?
Sesquipedalian, the best word in the English language.

Arantor

Suggestion: display it at 0.5 opacity with a tooltip saying it's disabled!

Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen

Not a bad suggestion at all IMO.
Slava
Ukraini!


"Before you allow people access to your forum, especially in an administrative position, you must be aware that that person can seriously damage your forum. Therefore, you should only allow people that you trust, implicitly, to have such access." -Douglas

How you can help SMF

Antechinus

And then someone will have to be a PITA and point out that at 50% opacity it will probably not meet WCAG standards, so automatic a11y fail.

Just hide the effing button if it ain't working. :D

Arantor

I hate to labour the point but it is an important one: registration being disabled doesn't mean the button is "broken".

Antechinus

* Antechinus cannot be bothered arguing anymore :P

Sir Osis of Liver

Or you can do this - You cannot view this attachment. with a tooltip.  ;) 

Quote from: Sesquipedalian on May 19, 2022, 12:27:12 AMAnyone who doesn't like the current behaviour can change it on their own install.
Sure, but we shouldn't have to.

Just as an aside, when I preview this post I get 'Not a valid attachment ID.' instead of the image.  It posted correctly, now it doesn't.

As expected, 2.1 is a mess. :P
Ashes and diamonds, foe and friend,
 we were all equal in the end.

                                     - R. Waters

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