'Reply' tab missing

[valerianWE]

Can anyone help please?

Our forum is very quiet at the moment so we don't know how widespread this problem is. Two of our members are unable to respond in any of our threads in one Board. The 'Reply' tab is not shown on their screen.

We are running SMF 2.0.11 but this problem, we have discovered, has been ongoing for a few months now even before the update.
In the Maintenance section I have checked all files against curent versions and the only one shown in red is Subs-Post.php 2.0.8 as opposed to 2.010

I have emptied the cache.

One member is usings a pc with MS Vista with IE and Firefox browsers but says he had the same problem on pc's with different set-ups. The other member has a Mac and uses Safari 9.0 but has tried his old laptop and still has the same problem.

You might be wondering why I am telling you that one of the two members lives in Central Texas and the other in northern California. I am trying to eliminate possibilities because strangely enough, I cannot read the description on one of our childboards and neither can our one and only other member in the UK, yet everyone else can!

I have very, very limited software skills and our forum has several modifications. As I understand it these are currently:
1.    httpBL
2.    Birthday On Register
3.    Add Join Date to Post
4.    More Spiders
5.    OS & Browser Detection
6.    PM to New Members
7.    SimplePortal
8.    Stop Spammer
9.    Users Online Today
10.    Join Reason
11.    SMF 2.0.7 Update
12.    SMF 1.1.19 / 2.0.6 Update
13.    Simple Audio Video Embedder
(visible through smf admin > main > package manager)

Both of our two members with the 'Reply' tab missing are active members and eager to post in that one Board

Any help would be very, very much appreciated.

Valerie

[Illori]

does that board have a permission profile assigned to it? if so check that profile to make sure the group those users are in have permission to reply.

[valerianWE]

Yes, I've checked in case there had been a glitch. They have permissions for that board which is open to all members and they can access restricted boards too. They have both been able to access that now 'troublesome' board for years.

Thanks for assisting...

[Steve]

Are those two members in the same membergroups as the other members who can post there?

[valerianWE]

Thanks, Steve.

Yes, they are in the same membergroups as the other members who can post there.

Also, both are moderators and can post in all Boards. One of the two (M.) has recently had his status upgraded to a super moderator, but this has not changed his problem. I have since learnt that M. contacted Admin in June 2014 reporting this problem, but as nothing was identified amiss in the software, he concluded it was only him who couldn't post and nothing further was done about it.

The other member (C.) with the missing 'reply' tab brought this to our attention this month. I see he is able to post in the one and only childboard of the 'problem' Board.  I've checked for postings from M. in that same childboard and he last posted there on 8th July 2014, which is a month after her reported the problem so I am going to ask him if he is able or unable to post there now.

Will get back to you asap.
Valerie

[valerianWE]

UPDATE!

As I was writing this post, M. had posted in our Forum that he had now noticed that the 'Reply' tabs had reappeared. This seems to have happened since he was recently given super-moderator status. As he was online, he suggested I demoted him to ordinary moderator and when I did the 'reply' tabs to that board disappeared. (He been re-promoted now  )

I have temporarily upgraded C. to super-moderator and I will see what happens there. It was only this month that C. as an ordinary group member was invited to join our moderator group and it may be that is when C. noticed the problem. This might mean that something 'glitched' way back in June last year. We have no other active ordinary moderators currently so I can't check with anyone else.

We will see if C. now as a super-moderator has a 'reply' tab to the one board that is causing a problem.

Will get back to you.   

[Kindred]

given that ad admin type group causes it to re-appear, the missing reply button is almost certainly due to a misconfigured membergroup -- since that is how all permissions are applied.

[valerianWE]

Thanks, Kindred it is beginning to look that way. I'm just waiting for C. to check in to see if he has the tab.

[valerianWE]

C. has logged in and as a super-mod. he now has the tabs! Hooray!!

I've asked my Co-Admin if she can sort out the permissions because I thought they were OK and they obviously aren't.
Btw, I think you may have one of two Charter members coming your way soon. We feel we want to give back for the services we have received.

[Kindred]

If you have a DENY option anywhere, that could mess with what you "think" the permissions would be...

additionally, as noted above -- there are TWO places where permissions could affect the view of a specific board...
1- normal permissions by membergroup
2- board profile permissions which is by membergroup - by board (both) -- and may differ from the permissions set in the "normal" permissions section



As for charter...   well, thank you.  We appreciate support from the community members whether monetary or just verbal expressions of appreciation.

[valerianWE]

Co-Admin has checked and found what I found (and what I thought was OK)

The two members, were both Service Staff status when the tab went missing. I have been asked to copy and paste the permissions with the check boxes which show they should have access but I can't get it to show here. I've tried the toggle view and it shows in the text box but not when I preview it or post it. It becomes miniscule at 2px. I can change the font size but the boxes don't show. It works in gmail... Sigh!

In a nutshell the board does have the permissions for all members except what we have listed as:

Guests
Deceased and Placeholders
Zombie Army

[valerianWE]

Ah, you were posting as I was struggling (Grin)

I'm passing the message on to Co-Admin as I am stuck but she has medical appointments over the next couple of days. I just hope she has more idea that I do.

Is it possible for me to upload screen shots here or how else can I show you what we permissions we have. When I try to locate more permissions I see boxes everywhere with an X in them all which I take to be 'Disallow'.

It does say for that one Board that the profile is 'No Polls' where all the others have 'Default'. I am totally confused!

[Kindred]

you can upload attachments or host the image on another site and use the IMG BBC

[Steve]

I'm not sure why this topic was mark solved since it obviously isn't so I undid it.

[valerianWE]

Thank you, Steve, for undoing the 'problem solved'.

C. who has now been upgraded to Super-Moderator, has written that before his 'upgrade' the only two tabs he could see in the Community Directions Board was 'Mark Read' and 'Print'.

These are the permissions for that Board:

[nofollow]

The Community Directions Board has a 'No Polls' profile

[nofollow]

General Permissions - "Service Team Staff"

[nofollow]

And finally, I don't know if this helps or not!

[nofollow]

f you need to see things more clearly you can click on them to access my Photobucket account. 

And if there is anything I have missed, please let me know and give me the route in which to find it!

Many, many thanks,
Valerie

[Steve]

In your General Permissions - "Service Team Staff" image I don't see anything allowed. You need to click on each membergroup that you've allowed for any particular board and set their permissions as to what you want them to be able to do. For example, if you want 'Service Team Staff' to be able to post in that board without requiring approval, you need to click the radio button under the 'A' (Allow) column in the first row.

[valerianWE]

I'm struggling like mad!!!
I can't simply click on what you suggest,Steve, because it isn't 'clickable'

This is the route I've just taken to see if I can change it somewhere else: Cultivate > Boards > Community Directions 'permissions, and I get "Permissions for Profile: 'No Polls".

Next I click on "Service Team Staff - view" and get the "Permissions for Profile 'No Polls' which has as shown in the second image of my previous post a red
Note: You cannot edit this permission profile as it is a predefined profile included within the forum software by default. If you wish to change the permissions of this profile you must first create a duplicate profile. You can carry out this task by clicking here.

I click on 'here' and get:
[nofollow]

So, I click on "No Polls"and get right back to the "Permissions for Profile: 'No Polls'.

I've been clicking here there and everywhere losing all sense of direction and time - like I've been doing this all morning and all yesterday afternoon with a few tears of total frustration thrown in.  There seems to be no way of changing anything without creating a whole new profile and deleting the old one. This is totally beyond my admin capabilities and I am unable to see why what worked previously does not do so now.

I signed into our forum as Service Staff and as M. and C. reported there are only two tabs visible in the Community Directions Board. 

[Illori]

that permission profile cannot be edited. you would need to create a similar one from scratch to edit it.

[Steve]

My fault for not noticing there wasn't a 'Modify' link to the far right of each membergroups name.

[valerianWE]

Thank you, I am forming the opinion that we will have to manage with how things are until we are able to get someone in who is au fait with the software and has the ability to change it. In the meantime we will be unable to promote anyone to Service Team Staff as the Community Directions thread is a pretty active one.

Que sera, sera!