Forum Access Poll

A place for you to offer some suggestions for this website or some constructive criticism

Moderators: Al, AndyB

Forum Access

Poll ended at 20 Nov 2013, 12:28

Open Access(the way it was)
29
81%
Restricted Access(the way it currently is)
7
19%
 
Total votes: 36

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Al
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Forum Access Poll

Post by Al »

Events can sometimes dictate how the forums evolve. In light of recent events, we decided to take temporary action to prevent members having their posts misquoted, misinterpreted or taken out of context by any non-members.

So, to permanently resolve this issue, we have decided to create a poll for all members to cast their votes and we will abide by the result.

We have listed some points to consider for both the open-to-all and restricted access policies. You may also have your own reasons for your choice.

Points to consider for an Open Forum:

1. If unregistered users can see a lot of forums, it makes the board look more impressive and more inviting.
2. Members will not have to login to simply read a post that is currently in a restricted forum.
3. The 'Restricted' choice has come about because of the recent events which seems like a case of the tail wagging the dog??
4. For the past 13 years, the Open-to-all policy has always been the case on these forums and has been successful. Remember, this is just a Comics forum.
5. We're in danger of becoming a 'closed-shop' if we restrict access. Some people are quite happy to browse forums without being forced to sign up. These people may so mply stop visiting.

Points to consider for a Restricted Forum:

1. Unregistered users are made aware that there is more to read because it says so in the Forum Index - we can even state the names of the invisible forums
2. If you log in and visit any forum, it will automatically tell you if there are any new posts in the topics that interest you without you having to go into the individual topic and remember what you last read.
3. Registered users get a link to the first new post in every topic in each forum.
4. People will not pick up comments in the private forums via Google search
5. Users may feel safer and be more open if they know their comments in specified forums are not public
6. Former users who are currently prevented from posting will not be able to "spy" on the forums
7. The most popular forums (General and Non Comics Discussion) and the "public information" forums (Conventions and Reference section) remain open to the public

Lew Stringer
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Re: Forum Access Poll

Post by Lew Stringer »

I tried to vote but a message came up saying 'The submitted form was invalid. Try voting again', which I did but received the same message.

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paw broon
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Re: Forum Access Poll

Post by paw broon »

Same here.

Phoenix
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Re: Forum Access Poll

Post by Phoenix »

My vote has also been declared invalid. I notice that it says You may select 1 option. I'm wondering whether, if I had opted to vote for the Restricted Access option, my vote would have been accepted. Just the conspiracy theorist in me activated again. Note to Admin - My father used to say to me, If you're going to do a job, do it properly. If you're not going to do it properly, don't do it at all. Put it right, please.

Phoenix
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Re: Forum Access Poll

Post by Phoenix »

One further point. What criteria have you used to persuade yourselves that the Non-Comics discussion forum is more popular than Comic Titles and Groups? I am convinced, without needing to access any criteria, that you are wrong. If this is another example of Kid Robson determining outcomes, then he hasn't really gone away, has he?

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colcool007
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Re: Forum Access Poll

Post by colcool007 »

Currently trawling through the php boards and I cannot see anything that implies that we have done anything wrong. We will continue to investigate and get back to you.
I started to say something sensible but my parents took over my brain!

Lew Stringer
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Re: Forum Access Poll

Post by Lew Stringer »

colcool007 wrote:Currently trawling through the php boards and I cannot see anything that implies that we have done anything wrong. We will continue to investigate and get back to you.
I got the same message as Phoenix.
The blog of British comics: http://lewstringer.blogspot.com
My website: http://www.lewstringer.com
Blog about my own work: http://lewstringercomics.blogspot.com/

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dishes
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Re: Forum Access Poll

Post by dishes »

Lew Stringer wrote:
colcool007 wrote:Currently trawling through the php boards and I cannot see anything that implies that we have done anything wrong. We will continue to investigate and get back to you.
I got the same message as Phoenix.
Same here.

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Al
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Re: Forum Access Poll

Post by Al »

Apologies to everyone about this.

I uploaded this poll this morning via my phone because I no longer have internet access via my computer (courtesy of Sky messing up my transfer from Virgin.) it will be like that until 5th November. I've scoured the web for an answer but nothing rectifies the problem. And it's really a slow process trying to resolve this issue by phone.

Admin Colin is as perplexed as me and Admin Andy doesn't seem to be around this weekend. I will keep plugging away via my phone for an answer, but will have a better go at resolving it when I don't have to wait 3 minutes for a response in my really poor-signal house.

Al

Lew Stringer
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Re: Forum Access Poll

Post by Lew Stringer »

Thanks Al. I see that two votes have somehow been made so I don't know if the OS has anything to do with it. Probably not. (I know nowt about the workings of such things.)
The blog of British comics: http://lewstringer.blogspot.com
My website: http://www.lewstringer.com
Blog about my own work: http://lewstringercomics.blogspot.com/

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colcool007
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Re: Forum Access Poll

Post by colcool007 »

Lew Stringer wrote:Thanks Al. I see that two votes have somehow been made so I don't know if the OS has anything to do with it. Probably not. (I know nowt about the workings of such things.)
I have had a look and it seems that we need to do something technical in the background, but it's a case of the cure could be worse than the cause so I am not going to even try! :D I have tried on Chrome and Firefox, but I get the same error on both
I started to say something sensible but my parents took over my brain!

Lew Stringer
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Re: Forum Access Poll

Post by Lew Stringer »

colcool007 wrote:
Lew Stringer wrote:Thanks Al. I see that two votes have somehow been made so I don't know if the OS has anything to do with it. Probably not. (I know nowt about the workings of such things.)
I have had a look and it seems that we need to do something technical in the background, but it's a case of the cure could be worse than the cause so I am not going to even try! :D I have tried on Chrome and Firefox, but I get the same error on both

How did we cope before computers made our lives so simple? :roll:

AndyB
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Re: Forum Access Poll

Post by AndyB »

I remember this came up before. It's the theme you use for the forum - if you are using bo2soft (the old default), polls are broken.

If you go to "User Control Panel" and "Board Preferences" and change the theme to Hestia, the poll should work. Cerulean should also work, but I think Hestia is the new default.

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Re: Forum Access Poll

Post by Phoenix »

AndyB wrote:I remember this came up before. It's the theme you use for the forum - if you are using bo2soft (the old default), polls are broken.

If you go to "User Control Panel" and "Board Preferences" and change the theme to Hestia, the poll should work. Cerulean should also work, but I think Hestia is the new default.
As words like theme, bo2soft and Cerulean make absolutely no sense to me, I have had to read AndyB's post several times, trying to figure out whether it is a message to Al or to us. It must be to us, I've decided, because I assume he could have rung Al. Obviously it makes no sense for a thousand members to be making the suggested changes, even if they understand what to do, just to register a vote, so I suggest that it would be better all round if the poll can be put on hold until Al is in a position to sort the problem out at his end. Under the circumstances, perhaps a week or so could be added to the voting-period limit, to say the 20th.

AndyB
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Re: Forum Access Poll

Post by AndyB »

Of course it's addressed to everybody - if it had been for Al, it would have been sent by pm as we can't ring each other. Besides, at the top of this very screen there is a link "User Control Panel"

The only way to fix it is to force everyone to change theme in the background, but if you like the colour scheme of the forums the way they are, that's not very fair - it's up to yourselves, but sticking with the old theme (bo2soft) means you lose out on polls as a result.

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