Change how New Discussion button works for new members

madbilly
madbilly Super User
in Community Feedback
Hi @HMD_Laura et al,
We still get many people every day posting their questions in random threads because they can't start a new topic and can't be bothered to look for the correct place to post their question.
I suggest a change to how the New Discussion button works:
  1. Don't hide it for new members, but make it visible and clickable
  2. When they click it, give them a screen which says they must wait 24 hours after joining to become a new member and give them a choice 1) post and wait 24 hours for the new topic to appear or 2) allow them to choose a forum and a single thread in which to post their question
  3. To make the second option work, post a new topic into every phone forum called "New members' questions" which is where they are directed if they choose option 2.
  4. New members will be restricted to posting in these threads for the first 24 hours, after which they can post as normal.
This would help reduce the amount of badly placed questions and it would also give existing members a clear place to watch to help new members. Most internet forums have a similar place called "New members" so the concept is well tested and accepted.

Cheers :)
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Comments

  • user1556176225834
    user1556176225834 ✭
    [{"insert":"I would like to show you how a smart phone works"},{"attributes":{"blockquote-line":true},"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"link":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/KS1PXroQxlY"},"insert":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/KS1PXroQxlY"},{"attributes":{"blockquote-line":true},"insert":"\n"}]
  • singhnsk
    singhnsk Super User
    edited December 2019

    And @HMDLaura, ^^^^ this needs to be fixed too. Idk how that happens but so many users are sending in code parts in the body of their posts. Most likely new users for whom using these shotcodes is not allowed.

    @madbilly a nice idea. But I'm of the opinion that a captcha or other kinds of human-check challenges for new users makes more sense. Most users who are looking for help just join the forum when they need help and asking them to wait 24 hours is a pain point. A separate forum for them will be confusing as well. I see stricter human verification checks during signup and for the first 24 hours as the most ideal solution.

    Akismet easily filters out most of the spam easily too and it doesn't require human checks. I'm sure it is available for a variety of platforms, including Vanilla.

    Also, stopping them from posting links until they rank up will fix 99.9% of manual spam anyways because most are here only to spam their links and build some link juice. Although the benefit is negligible, they just need to show a chart to their clients that they made his link posted here and here and here to get their paycheck done.

  • madbilly
    madbilly Super User

    Hi @singhnsk, my suggestion wasn't to avoid genuine spam, but to avoid multiple people posting the same question repeatedly, or posting in the wrong forum (still happens a lot, and it's annoying as AFAICT we have no mods doing any tidying up - and I don't think that this is something that HMDLaura et al should be doing either, because admin is different from modding).

    Freshdesk had a search function which automatically looked for similar topics when typing a new topic title, I think that was somewhat better than what we have with Vanilla. Discourse also has this function, I'd be surprised if there wasn't a plugin for Vanilla to do it.

    Anyway, the new user could still be improved.

    Cheers 🙂

  • SueShan
    SueShan ✭✭

    Sorry to add a comment, but I just joined and I am unable to post a question to the community. There just does not appear to be a button for it anywhere. I am trying to post to the right thread, but I am unable to do so. Anyone advice on how to post a question would be very welcome.

  • singhnsk
    singhnsk Super User
    https://community.phones.nokia.com/discussion/comment/181177#Comment_181177

    Hi, as mentioned in the first post of this thread, the New Discussion button only appears when you have completed at least 24 hours since your initial signup.

  • david jeba
    david jeba ✭✭

    i signedup today with my email.

    i havent even got any email from nokia to confirm the account or to read the rules of the community, info about the wait period etc

    im just ghosting around not knowing whether im a user or spectator or whatever..

  • Ken Ehrenberg
    Ken Ehrenberg ✭
    edited February 2022

    I'm here to be convinced to try again after returning a phone that seemed buggy and/or defective. (If it was buggy, then why try again?) But now I find that I have to wait 24 hrs to even post my question while I'm deciding whether to pull the trigger on a different make an model? I've seen the entire forum for the phone (XR20) and don't see any similar questions but I'm getting discouraged from sticking with Nokia here.

  • GaryGroucho
    GaryGroucho ✭

    Just joined and read this thread. Now I know why I can't start a new topic. I agree with the OP, it would be nice not to hide the button and let new users be aware of the protocol of the forum. Three years on and nothing has changed, clearly.

  • singhnsk
    singhnsk Super User

    Hi @GaryGroucho, you are very right. The community forums have been constantly on an ignore list for hmd global. We're lucky that the forum have not crashed, because most likely nobody would fix them at a point when they stop working 😂

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