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Posting comments without registering

VelmontVelmont
edited September 2006 in Vanilla 1.0 Help
In other words, I would like to use Vanilla as an extremely easy and low-entry-level forum. I'm building the next page for a organisation in Norway, and one of the requirements for the disscussion is that it has a low barrier. We don't want to scare people; and we want active discussions. Required registrations makes all this hard. I was thinking for some seconds myself if I wanted to hassle with registering to put forward my request (and see if others want something similar) or if I just should continue searching. Vanilla is everything I'm searching for, but lacking an extension for posting without registering. Would it be hard to make?

Comments

  • MinisweeperMinisweeper New
    It's just not how vanilla works. You realise, i assume, that people can register without needing to be approved by administrators? Given that, the next best thing i can suggest is just to make a 'guest' or 'anonymous' account with an advertised password. It's not ideal, though.
  • ManiaMania
    edited July 2006
    Yes, I would like this as an extension too. It's difficult to get any discussions going on in a new forum. Making a guest account would work until someone changes the password..(?)
  • BergamotBergamot
    At one point, there was a Guest Account extension that prevented people from changing the password of the guest account.
  • ToivoToivo New
    edited July 2006
    what about creating members on the fly as they post (user id= random entry number, n+1) I dont know, it may not work.
  • MinisweeperMinisweeper New
    You could do something like the 'Add Comments' extension does i suppose. You're really opening up to spam though.
  • imathisimathis
    edited July 2006
    I agree Minisweeper,

    An additon to Add Comments 1 would make this even easier:

    Under the Username field and Password field, have a two radio buttons, default would be sign in, and the other would be register. If the user chooses register then a verify password box would appear to the right of the Password field. Set the forum to allow registration without needing admin approval, and you're good. Obviously this would take a little work to hack together, but it would be great for making it easy to join forums like yours.

    Youl'd just have to stay on top of the spam issue. Though if your board is not so popular I'd doubt you'ld have a problem with it.
  • ToivoToivo New
    why two radio buttons? just one click. script will check if already registered. if not, it signs you up. but yes, spam IS a problem.
  • imathisimathis
    edited July 2006
    Lets say I was logging in with the regular Add Comments 1 extension, but I typoed my username. It would create a new account. Also the reason for a register or login option is helpful because you'll need to have a verify password box appear if they are registering. It would be disruptive to have them redirected to another page to verify their password. I suppose you could have the "Add your comments" button check if they are logged in and if they aren't it could add the verify password box, but then you have them having to hit "Add your comments" twice and the smooth flow is disrupted.
  • VelmontVelmont
    edited July 2006
    Really good comments and ideas there! A signup on the same page might work, -- it's no more than we normally write in to comment on blogs. I think the registration-part can be done with AJAX for those who have JavaScript. I write username «Odin» password «test123», and then, if it finds out there is no user «Odin», the extension can pop out a new "confirm password"-box. Some info about whats happening would be nice. Maybe a box with email as well. :-) Edit: If you typoed the username - you'll just change it, and press «login» instead. Just ignoring the extra signup-box that came out.
  • Thomas HeathThomas Heath
    All this sounds very promising!
  • tthmaztthmaz
    Any progress in this area?
  • ManiaMania
    How is this going? I'm surprised the most needed extension for many of us - allowing posting without registering, hasn't been done by anyone yet.
  • ManiaMania
    *up*
  • Ji31Ji31
    Yes, I need it really to.. :-(
  • Ji31Ji31
    edited September 2006
    May be: only allow to edit rights for Unauthorized user could help - it might not to be so difficult. And this addon http://lussumo.com/addons/?PostBackAction=AddOn&AddOnID=139 could solve the problem with spam..
  • Ji31Ji31
    If main programator would tell us where we can add all list of right for Unauthorized users, it would be easy to make it..
  • MinisweeperMinisweeper New
    Editing rights for the unauthorised role (which doesnt actually exist, by the way, it's a pseudo-role) wouldnt achieve anything since no users are assigned to that role (since it doesnt exist). The easiest way to do this would just be to make an extension automatically log all users in to a guest account, make a new account for all guest posters (messy), or changing the structure of the posts table so you can put a name into the author thing rather than just a user id (stupid). I could do #1 pretty easily and to be honest i think it's the best solution, but it means all guests would post as the same thing.
  • Ji31Ji31
    OK. It would be great.
  • ManiaMania
    It would be great if a non-registered could choose a nickname for their guest post. But for now, if it is easy and fast, I would settle for everyone not registered to just post as 'guest' or 'anonymous'. Yes, it might look silly but at least there would be conversation and I'm sure active talkers would register to get their own nickname.

    Minisweeper, would you save the day (or the whole month for that matter) then? :)
  • MinisweeperMinisweeper New
    edited September 2006
    Here you go.
This discussion has been closed.