vBulletin Message - Must Login to View Forums

[pastudan]

Recently the forums seem to have changed so that viewing a topic requires a login. This is especially annoying as a user who sees logging in as a time-wasting step when trying to get real work done. I would imagine it is also annoying for novice Ubuntu users who are coming to the forums to debug their initial hurdles with setting up Ubuntu, as they would have to register for a new account to simply find out if that thread could help them or not.

Any ideas on why this feature got turned on? And can we get the admins to turn it off?

[bapoumba]

Only the Archives are set up to be viewable by logged in users. We had complains that old threads with old fixes were causing problems with newer installs.
All the support and community forums are still available without being logged.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

[pastudan]

Well, I would request that the archives be opened back up to the general public.

It is truly frustrating to come across a promising Google search result and have to turn back and load it through google's cache just because the forum requires a login. This has happened to me about 3 times in the last week.

I think a better approach to this would be to display a warning to users across the top of archived threads that lets them know the information is out of date. Hiding it just seems silly.

[overdrank]

The banner and warning have been at the top of the page since the archive of the main support categories.
:)

[pastudan]

The banner and warning have been at the top of the page since the archive of the main support categories.
:)

Awesome :) So then why require a login? Are there any other users who feel the same about this ridiculous change? Or am I alone on this?

[cgroza]

Awesome :) So then why require a login? Are there any other users who feel the same about this ridiculous change? Or am I alone on this?
Because a rushed user can ignore that and follow a bad fix anyway. In the next 3 minutes, you would find him in the Ubuntu Testimonials saying Ubuntu is a piece of crap.

[Joeb454]

Because a rushed user can ignore that and follow a bad fix anyway. In the next 3 minutes, you would find him in the Ubuntu Testimonials saying Ubuntu is a piece of crap.

This is pretty much the reason, except in practice there's no can.

Most users will miss that banner even if they've been around for a while, so a new user from a google search will almost certainly miss it.

I might look and see if there's a way to edit the message displayed on the login screen to make note that the archives are member only now.

[SamsLembas]

This is really ridiculous. I am not an Ubuntu user. If I click an Ubuntu Forums search result, it is probably because the problem is related to some fairly uncommon hardware. The software version is unlikely to be of much concern.

Troubleshooting uncommon issues would be a hell of a lot more difficult if stuff like this was common practice. As it is, the Ubuntu community is simply made to look bad.

[lisati]

As I understand it, the decision to require a login for the archives was a compromise. One of the difficulties that we face is that older threads may contain advice that no longer applies. If the archives are viewable by the search engines, it is possible that a search might list advice that would be risky or confusing for newcomers to Ubuntu to follow.

An example would be an answer that suggests using the aptitude command. In older releases of Ubuntu, this would be fine, but more recent versions don't install aptitude by default. If a new user were to follow the advice without being aware of this, they'd get a "command not found" error, which could be confusing.

[yacwroy]

Do you have reason to believe that a user that finds a promising fix to an annoying problem on a Google search is likely to be put off by having to log in?

What about those users that are put off - aren't they quite likely to find a similar ancient fix elsewhere in the web, and quite possibly get less support and cause more problems?

What about those users that are put off when the solution here is still perfectly valid?

The login is a minor irritation once you have an account, but if you have to go through the process of signing up it would be quite annoying.

It also feels unprofessional. No other public forums that I know of do this.

It's no biggie but, to me, it's definitely a bad idea.

[bapoumba]

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1799098
Another thread on the same subject with a lengthier explanation.

[bodhi.zazen]

Do you have reason to believe that a user that finds a promising fix to an annoying problem on a Google search is likely to be put off by having to log in?

What about those users that are put off - aren't they quite likely to find a similar ancient fix elsewhere in the web, and quite possibly get less support and cause more problems?

What about those users that are put off when the solution here is still perfectly valid?

The login is a minor irritation once you have an account, but if you have to go through the process of signing up it would be quite annoying.

It also feels unprofessional. No other public forums that I know of do this.

It's no biggie but, to me, it's definitely a bad idea.

It is the best solution for a difficult problem and it is better then all the other alternates.

This decision was made by the greater Ubuntu community , including the FC and the CC and you are going to have to learn to live with it.