After pressing save on a new Topic, the user is presented with their new Topic node. Would it be possible to remove the Reply button at this point. It is proving to be very confusing for our users, who dont wanat to reply to a topic they have only just created.

See my other Issue concerning a link back to the list of topics, this is very important here.

Thanks

Comments

dnewkerk’s picture

dnewkerk commented

I don't understand why this is confusing, but I'll leave it up to Michelle. No other forum software I know of acts in that way (removing the option to reply for the original poster)... I know for sure (just tested) that the most common/popular forum software, vBulletin, doesn't do this. In some cases a user may have a "need" to reply to their own forum topic immediately after posting (for instance, if users are not allowed to edit their original topic and need to add a clarification to what they wrote). A lot of sites also like to turn on the option to have the reply/comment form displayed at all times at the bottom of the thread, often referred to as "Quick reply" in forum software (in Drupal 6 you can find this setting in admin/content/node-type/forum under Comment settings -> Location of comment submission form). If you do this, by the way, the big reply button will no longer show at the top, but the reply form will show at all times at the bottom of the page. This might prove a preferable solution for you.

I would suggest to just ensure that your breadcrumbs and other navigation be well visible so that the user has an obvious choice of what to click next. Some additional navigation options as you suggested in your other issue (or something like other forums have, a Forum Jump box) would be helpful in addition, but the average user will be able to understand not to reply needlessly to their own thread simply because they don't know where to go next on the site. Just to play devil's advocate a bit more.... though you're trying to fix one usability issue with this idea, it could potentially cause a bit of a different (and possibly more serious) usability issue for users if you do things like conditionally remove certain UI buttons/links and put them back in other conditions... changing the UI underneath the user can hurt a site's usability. The users may not grasp the timing and conditions that cause these changes in the UI and thus not feel comfortable in their understanding of how to navigate and use the site. Navigation, especially, must be the immovable rock a user can always count on and go back to without fail if they get lost or confused on the site.

MatWho’s picture

MatWho commented

Thanks for your careful consideration of my suggestion.

I would be quite happy if you could just help me "hack" it for my site. I completly understand my requirements may be unique.

I am not really in a position to comment on how other software works, because my immediate issues are based on extensive feed back from a careful user study for my specific project. Most of the users interviewed have not used any sort of forum before.

I completely understand that you might be representing the "common good". I unfortunately have to represent a small and obviously "abnormal" group who have views I will do all I can to satisfy :)

michelle’s picture

michelle
she/her
Primary language English
Location Wisconsin, USA
commented
Status: Active » Closed (won't fix)

If you want to remove the reply button on a user's own posts you could compare their UID against the post's UID but this isn't something I would add to the module.

Michelle