[Suggestion] Operating hours for a forum

[Walter]

It would be cool if there was an admin option to specify operating hours for the forum.

Why? Simply to turn off registration during certain hours (option 1) or to switch the forum to read only mode (option 2). Reasons:

• One of my forums is for children and the moderators have to closely monitor the forum not only for spammers but also for adults in disguise, often registering at hours when children are at sleep.
• At my largest forum we had one month where trolls where hitting us hard, they where extremely persistent, they knew our mods where pretty good at banning them during normal hours (7 am to 11 pm) but we all need some sleep from time to time
• Corporate forums which simply don't like to clean up a forum from nightly spam

Don't forget, if you like this idea click on the "Like" button!

 

[Hatsu]

Oh yeah, really bloat. Three additional options: enable, from, to in the setting group where you turn your forum off.

 

[anotheralias]

As for the, "if you don't need it, don't use it" argument, this is exactly why vBulletin has tons of features most people do not even use. I fail to see a good reason for including any feature someone suggests simply because one can enable or disable it. There's a term for software like that, bloatware. And, as I see it, I highly doubt such a feature would be widely used (not even close). As others have said, probably best left to the modding community.

Yes! And in addition, I think it would be pure insanity to include a hundred different things to toggle that only a few people would actually use.

 

[Walter]

I still think you're trying to take a sledge hammer to fix a problem that just needs a screwdriver

If you have found the magical thing to solve my problem, simply tell it to me.
 

Back to your suggestion, I think the actual use case for such a feature is relatively small, almost nonexistent, regardless of whatever reasons provided.

Basically you say "I think the use case is small but I don't give you arguments or facts and ignore the one you provided."

 

[Onimua]

Oh yeah, really bloat. Three additional options: enable, from, to in the setting group where you turn your forum off.

That's where it starts. "What's the harm? It's just a little option." Are we going to do this for every suggestion no matter what it is? Let's toss on [insert random feature here]! We can just have a link to disable it. It doesn't matter if a small percentage actually use it, it'll be there by default for those who will.

If you have found the magical thing to solve my problem, simply tell it to me.

Basically you say "I think the use case is small but I don't give you arguments or facts and ignore the one you provided."

Can you show me a decent number of forums where such a feature as this is currently being used?

 

[Shadab]

If we have the ability/option to:

• Close registrations unconditionally
• Create a pseudo-cronjob (similar to what we have in vB)

It would be quite trivial to create 2 cron jobs that run once daily with a time difference of 6 hours: one cronjob closes the registrations, and the other cronjob opens the registrations automatically after 6 hours. This would easily accomplish what the OP (Walter) wants, without creating a separate option in the AdminCP.

 

[Hatsu]

I don't see any harm in such a feature as it doesn't touch how the forum works. It's a matter of structure and presentation. vB wouldn't feel that bloated if the information given in ACP would have a structured layout und be more intuitive. I don't think xF will have the same mess in ACP, at least I hope so.

[irony] On the other hand xF Ltd. could sell a plain framework and you can do the rest yourself, but I don't think it will be a big business for xF with only a bunch of nerds as clients. [/irony]

Edit:
Or instead of closing the possibility to switch the whole forum to moderated.

 

[Russ]

I would feel corporations would love for folks to be able to post any-time of the night making it clear to them the response time won't be until normal business hours. Trolls are trolls, they'll find a way no matter what haha . I feel this is a good idea but best suited for a modification. I could see some boards taking advantage of this but not enough to make it a default feature.

 

[Dean]

Seems like an obscure request to me. In addition it may be that having forums read-only such as what Floren asked about recently could be an answer, maybe?

Toggle to put non-admins in the unregistered usergroup perhaps?


In general, the magic of forums is to be able to post at anytime, then later someone can read the post. But I can see a need to not allow posting certain times of the day for specific situations.

 

[Brandon_R]

I doubt that most forums have international users. How many people only know their first language good enough to communicate fluently?
By far the most forums target native speakers.

I mean users from different countries. Doesn't necessarily mean different languages.

 

[Brandon_R]

Ah, I love these kind of posts. There should be zero discussion on suggestions people post, right? After all, that's not what forums are for, heh.

As for the, "if you don't need it, don't use it" argument, this is exactly why vBulletin has tons of features most people do not even use. I fail to see a good reason for including any feature someone suggests simply because one can enable or disable it. There's a term for software like that, bloatware. And, as I see it, I highly doubt such a feature would be widely used (not even close). As others have said, probably best left to the modding community.

I agree. The "If you don't need it don't use it" philosophy has been tested and it failed. If something is logical and is used by most of the users while fitting in the design philosophy and principles of the software then it shall be included

 

[anotheralias]

I don't see any harm in such a feature as it doesn't touch how the forum works. It's a matter of structure and presentation. vB wouldn't feel that bloated if the information given in ACP would have a structured layout und be more intuitive. I don't think xF will have the same mess in ACP, at least I hope so.

[irony] On the other hand xF Ltd. could sell a plain framework and you can do the rest yourself, but I don't think it will be a big business for xF with only a bunch of nerds as clients. [/irony]

Edit:
Or instead of closing the possibility to switch the whole forum to moderated.

Sure, if you only expect to sell your software to programmers and coders and other people who have used forum software for years and know their way around a gigantic control panel, why not add a thousand different things to toggle. But if not - why immediately discourage the guy who wants to buy a forum for his little wine club or whatever, by presenting him with an Admin panel that looks like the cockpit of a space shuttle? It's the same price to him as it is to Mr. Billions of Members.

And more importantly - do you really want to put a feature in your software which, if accidentally or improperly used, turns the forum off?

 

[Walter]

do you really want to put a feature in your software which, if accidentally or improperly used, turns the forum off?

You don't want a switch to turn your forum off, e.g. for maintenance and upgrades? Astonishing.

 

[anotheralias]

You don't want a switch to turn your forum off, e.g. for maintenance and upgrades? Astonishing.

Ah Walter, I'm really sorry because you have a wonderful smile in your avatar there and you're so earnest about this, but no - I don't want a feature that - if I accidentally toggle it - will turn my forum off x hours per day. And it's exactly the kind of thing I'm likely to do.

 

[Nick]

Oh yeah, really bloat. Three additional options: enable, from, to in the setting group where you turn your forum off.

If I got a dollar for every "it's just an option; you don't have to enable it if you don't want to" statement, I'd be rich.

If every person got their little options, it'd take hours to configure the forum's hundreds of settings that have been added at the request of users in the vast minority. We don't want bloat. We want simplicity with the ability to add modifications and plugins at your leisure.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

Pretty interesting idea this one... something very different.

 

[Hatsu]

Sure, if you only expect to sell your software to programmers and coders and other people who have used forum software for years and know their way around a gigantic control panel, why not add a thousand different things to toggle. But if not - why immediately discourage the guy who wants to buy a forum for his little wine club or whatever, by presenting him with an Admin panel that looks like the cockpit of a space shuttle? It's the same price to him as it is to Mr. Billions of Members.

And more importantly - do you really want to put a feature in your software which, if accidentally or improperly used, turns the forum off?

Oh yes. I see, it's really better to have a plain forum without any options and send the guy with his wine club for each additional option to the mod section and tell him: Do it yourself. I see where you guys are coming from, you are my heroes.

 

[Walter]

If you operate a big forum, what are your biggest challenges besides keeping the users happy? Fighting spam and trolls.
I can't see why an option that helps some admins (and I would say that this option is not for only 1% of the admins) would be bloat.

 

[anotheralias]

Oh yes. I see, it's really better to have a plain forum without any options and send the guy with his wine club for each additional option to the mod section and tell him: Do it yourself. I see where you guys are coming from, you are my heroes.

I really don't think the guy with his little wine club is going to be wanting to turn off his forum for x hours per day. And I never said it should be a plain forum without any options - I am objecting to cluttering things up with numerous options that are only going to appeal to a handful of people.

 

[anotheralias]

If you operate a big forum, what are your biggest challenges besides keeping the users happy? Fighting spam and trolls.
I can't see why an option that helps some admins (and I would say that this option is not for only 1% of the admins) would be bloat.

Since you don't have a problem getting new members evidently, why don't you just use moderated-registration plus the first ten posts are moderated, or something like that?

 

[Walter]

I am objecting to cluttering things up with numerous options that are only going to appeal to a handful of people.

Repeatedly stating that this feature will only appeal to a handful of people is no argument, it is only an assumption.