Lack of interest Show [Post New Thread] button also if people are not registered

[Grover]

Hi just realized something: when you visit xenforo.com/community/forums as a non-registered (not logged in) user, the [Post New Thread] button is not shown when you go inside a forum.

Is this a setting? (I don't know, I still do/can not use Xenforo on my production environment). Or maybe there's another reason not so show them? If it's not a setting or any good reason behind it (you can then disregard my suggestion), then I would like to suggest the following:

- Display the button [Post New Thread] always for non-registered/not logged in users.
- The moment they press it, they will get a clear explanation that they need to register to post.
- (Edit): or alternatively see this suggestion.

This will make it more clear to the enduser that they need to register to post and that's never a bad thing preventing these questions 'How do I post?!' coming to the staff.

Please do [like] this first posting if you think it is a good feature suggestion for XenForo

 

[Grover]

Ah, I just realized there's this '(You must log in or sign up to post here.)' text at the bottom of the screen where you would normally find a button to post. Great. Still... it's only shown at the bottom of the screen, making it harder for the enduser to find it. From my point of view it would make things clearer if such a message would also be shown at the top of the screen, exactly there were the most used post button is supposed to be.

This subsequentally brings me back to this point, because I realize you can not really put that text '(You must log in or sign up to post here.)' in the place of the [Post New Thread] button that is located next to the breadcrumb. Yet another reason maybe why the position of that upper button is not so handy always?

Having said that, instead of actually displaying the buttons (which explanation to register when they press it), it would already help if the '(You must log in or sign up to post here.)' text is also displayed on top and not only at the bottom (where's is quite a bit harder to find).

My 2 cents.

 

[Dodgeboard]

Of course, this is a forum of forum admins. So, if you want to be an admin, you sure the hell should have basic forum posting already "down", despite the software brand.

 

[Grover]

I'm afraid I do not get what you are trying to say? If your point is that as an admin one should have knowledge about/experience with the basics of using a forum, yes: I agree with you. However, the majority of my suggestions are based on improving the experience for the (non-administrative) enduser. Looking through the eyes of non-experienced endusers I see this when I enter a (XF) forum where I would like to post something:



I am running a vB board since 12 years now and we are still receiving the question of new users 'How do I post a topic'? Not everyone is an experienced forum-user and therefor the UI needs to be as indicative (<- I am not sure if this is correct English) as possible. What I mean is: in the above example there is no indication for the enduser that she/he needs to [Log in or Sign up] first to be able to post.

However, the user is (only) guided further when one scrolls down all the way in the list, because there it says at the bottom of the screen: '(You must log in or sign up to reply here.)'. Wouldn't it be good if this text/link was presented at the top of the screen, where it is actually visible to the enduser immediately?

Erich shows a good point here (screenshot #3) where you can see that Xenforo actually already -in the Recource Manager UI- provides the same functionality I am requesting above.

Being it a link or a grey button: either one of them is really better then nothing to guide the enduser, imho.