[Suggestion] Admin Option: Login As User
- Thread starter Princeton
- Start date
Which is why I suggested that anything personal/private should be disabled. People are more tempted to read PMs if they can log in as them.
Probably best as a modification, I agree.
Onimua
Well-known member
That's quite subjective. I think there are a lot more administrators who don't use it than there are who do.
Peggy
Well-known member
Racket
New member
I think you will find that this is false. Administrators should not be bothered to create a test account to find a simple problem that a member may report. I'd also like to mention that the owner of the forum should have full control over the forum and should not be required to take the extra mile to do something.
Valter released a mod to do this for vBulletin and if you take a look at it here: http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=233350 you will find that almost 500 people have installed this mod and over 1,500 people have downloaded it.
I'm just going to assume that the people who voted against this obviously have a small forum and have all the time in the world to burn.
Thanks
Onimua
Well-known member
1,500 out of a much, much larger pool. Though I'll thank you for the assumption and snide remark.
Russ
Well-known member
Yep "Test user permissions" is a great feature phpBB has. It's perfect to see if you have made any mess ups on permissions or test out other misc features.
Biker
Well-known member
If one isn't willing to go the extra mile to ensure their site is successful............................
There seem to be two trains of thought going on here. One is to log in with your userid, but in a different usergroup. I don't have much of an issue with this, although I do see issues if you're having server problems. I prefer to log in as admin, and then use the test user on a different browser. This allows me to make adjustments and immediately test without having to log out and log in again.
The second train of though seems to be those that want to log in AS another user. That's bogus. Should never be part of the core program.
Onimua
Well-known member
That would be a nice feature to have, yes, and wouldn't require you to log into another account. Simply a ?viewas=usergroupid available to admins or something would be great.
Using the above (as this is the only example I see), while I'm sure a select few would use this the majority doesn't. Toss in privacy concerns (and I believe there are some countries extremely strict with the privacy of online users and communities), and this would be stepping on thin ice.
If one is having that much trouble with their community and their users using their site, it would probably be far more beneficial to change the layout of your site rather than logging in and changing settings for them, which is just as time consuming.
Not something I would ever use, nor can I think of any reason I would ever have to log in as any user. Members have rights, and expectation of resonable privacy should be a given. Something like this as a core feature would end put an end to user-admin trust, and no doubt kill any credibilty XF will have. Imagine if FB implemented this. CNN, BBC, et el will be all over it.
Racket
New member
If you don't mind, can you please provide proof that FB does not actuall have something like this?
ChipTz
Member
This can not only be etically incorrect but also illegal on some points, for instance in Portugal just because you own the db you have to obey certain rules regarding privacy and private information, for instance you have to ensure your users personal data such as address, e-mail address (!), phone nr, or whatever fields you have on the registration form are maintained private and secure. I believe the same will apply for private massages or other type of private comunication, if you make it perceptible for the user that it is private you should not access it... at least I don't think you would like to have your PMs read by admins on forums you are not the admin... as I am sure you wouldn't like the postman to read your letters or your mail company to read your e-mails... it would be basically the same.
If you can read your users pm at least pu that clearly in your TOS.
Of course I can't. The fact that major news networks arn't all over it (as they do jump all over any privacy/security issues that pop up with FB) is enough for me to state the above. Really, if FB did, an employee would have already sold them out.
If a user has a problem:
Ask if you can log in as them; request password.
Log in as them, correct problem.
Log out.
Tell user to immediately change their password.
Forsaken
Well-known member
Regarding Facebook; http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/wor...kerberg-hacked-emails-rivals-journalists.html
I've used this mod, though I only used it to test permissions and styles and the like on a administrative account that I then changed to the usergroup I needed to test with.
Using this on users is to much of a gray area, and I wouldn't like to deal with any bad reputation if I did use it.
Nick
Well-known member
The design/layout of the site has absolutely nothing to do with the issue. Users who don't know how to use a forum simply don't know how to use a forum. If it gets to the point where linking to the help documentation, providing further detailed instructions, or guiding the user step-by-step all don't work, then I'm afraid the only other option is to do it for the user. Using the "log in as user" feature seems to be the only simple solution.
I just so happen to have a community in which the majority of the members aren't exactly technically-inclined. And vBulletin with all of its various options/settings can indeed be overwhelming and confusing to elder novice computer users.
