Tell users why they do not have permission to access a page.

[Alpha1]

A simple no permissions page doesnt give users a clue about whats going on and will likely lead the user to send redundant questions to the admin.

There are a few reasons why a thread is not accessible:
- it has been deleted.
- it has been moved to or is located in a forum that the usergroup, the user is in, can not access.
- the user needs to validate their email account.

Similarly, if a user gets a no permission screen, when trying to access functionality that has been turned off for the usergroup, then its very useful for the user to understand that. Else they will possibly think this is an error and that the forum software is buggy.

If the user is informed what is going on then they will not need to ask.

 

[Mopquill]

I definitely like this idea. I've had quite a few users, usually those less familiar with forum software, or at least XenForo, confused as to why they can't access some particular content. And most end up contacting staff.

 

[Deepmartini]

Seems like a simple thing to create and would add a lot of value to Xenforo. I hope this idea doesn't get lost in the shuffle. There are so many great ideas here in this forum, which one do they go after next?!

 

[Floris]

I am currently testing extending on the error pages, there are two that we have working, one being the most common 'not found'. It will be phrased and template powered. Allowing the admin to have a custom xenforo powered '404' page. If anybody is interested in helping, we will soon need a few beta testers. Feel free to open a conversation with me. </offtopic>

<ontopic> I hope these errors can be managed from within the system, by default. in version 1.2.

[edit] First build has been published..

 

[mauzao9]

This would be nice, just an error message users get ???? without know why.

 

[oneon77]

I got the same problem with Ati. "You do not have permission to view this page or perform this action." i tried to download minecraft theme link but I could not do that. what should I do ? idk

 

[Paul B]

what should I do ?

Buy the software and associate your account.

As it clearly states in the notice.

 

[goraxer]

It doesn't need to be "custom". There is already an error message for it. It gives the correct error when the message is permanently deleted. I think it should give the same error when it's not. The two cases look exactly the same from a user's point of view. He doesn't know if the message has been permanently deleted, or just hidden from view, all he sees is that it's no longer there.

Yes i agree

 

[Alpha1]

I think this functionality would also be handy to let users take any needed action.
If a user gets a notification that they can not see a page because they need to activate their email, then the user will resolve that.

It could even be taken a step further: if the user can not see a page because the usergroup permissions do not allow it, then a notice could explain which trophies are needed to reach the next usergroup promotion. This will motivate the user to go after the trophies.

 

[Renegade]

Would definitely make it easier to use for new members and prevent a lot of complain threads for private sections.

 

[Stuart Wright]

The generic 'You do not have permission to view this page or perform this action' message is not very helpful in terms of helping the viewer to understand the problem.
Why can't they do what they want?
A member may not be able to post in our classifieds because of several reasons including some by addons.
E.g. They can't post a new thread if they are in the Ad Blocker usergroup which denies permission to do that.
Or if they are under 18 or already have a thread in that forum (via addons by Chris D).

This escalates to questions for the moderators from confused members wanting to know why they can't do particular things.

So I would like to see a reason. Or a list of reasons if there are several.
Perhaps this could derive from the admin permissions analysis tool.

E.g. You can't post in this forum because you are in the Ad Blocker usergroup which has permission to post in the classifieds forum denied. And because your date of birth in your profile is less than 18.

I appreciate this might require careful wording of the explanations for not having permission to do stuff. And might even require new fields & phrases for admin to enter the wording.
But I think it would overcome a major frustration for users when they are told that they can't do something but not told why.

 

[Lukas W.]

I'd really like to see this in XF 2.0. In my opinion this is really important. You can't just throw a NO! into a users face and don't tell them why. They'll ask - sooner or later - and you might not be able to answer, why they get that error. However, the way this currently works (the function that throws the error has no idea of what happened before and I can't think of a way to 'analyze what happened before' and derive the specific reasons from that), it would probably break most addons or their downwards compatibility if they're updated accordingly, so XF 2.0 would likely be the best point to include this.

 

[Joeychgo]

Agree fully. Desperately needed

 

[Stuart Wright]

Is there any chance of this being in XF2?

 

[Brent W]

Is there any chance of this being in XF2?

We get about 5-10 support requests a day asking why they don't have permission to a certain forum. Despite our best efforts to use the notification system and sticky threads to tell them why.

 

[Digital Doctor]

Can you give them a message with a link ?
Why can they see forums they can't access ?

 

[Digital Doctor]

Want worse than can't access messages ?
IPB gives an error message when you don't have permissions !

 

[Brent W]

Can you give them a message with a link ?
Why can they see forums they can't access ?

Because we make them agree to rules and confirm they read them before they are allowed to post in the forum.

 

[TPerry]

IPB gives an error message when you don't have permissions !

For clarification, IPB has the ability to add custom error messages in the forum nodes.


Most of their "default" error message leaves a little to be desired frequently.
I've ran into the "Sorry, there is a problem" and then an error number frequently.

 

[wang]

The generic 'You do not have permission to view this page or perform this action' message is not very helpful in terms of helping the viewer to understand the problem.
Why can't they do what they want?
A member may not be able to post in our classifieds because of several reasons including some by addons.
E.g. They can't post a new thread if they are in the Ad Blocker usergroup which denies permission to do that.
Or if they are under 18 or already have a thread in that forum (via addons by Chris D).

This escalates to questions for the moderators from confused members wanting to know why they can't do particular things.

So I would like to see a reason. Or a list of reasons if there are several.
Perhaps this could derive from the admin permissions analysis tool.

E.g. You can't post in this forum because you are in the Ad Blocker usergroup which has permission to post in the classifieds forum denied. And because your date of birth in your profile is less than 18.

I appreciate this might require careful wording of the explanations for not having permission to do stuff. And might even require new fields & phrases for admin to enter the wording.
But I think it would overcome a major frustration for users when they are told that they can't do something but not told why.

Well, if those error permissions are related to the add ons, I do not see how xenforo can improve the error messages. The error messages must be improved in the add ons themselves. They should specify the reason as to why users can not enter that forum, rather than using the standard error message of xenforo, which seems to be the case.

 

[Digital Doctor]

Because we make them agree to rules and confirm they read them before they are allowed to post in the forum.

Good idea.