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

Alpha1

Well-known member
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.
 
Upvote 135
It can be tricky to necessarily know what error message to give in particular situations, particularly when someone is logged out and you don't know what will happen when they log in. In this situation, I think be basically tell them to log in.

Our permission system has a framework for exposing a more specific error message, so something like this could be doable, depending on the situation. For example, we wouldn't be able to tell if at one time a user could view a thread but it was moved somewhere that they couldn't see, but we could say that it was (soft) deleted.

so when a user is not logged-in:

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/suggestion-no-permission-to-reply.2277/
 
It can be tricky to necessarily know what error message to give in particular situations, particularly when someone is logged out and you don't know what will happen when they log in. In this situation, I think be basically tell them to log in.

Our permission system has a framework for exposing a more specific error message, so something like this could be doable, depending on the situation. For example, we wouldn't be able to tell if at one time a user could view a thread but it was moved somewhere that they couldn't see, but we could say that it was (soft) deleted.

Regardless of whether they could or could not access the thread before now, why not just tell them that the thread lies in a forum they dont have access to?

It would be nice to keep things as friendly as possible, especially for people new to forums. I find the ipb #s extremely unfriendly for some reason.

Perhaps a friendly "Terribly sorry you cannot see this, there could be a few reasons for this 123421" (error code in smallest font which could be copied/pasted into PC)

I dont think error codes are friendly at all. If you give an error code then you must provide a mechanism for looking up error codes. If you provide such then surely it would be friendlier to ditch the error codes and state the reason.

I have to agree, the error messages should be MUCH more aware of error reasons where the information is available... where it is not, then a fall back to a global message is fine. I think the system will be aware of the reason in most cases and can offer up far more friendly messages.
 
+1 for admin defined error reasons.
I was thinking something like this...

You can edit a error code definition in the acp. So when a users gets error 1, it displays "Sorry, but (rest of reason). If you need to contact a admin, mention error code 123. You of course can edit error code 123 in the acp to say whatever you want...

Would be golden.
 
Hi,

When trying to quote a message that has since been deleted, the user gets a big scary red error message, saying "You do not have permission to view this page or perform this action." This is scary if the user does not know what is going on, and the message doesn't help in finding it out.

To reproduce:

1, user A enters a message
2, user B loads the thread, seeing the previous message
3, user A deletes the message
4, user B tries to reply to the message
5, the scary error message pops up
 
To me it says "The requested post could not be found."

Indeed that's what it says when the message is permanently deleted. If it's not permanent though, you get the other error message, which is misleading and more scary. :D

(Scary because I came across it right here on xenforo.com yesterday, when joking about the "discourage user" feature, and suddenly boom, no access. For a few moments there I thought I was banned. :))
 
Indeed that's what it says when the message is permanently deleted. If it's not permanent though, you get the other error message, which is misleading and more scary. :D

(Scary because I came across it right here on xenforo.com yesterday, when joking about the "discourage user" feature, and suddenly boom, no access. For a few moments there I thought I was banned. :))
Aha, okay :D
Now we know that :)
 
I'd say this is more a suggestion than a bug though :)

It gives an improper and misleading error message to the user, making them believe that they have done something wrong, something they shouldn't have done. In my view that's a bug.
 
It's one way of looking at it, but then all forum software have this bug. Anyway I do agree it's a good idea to have a custom error message for this.
 
It's one way of looking at it, but then all forum software have this bug. Anyway I do agree it's a good idea to have a custom error message for this.

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.
 
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.
Ok but when it's permanently deleted it says 'message can not be found' right? With custom I meant it would say 'this post has been deleted' or something, to explain it even better to the user.
 
Ok but when it's permanently deleted it says 'message can not be found' right? With custom I meant it would say 'this post has been deleted' or something, to explain it even better to the user.

THAT could be a suggestion, indeed. :)

I'm okay with the current error message that comes up when the message is permanently deleted.
 
I just ran across this issue. I received the following mail about a reply to my post in the test forum:
MysteryUser replied to the thread "Testing the BBcode list".

To view this reply and any others, click here:
http://xenforo.com/community/posts/208630/
Clicked the link and got a message telling me I didn't have permission to view a reply in a thread I started.:confused:

I agree with Ati, this is at least momentarily confusing and may even be scary to less than savvy forum users.

I understand that this is technically a permissions issue. But it's a permissions issue that arises because the post is not there anymore. I think in this case the error message could be made a little more user-friendly, so that it indicates the nature of the problem rather than its cause.

(Could someone please explain to me where the missing reply is, if it is not permanently deleted?)
 
Ah, then I thank you for your ceaseless efforts in the war on spam! (y)

The messages at the top of this thread indicate that, if that spam has been permanently deleted, I should be told "The requested post could not be found." Does the fact that I saw the permissions error mean the spam has not been permanently deleted yet?

I'm just trying to understand how deletion works. (I haven't yet got to the point of moderating threads in my own XF installation; I'm still translating messages.)
 
Top Bottom