Need thoughts on "Users send e-mail via board" option

[Marshalrusty]

The "Users send e-mail via board" option in the ACP determines whether the plaintext email address is displayed or whether an email form is used instead. In order to see either, a user needs to have the sendmail permission. There is no warning on the registration page or anywhere else (as far as I can see) that email addresses might be displayed to other members.

By default, "Users send e-mail via board" is disabled (so addresses are displayed in plaintext), but Registered Users do not have the sendmail permission, so nobody can see the addresses anyway. If an administrator gives this permission to the Registered Users at some point, all email addresses on the board become visible to everyone else unless the "Users send e-mail via board" option is also toggled.

1) Should "Users send e-mail via board" be enabled by default if emailing is available?
2) Should users be warned that their email address may be displayed to others (perhaps as clarification of the "Users can contact me by e-mail" account preference)?

[A_Jelly_Doughnut]

1) Yes.
2) Users get the option whether to allow contact off-board by email or not (default: on) (see UCP->Board Preferences). This should perhaps be mentioned in the FAQ.

[nickvergessen]

1) Yes.
2) Users get the option whether to allow contact off-board by email or not (default: on) (see UCP->Board Preferences). This should perhaps be mentioned in the FAQ.

Agree on this

Not quite sure at the moment, but I think, I'd also agree on setting "Users can contact me by e-mail:" to No by default aswell. Main communication is using PMs anyway.

[DavidIQ]

Communication preferences could go with being displayed at registration I think. I agree with AJD as well.

[naderman]

Communication preferences could go with being displayed at registration I think. I agree with AJD as well.

We've really tried rather hard to make registration as simple as possible, so I'd rather not add options to it again.

In general I agree with AJD. However on point 2) I'm unsure where exactly and with what language it should be explained that the e-mail address <i>might</i> become visible to other users. Maybe we should simply have a separate checkbox that generally controls whether or not the email address is visible to other members? That would remove the relationship between displaying e-mails and the "Users send e-mail via board" option.

[Derky]

I'd also agree on setting "Users can contact me by e-mail:" to No by default aswell. Main communication is using PMs anyway.

I think that's the best and easiest solution.

[Jacob]

I don't really like the "Users send e-mail via board" feature and I think we have never even used it in our forum.
In my opinion it would be better to simply get rid of it and convert:

• the user permission to "Show my email"
• the ACP permission to "Show email adresses"

If the ACP permission is set to "No", it will override the user permission.

If people want to let others contact them by email they will have to personally give their emails by PM. More secure from the user's perspective and less problematic for phpBB.

If you want to keep the feature, then I agree with nickvergessen and Derky.

[MartinTruckenbrodt]

Hello,
I agree with nickvergessen and Derky, too.
The preference is PM, Email is optional.

Bye Martin

[TptMike]

Not quite sure at the moment, but I think, I'd also agree on setting "Users can contact me by e-mail:" to No by default aswell. Main communication is using PMs anyway.

+1. If I want people to contact me via email, I will go to the UCP and change it. Otherwise, I don't even want to mess with it, thus setting it to "No"

Suggestion:
My personal preference though is having checkbox options "Allow users to send me emails:" and "Allow Administrators to send me emails:" during the registration process in the Language and Timezone section. Following up on that, phpBBs permissions already would allow a simple enforcement upon that by either restricting a users permission to send emails via disciplinary action, or to block off an entire group (eg. Registered Users) from sending emails.

As far as if users have "Allow Admins to send emails" unchecked, a "Force emails" checkbox would need to be added to the ACP Mass Email page.

-Mike

[MartinTruckenbrodt]

Hello Mike,
IMO the "Allow Administrators to send me emails" setting should be removed completely. I think it's nonsense. At least it should been separated from founders.

I think "Allow users to send me emails" needs not to been placed on the registration page if the default setting is No.

Bye Martin