[RFC] Permissions for Board Statistics

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naderman
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[RFC] Permissions for Board Statistics

Post by naderman »

At the moment it's always very visible how many posts and topics there are on a forum. Which makes new forums look very empty/unused. So we should offer a permission to disable the display of statistics like total number of posts/topics/users.

Places we display those are:
  1. Bottom of Board Index: Totals for Posts, Topics, Users
  2. Forum list: Topics/Posts per Forum
  3. Topic list: Posts/Views per Topic
  4. User Profile: Total Topics/Posts in statistics
  5. Memberslit: Total users
I would create a separate permission for (1) and one for (2)+(3). I believe (4) and (5) can remain, as the goal is not to make it entirely impossible to find this information but to make it less obvious to visitors.

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Re: [RFC] Permissions for Board Statistics

Post by MartinTruckenbrodt »

Hello Nils,
if a board is new, then is is new. If a board is not very active, then it is not very active. ;)

To remove the number of posts/topics/users is a marketing thing. But the numbers of users for a lot of boards is something like a lie.

A think a board is looking unattractive if there are a high number of users but a low number of posts and topics.

So I think a automatically user purging - e.g. like Advanced Double Activation Pack is offering it for Olympus - would make more sense. At the moment a lot of boards have a lot of users but most of these users are activated but inactive users. I know there is a feature for purging users manually. But I think it's too much flexible. So the risc of doing nonsense things is very high.

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Erik Frèrejean
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Re: [RFC] Permissions for Board Statistics

Post by Erik Frèrejean »

MartinTruckenbrodt wrote:if a board is new, then is is new. If a board is not very active, then it is not very active. ;)
^ that

Hiding those statistics won't make a board look any busier, if you browse the board for a couple of minutes you'll notice whether the board is busy or not no matter whether there are statistics (or what those say as some change them to "appear" busy).
Seeing that the current permission system is already to big/complicated for a lot of users, I'm -1 on adding more permission when these options won't actually help achieving what you want them to achieve.
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Jacob
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Re: [RFC] Permissions for Board Statistics

Post by Jacob »

I don't like it. If you hide the number of views/replies on a topic you're hiding the most important info apart from the title. The same for 1, 2 and 4. This information is essential.
Which makes new forums look very empty/unused.
And that's how they should look.

If some admin wants to hide this info let him do it manually.

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Re: [RFC] Permissions for Board Statistics

Post by Senky »

Well, I would not include this option to the core. As MartinTruckenbrodt (and others) said, if forum is empty, then it is simply empty. phpBB should offer discussion board only, marketing stuff should be care of MODs/extensions.

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naderman
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Re: [RFC] Permissions for Board Statistics

Post by naderman »

I suggested this cause I've seen a number of requests for it. A site like facebook doesn't greet you with a big counter of how many users and posts there are either. I wasn't suggesting "lying", I wouldn't even have removed the data from the page entirely so you can still find out how many users/posts there are if you want to know.

But the current design of the front page places these numbers right in the face of everyone, and they really aren't that terribly important. So this would merely make them less importantly placed (e.g. you can still find the number of users on the memberlist). And the front page would not focus on these numbers so much anymore. But instead focus on content (which forums are there? what are the latest subjects of discussion? etc.)

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MichaelC
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Re: [RFC] Permissions for Board Statistics

Post by MichaelC »

+1.
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Re: [RFC] Permissions for Board Statistics

Post by nickvergessen »

-1 for permissions, we already have enough permissions

maybe a config would be an option here:
  • Display for all
  • Registered users
  • a_board + Founder
  • None
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naderman
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Re: [RFC] Permissions for Board Statistics

Post by naderman »

Wouldn't that just be a new way to define permissions?

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MichaelC
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Re: [RFC] Permissions for Board Statistics

Post by MichaelC »

naderman wrote:Wouldn't that just be a new way to define permissions?
I agree. It should be a permission or on/off for the whole board. The latter of which I'd be against.
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