Contacts/friends page

[Tailfeathers]

Can we please have an explanation on that page about what the difference is? Not even I know to be honest...

[Ohiosweetheart]

It's been explained in other threads what the difference is.

Contacts= someone you put on your buddy/contact list, is not reciprocal.

Friends= someone who requests to be on your friends list, or you invite, and is reciprocal.

[Tailfeathers]

Thanks! Members on boards won't know unless there is an explanation on that page, though. :)

To be honest the 'friends' feature seems to make the contact feature a bit pointless, but that is just my opinion.

[Sychev_S]

If both people add each other to contacts, do they automatically become friends?

[Ohiosweetheart]

So far it seems that you can add someone only to your contacts list, BUT, if you add someone to friends, they're automatically added to contacts.

IMO they should be totally and completely separated.

[Grover]

Thanks! Members on boards won't know unless there is an explanation on that page, though. :)


I completely agree. More INLINE Help for users (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=149044) is indeed needed in my opinion. This is another good example where a more sophisticated, context-senstive inline help system would do wonders for the userfriendliness of the system.

[Ohiosweetheart]

Seems to me that this is where the importance of the FAQ comes into play ;)

[Grover]

Seems to me that this is where the importance of the FAQ comes into play ;)

Exactly... and since I believe that the FAQ needs to be more accessible , inline-context sensitive help would bring the FAQ to the limelight , because the help-text could/should be retrieved from the FAQ indeed...

[Ohiosweetheart]

I completely agree with you Grover

[Tailfeathers]

Here is a thread I made a while back about the FAQ, which I think is even more relevant today given how more complicated the board is -- this release alone adds tons of new little buttons and options here and there which can be complicated even for the pros...
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=181444

Inline help is also really needed. The fact that you pretty much can't figure out the difference between friends/contacts without asking shows that. Please, vB, at the very least explain this on that page. :)

[Grover]

I remember reading a posting somewhere from a staffmember saying that the developers somehow find it a bit of a chore having to update the inhelp help (for the ACP I believe) with every single release.

Something like that, I can't remember correctly. I will try and find it again. IMHO I think this is an oversight and -for me- it illustrates a little bit the way I experienced vB in the past:

I always felt that previously vBulletin was more aimed at the experienced programmer/administrator type of user then the novice end-user of the product. So I am very glad to see that vBulletin seems to be -finally- more (end)USER-oriënted, looking at all the good things vB 3.7 has to offer.

We have some little examples of Inline Help in the great Blog Product (although those 4 inline help entries are the only ones provided throughout the whole product) and this I would really to like to see extended to vBulletin (Forum) itself:

23918

I think it's pretty odd that you find extensive Inline Help inside the ACP, provided by the http://www.haarweb.nl/forum/cpstyles/vBulletin_3_Frontend/cp_help.gif-marks (which is really admin-friendly: I use it very often), but there is litteraly NONE for the enduser in their UserCP's (or the front-end for that matter). Hellloooo? Where does that leave the end-user in all of this?

[Tailfeathers]

Good point -- but I would say that without help for users, it is not very user-oriented at all. Lots of features (like doubleclicking in the box to edit) most users probably don't know about...I mean, why would they? You don't tend to go around randomly double clicking in places.