How come I can't post in the groups area?

[jdj]

I've just tried to contribute to a group discussion (by hitting comment) only to find that I wasn't authorized to post.

Why is that I'm not authorized to post in the groups area?

The error message I get is...

"Error: You are not authorized to create this post."

I can't see anything anywhere telling me I have to join the group to reply or contribute.

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/socia...ow-than-in-vb4

PS: At the bottom of the page as I view it there's a note saying "sorry you are not authorized to view this page." I can see I'm logged in and I can see the page. I just can't post and I can't see why that is.

[jdj]

The post I was trying to comment on was Joe's post from January which said

"Well Group Posts show up under "Today's Posts" - that's how I found this post. They are pretty much identical to forums in VB5. "

What I was trying to post as a comment was, "...If groups are pretty much identical to forums, in order to understand how they might be used, how do they differ from forums?"

[Mark.B]

You need to join the group.
Click on the group link itself (from the breadcrumb will do):

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/social-groups/vbulletin/group-about-vb-groups

There is a Join link there.

[jdj]

You need to join the group.
Click on the group link itself (from the breadcrumb will do):
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/socia...bout-vb-groups

There is a Join link there.

I just tried clicking on your link from the post sent to my email client (outlook) and got the following error message. "Invalid page url. If this is an error and the page should exist, please contact the system administrator and tell them how you got this message."

After that I clicked on the link from this thread, got there and was able to join. So unless this was a one-off your notifications may be sending out links that don't work.

[jdj]

You need to join the group.
Click on the group link itself (from the breadcrumb will do):
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/socia...bout-vb-groups

There is a Join link there.

OK, now I understand.

However, if I click on the widget "latest group topics" for whatever group that comes up I don't see anything telling me that if I want to comment or reply then I have to join the group. I also don't see a group icon so I can't see which group I'm commenting on, whether I can comment on it, or a join icon. I have to know that I have to hit the breadcrumb, which isn't that intuitive. I'm not sure if that's because of a bug or because the groups haven't been set up correctly so that users can see whether they are members or not and whether they have permissions to post.

[Mark.B]

OK, now I understand.

However, if I click on the widget "latest group topics" for whatever group that comes up I don't see anything telling me that if I want to comment or reply then I have to join the group. I also don't see a group icon so I can't see which group I'm commenting on, whether I can comment on it, or a join icon. I have to know that I have to hit the breadcrumb, which isn't that intuitive. I'm not sure if that's because of a bug or because the groups haven't been set up correctly so that users can see whether they are members or not and whether they have permissions to post.

That's a limitation of the interface....nothing we can do about that directly.
You could raise an improvement request in the tracker if you want to see this changed.

[jdj]

That's a limitation of the interface....nothing we can do about that directly.
You could raise an improvement request in the tracker if you want to see this changed.

I'm just trying to understand the feature to see how it might be used. If there's a limitation of the interface maybe the solution to that is to change the error message and tell users what they have to do to join the group (assuming that this error message is bespoke to this area of the site).

Does this error message come up when people try and post on forums they are not supposed to have access to? Or is this an error message that only comes up when you try and post to a group you haven't joined?

[Wayne Luke]

I'm just trying to understand the feature to see how it might be used. If there's a limitation of the interface maybe the solution to that is to change the error message and tell users what they have to do to join the group (assuming that this error message is bespoke to this area of the site).

Does this error message come up when people try and post on forums they are not supposed to have access to? Or is this an error message that only comes up when you try and post to a group you haven't joined?

It shows wherever you don't have permission to post. As far as the system is concerned there is actually no difference between a Forum and a Group or a Blog or an Article Category.

[jdj]

It shows wherever you don't have permission to post. As far as the system is concerned there is actually no difference between a Forum and a Group or a Blog or an Article Category.

So maybe the solution to that is to change the text of the error message. At the moment if I visit a group I'm not a member of from the latest group discussions widget I see the usual reply/comment options but nothing to tell me I can't. Also nothing to tell me what group it is or whether I'm a member.

[Mark.B]

So maybe the solution to that is to change the text of the error message. At the moment if I visit a group I'm not a member of from the latest group discussions widget I see the usual reply/comment options but nothing to tell me I can't. Also nothing to tell me what group it is or whether I'm a member.

There's nothing the support team can do about things like that, the best thing to do if you think it should be changed is raise an improvement request in the Tracker.

[jdj]

At this stage I'm just trying to understand the feature to see how best to use it. Seems to me that it would benefit from a different error message for people trying to post who are not part of that group. I doubt that requires any coding, just editing a standard phrase.

[jdj]

It shows wherever you don't have permission to post. As far as the system is concerned there is actually no difference between a Forum and a Group or a Blog or an Article Category.

So coming back to a previous question, how do Groups differ from ?Forums?

[jdj]

I'm not sure whether this is something to do with vbulletin.com or not but I'm seeing an odd message appearing below the title of the thread. I doubt it's my browser as I'm not getting any of those "savingtoyou" malware attacks. Is someone testing something out?

This picture appears very small when I upload it. It's a rotating news feed which says "Real human Barbie doll exposed as a fake" and a number of other joke announcements.

[jdj]

Having had a closer look it appears to be some kind of news feed from "BWNToday" appearing just below the title of every thread, not just this thread. BWNToday.com appears to be a domain up for sale but if you click the link it takes you to www.breakingworldnewstoday.com. Is someone testing out a new newsfeed on this site?

[glennrocksvb]

I don't see it in my browser. Are you sure you don't have some browser add-on or extension that's doing this?

[jdj]

I don't see it in my browser. Are you sure you don't have some browser add-on or extension that's doing this?

I think I may just have found it. I think it's something called SoftCoup or SoftCouup. No idea where it came from. I hate these things. It took me ages to kill "savingtoyou" when it turned up on my machine. I can't understand why anybody trying to advertise this way thinks it's good business.

[glennrocksvb]

Sometimes when you install something in your machine, there is a setting in the installation wizard of installing some add-ons/extensions by default. That's why I always choose "Custom" when there are options for "Typical" or "Custom" installation and uncheck those kinds of sneaky defaults.