Users are encountering an issue in the Discobot Advanced Tutorial where the notification button is hidden for those who can’t send private messages (PMs), causing them to get stuck at the step requiring notification level changes. dsims notes that while users can still receive PMs (e.g., from discobot), the UI hides the notification control, forcing them to skip the step. Moin confirms this has happened before and points to a deleted post from another forum where the same issue arose. The code responsible for hiding the button appears intentional, likely to simplify the interface for conversations with @system when PMs are disabled — but it wasn’t designed with the Discobot tutorial in mind. Moin also references other edge cases that break the tutorial, such as when flags are disabled, and notes that these were not previously documented. The community is seeking clarification on whether this behavior is intentional or a bug that should be fixed to ensure the tutorial functions correctly for all users, regardless of their PM settings.
I have sending private messages disabled, but users can still receive PMs, primarily via the discobot tutorial. The problem is the notifications button is hidden if you can’t send PMs so the user gets stuck in the Advanced Tutorial where it asks you to change the notification level. Currently, I tell the users to skip that step.
But that makes me wonder, why is the notification button hidden? Can it be enabled in this case?
I had a user struggling with that some months ago too. (And we also noticed another forum where this came up, but the post about the problem was auto-deleted. But for the rule of three, and since that is a Discourse customer, I will add the link to the deleted post here https://lovehoneyforum.com/t/discobot-tutorials/257800/1045) We wondered if it’s intentional and it seemed intentional to simplify the interface on conversations with @system when PMs are generally disabled. Maybe no one has thought about the Discobot tutorial.
But there are lots of edge cases that currently break the tutorial: Will the Discobot tutorial work with flags disabled? - #9 by Moin and I forgot the add that one when we found it in March.