"Allow uncategorized topics" set to false should nudge users to select a category

feature
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Continuing the discussion from Category ordering - broken in places?

As long as the order of categories in the composer drop-down can not be changed, I’d like to propose the following:

The allow uncategorized topics = false setting shouldn’t take away the uncategorized option from the drop-down altogether. Instead, it should throw a warning if a user tries to post without having selected a category to post to.

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This is based on having tried the setting on and off for an extended time on my forum, and my choices as of today are these (I’ve tried living with both for an extended time):

  1. uncategorized = false - A large percentage of our users post blindly to whichever category is at the top of the list, which usually ends up being wrong as the most common type of post is Troubleshooting, yet our top-most category is User Code & Projects

  2. uncategorized = true - A large percentage of our users post without any category attached. (The funny part is some of them even “correct” themselves by posting to User Code & Projects, which they’ve been conditioned to think is the right category for their kind of query, because we haven’t been vigilant enough about moving their topics.)

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makes sense.

one small tweak to suggest in your mockup:

rather than say ‘uncategorized’ in the dropdown, it should probably have placeholder text that says something like "please select a category…’

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We had that at one point and it regressed out at some point.

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Yeh I felt like I had experienced this before, but thought maybe it was just the character limit. Good to know I’m not going senile.

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So, was there a point to this regression or was it merely accidental?

I sincerely hope it’s the latter, as the lack of category ordering is still causing us some pain.

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Bumping this, as I still consider this a simple but effective change. Since it’s a regression I’m assuming it’s safe to say PR welcome.

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Sure @techapj can you add it to your list.

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FYI, does this partially exist?

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As both a Moderator and User, I get the edit shown above.

As an Admin, I do not get an edit, and it puts the topic in uncategorized.

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Nice so maybe it’s just a misunderstanding – people who have admin don’t understand that’s not how it looks for others who are not admin / staff …

1 Like