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Other => Meta => Topic started by: quesera on October 09, 2013, 01:50:00 PM



Title: Usability problems for new users
Post by: quesera on October 09, 2013, 01:50:00 PM
I'm not sure whether this is beating a dead horse and I also realize that a spam protection mechanism is needed.

Nonetheless, my first 2 hours on this forum were a facepalm fest. Here's why:

  • It was extremely difficult to find out about the newbie jail policy. I actually had to Google to find the answer. Possible solution: send a welcome e-mail outlining the limitations.
  • People can't post in the Newbie section right away. There's a 6 minute enforced break between posts (understandable), but somehow creating an account is counted as making a post, which is sort of dumb
  • If you get the 6 minute error, the post made is lost. If you hit back and then resubmit you will receive an error about the post already being there (when it's obviously not)
  • For some odd reason "bitcointalk" gets removed and replaced with [Suspicious Website] (please see my post history). I mean, really?
That's about it.

Cheers,


Title: Re: Usability problems for new users
Post by: tysat on October 09, 2013, 01:57:50 PM
  • It was extremely difficult to find out about the newbie jail policy. I actually had to Google to find the answer. Possible solution: send a welcome e-mail outlining the limitations.

It tells you about the jail policy when you register.


Title: Re: Usability problems for new users
Post by: b!z on October 09, 2013, 02:04:17 PM
I think the policy could be placed in a more obvious spot. The text in the signup form would probably not be read by some impatient people :)


Title: Re: Usability problems for new users
Post by: fattypig on October 09, 2013, 02:17:16 PM
Newbie jail should be removed, what's the point of spamming 5 post in newbie section?


Title: Re: Usability problems for new users
Post by: tysat on October 09, 2013, 02:18:29 PM
Newbie jail should be removed, what's the point of spamming 5 post in newbie section?

Someone hasn't read about how it works now... it only takes 1 post and 4 hours of waiting after that post.


Title: Re: Usability problems for new users
Post by: quesera on October 09, 2013, 02:25:26 PM
I think the policy could be placed in a more obvious spot. The text in the signup form would probably not be read by some impatient people :)

Pretty much so (mea culpa).

Anyway, the simple fact that there are multiple posts on the web frustrated by this issue (just do a Google search for "bitcointalk can't post") is I believe a sign that an usability problem does exist and it is faced by a non-trivial amount of new users.

What's even worse, this problem most likely disproportionately affects organic new users (such as those coming from Google traffic) which simply want to contribute to a thread they have found. Spammers, scammers and sockpuppets are not really affected since most likely new accounts created for this purpose belong to already existing users.  


Title: Re: Usability problems for new users
Post by: Raoul Duke on October 09, 2013, 02:38:04 PM
If you can't handle the forums' usability you better not touch Bitcoin at all :P j/k


Title: Re: Usability problems for new users
Post by: quesera on October 09, 2013, 02:43:39 PM
If you can't handle the forums' usability you better not touch Bitcoin at all :P j/k

Ha! Good one.

I actually work in a field related to usability analysis (CRO) so I'm trained to spot this sort of issues. Call it a professional defect.


Title: Re: Usability problems for new users
Post by: dserrano5 on October 09, 2013, 06:09:34 PM
  • […] somehow creating an account is counted as making a post, which is sort of dumb
  • If you get the 6 minute error, the post made is lost. If you hit back and then resubmit you will receive an error about the post already being there (when it's obviously not)

I may be wrong but I think the "post" limit isn't about posts in the forum, but HTTP POST operations. Creating an account and logging in are both POST, as well as trying to publish a message (either successfully or not).


  • For some odd reason "bitcointalk" gets removed and replaced with [Suspicious Website] (please see my post history). I mean, really?

I think that was about bitcointalk.us or something like that.


Title: Re: Usability problems for new users
Post by: quesera on October 10, 2013, 10:56:43 AM
  • For some odd reason "bitcointalk" gets removed and replaced with [Suspicious Website] (please see my post history). I mean, really?

I think that was about bitcointalk.us or something like that.

The exact deleted string was "bitcointalk's" without the quotation marks, but I believe you are right and the anti-phishing feature misfired.


Title: Re: Usability problems for new users
Post by: b!z on October 10, 2013, 10:58:08 AM
  • For some odd reason "bitcointalk" gets removed and replaced with [Suspicious Website] (please see my post history). I mean, really?

I think that was about bitcointalk.us or something like that.

The exact deleted string was "bitcointalk's" without the quotation marks, but I believe you are right and the anti-phishing feature misfired.

bitcointalk's
bitcointalks
"bitcointalks"

What are you talking about?