1325128 - please remove restrictions on first-time user posts

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Infrastructure & Operations :: Community IT: Discourse, task)

Description

[Jared Hirsch [:jhirsch] (he/him) (Needinfo please)]

Hi there - The Test Pilot team would like to use Discourse as a mailing list. Unfortunately, new users are required to view 5 pages on the Mozilla Discourse site, and wait 24 hours, before they can post.

This really doesn't work for a mailing list, and I suspect it's why we have seen relatively few user threads in the Test Pilot forums.

Could new users simply have the rights to create and reply to threads, so that it truly works as a mailing list (for email-centric users) and is friendlier to casual Test Pilot users on day 1?

Comment 2

[Leo McArdle [:leo]]

(In reply to Jared Hirsch [:_6a68] [NEEDINFO please!] from comment #0)
> Hi there - The Test Pilot team would like to use Discourse as a mailing
> list. Unfortunately, new users are required to view 5 pages on the Mozilla
> Discourse site, and wait 24 hours, before they can post.

Where did you get this info? It looks a little like the requirements to go from tl0 (new user) to tl1 (basic user), but tl0 users can post new topics and replies.

Something which might have been catching out some fast typers is the setting to hold a user's first post (and account) in moderation if they take less than a certain time to type it. It caught me out while testing, so I've lowered this value a little.

Comment 3

[Leo McArdle [:leo]]

Unless...! We did have a setting which meant that you had to be tl1 to be able to create a new post via email. I've lowered that to tl0 (so the only requirement is that you have an account). Is this the change you were looking for?

Comment 4

[Jared Hirsch [:jhirsch] (he/him) (Needinfo please)]

Hi Leo - Yeah, the problem is that tl0 mailing list users need to be able to both create threads via email, and reply to individuals via email.

If there's a limit to the number of tl0 replies per day, or new threads per day, it would be good to bump those limits up as well.

There's also a separate bug where our Discourse instance was not sending the rejection email to tl0 users, but yalam96 may have filed this already.

See this discussion for background: https://discourse.mozilla-community.org/t/update-replacing-testpilot-dev-with-discourse/12314

Comment 5

[Leo McArdle [:leo]]

(In reply to Jared Hirsch [:_6a68] [NEEDINFO please!] from comment #4)
> Hi Leo - Yeah, the problem is that tl0 mailing list users need to be able to
> both create threads via email, and reply to individuals via email.

These should've also changed with the setting change I made. The only form of topic creation which tl0 users are now prohibited from doing is starting a private message (and I don't think you can do that from email, anyway).

> If there's a limit to the number of tl0 replies per day, or new threads per
> day, it would be good to bump those limits up as well.

Almost all the settings related to tl0 limits are above the defaults shipped with Discourse. If you hear of anyone having a problem, of course let us know and we'll bump them up even more.

> There's also a separate bug where our Discourse instance was not sending the
> rejection email to tl0 users, but yalam96 may have filed this already.

@yalam96 did you?

Was this in terms of not being a high enough trust level to post? Because there shouldn't be any more of those rejections.

Comment 6

[Yousef Alam [:yalam96] (use NEEDINFO)]

It was actually the issue where the staging instance was processing emails, which we've fixed now.

Comment 7

[Leo McArdle [:leo]]

@yalam96 Ah, good good.

Closing this because things should be working better for new users and email-in. Jared, If you face any more problems (or have any questions), feel free to reach out and reopen this bug (or open others) as appropriate. Cheers!

Comment 8

[Wil Clouser [:clouserw]]

Is this a per-category setting that isn't set by default?  Paul just got this failure:

> We're sorry, but your email message to ["[e-mail]"] (titled Email address for Test Pilot & experiments testing requests) didn't work.
> The category you sent this email to only allows replies from users with valid accounts and known email addresses. If you believe this is an error, contact a staff member.

Comment 9

[Leo McArdle [:leo]]

(In reply to Wil Clouser [:clouserw] from comment #8)
> Is this a per-category setting that isn't set by default?  Paul just got
> this failure:
> 
> > We're sorry, but your email message to ["[e-mail]"] (titled Email address for Test Pilot & experiments testing requests) didn't work.
> > The category you sent this email to only allows replies from users with valid accounts and known email addresses. If you believe this is an error, contact a staff member.

That would be because he didn't have an account, and users without an account aren't allowed to start new topics. We can allow them to do so via email for your categories if you'd like, though.

Comment 10

[Wil Clouser [:clouserw]]

Yes please.

Comment 11

[Leo McArdle [:leo]]

Okay, this has been done. Anybody can now email [e-mail] (or an email-in address of any of the subcategories) and start a topic, without having an associated user account.

Comment 12

[Wil Clouser [:clouserw]]

thanks!