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Hi, I have been wondering for a long time why people come to my forum but then decide not to use it. Lately someone reported to me that it is very difficult to understand what to do to login and to register.
I normally do not use the mobile UI but my type of user mainly uses smartphones. So I tried myself, logged out and tried to enter the forum again with my android. Honestly: I could not understand what to do, until I started clicking everythinng and finally realised I had to click on Forum Menu... not very intuitive in my opinion. Moreover after clicking a panel appears at the bottom of the screen, which seems like an advertisment...
Having explained the background, here's my question: is it possible at least to have that menù already opened on the screen when a user is not logged in, possibly in the middle of the screen and not at the bottom? Like for the PC interface. Or any other solution to make it easier for people to understand what to do if they have never used a forum before? For you info: I am using SP 5.7.2 as my provider has not made available the latest of WP to our platform.
Thanks a lot!
My forum (in Italian) is: MsPforum
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I can certainly look into a change of some sort and I think we can do better at some stage - but it would not be a quick fix I could walk you through.
Having said that, I think it is important to remember that we only provide a link to login as a sort of courtesy. Same for registration. It would be much better to find a solution that utilises the WordPress theme to ensure there is always a login option from whatever mobile menu the theme creates. Same goes for the desktop. Don't forget that your users to do not register and log in to the forum. They register and log in to your website as a whole.
There are many decent plugins out there if the theme itself does not offer these basic tasks although I have to be honest and say I am unsure how any of them behave on mobiles.
I will, at the same time, open a ticket to see how we could improve this in the future.
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YELLOW
SWORDFISH
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ok Andy, thanks a lot for the reply.
I am not really sure how I could use such plugin for the login. Maybe I shoud have a differente homepage just for the login and then redirect to the forum page? I don't really understand how this would work to be honest...
My forum (in Italian) is: MsPforum
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What most people do is have a separate login option. We have one at the top of the sidebar for example but many people will add one into their main site menu. If you wanted to redirect to the forum page after a user logs in then that is supported within the forum options.
So - does the mobile view of your WP theme not have a menu?
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YELLOW
SWORDFISH
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Yes Andy, I do have a menu. I think I should re-engineer the home page, and then use the redirection as you suggest. Thanks a lot!
My forum (in Italian) is: MsPforum
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Let me say though that I DO agree with you that if the forum login form is the only one you are using then yes - it is a little buried on a mobile device. Quite clearly we should address this at some point. Probably in our V6 which we are looking at now.
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YELLOW
SWORDFISH
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For me, as I have ads appearing on mobile at the bottom of the screen, and my blog users are used to that, it means that they may not even look at the bottom of the screen! But now I am trying to create a new Home page where people can just login or register.
Am I right to think that if a user is already logged in (because the system remembers it) the redirection to the page of the forum set in Components/Login-Registration Redirect will kick in and automatically redirect there? Oh dear, I hope my question is clear or I will try again, please let me know! 😀
My forum (in Italian) is: MsPforum
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If you go to the forum admin > components > Login and registration - you will see that you have several options. You can completely turn off the usage of the forums registration and login links. And up in the right hand side you can set redirects that will kick in upon login or registration. These will work (we use them on this site) as long as there are no other redirects set up within another plugin or code that might take precedence.
A visitor making a subsequent visit to your website who was already logged in and whose WP login cookie has not expired will NOT be redirected and I know of no WordPress hook that could be used for such an occurrence. In this case they will land on whatever URL they requested.
There is always the standard WordPress login form of course but plugins like 'Theme my Login' are very popular and might be worth looking at... And that one does create pages if I recall which are then easy to add to a menu (I found TML a little confusing to set up but clearly most people do not as it is very popular I believe!)
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YELLOW
SWORDFISH
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I think I need to create a new website just for trying all the options, I am afraid to make a super mess in my live site. I understand what you say but until I see it working expecially on mobile I cannot imagine the sequence. Is it not possible to create another forum page within my same website, is it?
My forum (in Italian) is: MsPforum
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