Bug on the registration page

[Shonumi]

(05-10-2014, 02:15 PM)pauldacheez Wrote: It's not a mistake at all – we were really damn tired of people coming in with 3.5-367 and complaining about bugs that had already been fixed, among other things. At the time the old site only had up to 3.5-367 available, but now that it has 4.0, I think we could probably update it to say "Are you using 4.0.0 or another outdated version of Dolphin?" with "No, I am using 4.0.2 or 4.0-xxxx." as the correct answer.

The thing is, 4.0 technically isn't outdated, at least it's been forum policy to provide support for it (though we generally tell people to update to the latest anyway). There is the question, however, if this whole 3.5-367 question is 1) obsolete and irrelevant or 2) simply needs to be updated rather than eliminated.

If #2 is true, we really should bump up the forums support to include only 4.0.2 and above (no more help for 4.0 and 4.0.1, and yes I see them a lot in user profiles still). In that case we could rephrase it to something simpler, e.g. "Are you using Dolphin 4.0.2 or a newer version of Dolphin?" and "Yes, I am using Dolphin 4.0.2 or a newer version of Dolphin." Users (especially ones that just heard about Dolphin a few hours ago, we get plenty of those folks) don't intrinsically know which versions are "outdated versions" (like 4.0.1 if we drop forum support for it) so we need to spell it out for them.

if #1 is true, we can just drop that option altogether from forum registration. It depends if developers and forum staff feel that the old site is no longer an issue. It's not really a problem of getting flooded with 3.5-367 threads anymore, but it's not like we get flooded with R6515 threads, or some other random 3.0-xxx "I need help" threads either (which we often Close-On-Sight anyway).

I encourage everyone to talk about this. Personally I think #2 would still be best, since it never hurts to at least try to preemptively weed out builds we no longer support. But first, feedback.

[MayImilae]

I'm completely fine with dropping 4.0 and 4.0.1 from official support. The bugfix releases exist because 4.0 has critical errors, from UI bugs in foreign languages to freezes and crashes. It is very possible for a user to run into errors in 4.0 that don't exist in 4.0.2. And we're already halfway through 4.0.x's life anyway.

kinkinkijkin Wrote:I do think that it should be reworded, because it is a little confusing. Maybe something like "Are you using a build from dolphin-emu.org" with the answer being "yes" would be more appropriate.

Unfortunately that fails the idiot test. You wouldn't believe the number of people who go to that other place then google "Dolphin forum" and come here, and will tell you with a totally straight face that they got "latest" from dolphin-emu.org. Those of us who dealt with the 3.5-367 fiasco learned that you can't ask them where they downloaded the builds from, you have to fish out the precise revision. That was the only way to get a straight answer on where they downloaded it. And that's where the "are you using 3.5-367?" wording came from.

But this is a problem that has mostly gone away. Ever since 4.0, most users have gone here, thanks to google ranking, wikipedia, on and on all pointing here. It still happens sometimes, but it's rare.

[LordVador]

Why not simply add a pop-up window just after registering?
With something like this: "Before you enter the forum make sure you got your Dolphin version from the official Download page" (with a direct link to the Download page)

[neobrain]

No one reads pop-ups these days, either because they're blocked to begin with or because people just blindly press "Ok" without reading them.

[LordVador]

Then another solution could be to redirect people to the Download page before registering. And to mention "Before registering make sure to get your Dolphin version from the official source" or something else

[Shonumi]

Dunno if the forum software does something like custom pop-ups or redirects like that. It should be able to give out a PM upon registration, and since that notice doesn't go away until users look at it, they may be more prone to reading it. But like neobrain said, most people will ignore it. A lot of people are used to the whole "Welcome to our forums" type PMs (it's fairly common across many online communities) so in a way they're already conditioned to ignore them.

Like I said, the situation is at a point where 3.5-367 is no longer an issue, but do we want to keep checking for 4.0.2 at registration or not? It's not as if threads with old builds are a problem, but it would nice to at least try to get the users attention if they try to register with an old build.

[kinkinkijkin]

You could always force them to enter which build they're using, and then warn them that they're not likely to get support if they're using an old development version, or an old stable. Of course, you'd probably have to make them write it in a certain way, or possibly use something like a checkbox for whether it's a stable or not, followed by a few dropdowns for which version, with a reminder that you can see which version it is on the titlebar.

[Shonumi]

(05-11-2014, 01:51 AM)kinkinkijkin Wrote: You could always force them to enter which build they're using, and then warn them that they're not likely to get support if they're using an old development version, or an old stable. Of course, you'd probably have to make them write it in a certain way, or possibly use something like a checkbox for whether it's a stable or not, followed by a few dropdowns for which version, with a reminder that you can see which version it is on the titlebar.

Parsing and sanitizing string input sounds like a nightmare waiting to happen. That would significantly raise the possibility of legitimate people not being able to register - e.g. not formatting the string correctly to our specs, or not understanding what our specs are in the first place, or not knowing which revision you are using, some aren't even using Dolphin yet like people in the HW forum asking for build advice. We had the dropdown discussion a while ago when thinking about hardware verification; for anything with more than a handful of possible options to chose from, it's not going to work (at least not very well). The thing is, we don't want to make registering on the forums akin to applying for a job; we shouldn't have to do background checks and idiot-proof everything, it's just not worth it when we can close the threads with a warning in two seconds if they become a problem...