Forum config suggestion

[philip]

The attachments on forum postings are visible only to registered users who are logged in. I'm not sure this is necessary. Why not make the attachments available to everybody?

If that's not considered secure enough, we could do this: When a message is requested, have the forum engine check it for attachments. If there are none, no problem. If there are, check if the client is logged in. If so, present the attachments as usual; if not, print one line saying something like, "This message has attachments. To see them,  please [link]login[/link] or [link]register.[/link]"

(Yesterday I was scanning the forums for a particular attachment, without logging in. I couldn't find them, and it took a few minutes to guess why they had all become invisible.)

Thanks, and best regards to Team TC.

[JoXo009]

You are absolutely right, philip,

This message has attachments. To see them,  please login...

That is the way every important forum handels it*.

That is the way the normal internet user is expecting it.

That is the way TC should do it too.

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* Even better just present the same text to all visitors, and when somebody, not logged in already, tries to download, present the message 'For downloading you need to be logged in'.

[bmarkus]

I'm running the same SIMPLE MACHINES FORUM since years for another community and did not find the way to change it. For sure it can be hacked, but it is not a regular config parameter.

Maybe SMF 2.0 will do it differently, don't know. So it is not just a single click.

[JoXo009]

I'm running the same SIMPLE MACHINES FORUM since years for another community and did not find the way to change it.

I posted the suggestion (restrict download instead of restricting view) to the Simple Machines people.

As long as they don't have created the needed improvement, there remains the possibility to switch off the restriction.

That's at least what I got from their description - Link.

So the forum admin maybe could think about, if the restriction is really thus important and switch it off as long as the Simple Machines people haven't created the improvement yet.