Merged [Merged topic] New topic / wrong category

People can now just click on "new topic" at the top of the forum, rather than going to a specific category to post their question. However, I'm finding that on a daily basis people are not actually selecting the category in the drop-down so I am for ever having to move posts from the first category. I suppose we will just have to educate people as there doesn't seem to be any other way around this annoying problem.

Any suggestions on how to deal with that. We did not have this button in the past. You had to go inside a category to post a new topic. Many people asked for a central button - unfortunately you need to select a category for that.

If you don't like dealing with that you could unpublish that function - just like it was in 1.5

Other ideas?

There are a couple of ways to work around the issue - although everyone has a different perspective and other people may not see it as a problem.

For example, just about every day I post up to 50 messages here at www.kunena.org ; just about all of my messages are replies to other people (which means I don't use the New Topic menu tab very often). But we don't often encounter the problem here (at www.kunena.org ) where the first topic selectable in the dropdown list of categories is the Official Announcements and News about Kunena category - a locked category that normal users cannot post into - which therefore means that users have to select a "legitimate" category. Of course, a lot of people are just lazy and they select the General Talk about Kunena category when they actually want something else.

The moderators then sort out which category is more appropriate. I think this discussion (the one that we're now having) belongs where it was originally posted, in the General Talk about Kunena category.

So, that's one approach.

Another approach is to put the category where you expect most people will post as the first category on your forum.

A third approach is to delete the New Topic menu tab. It's not surprising that, throughout the life of Kunena ( - and probably the software, before it, that Kunena evolved from - many users found it difficult to find where they could create a new topic. So, the feature was added into K 1.6 to make it easier. Not every solution will suit everyone but we do appreciate the feedback. Fortunately, if you delete the New Topic menu tab there are still other opportunities to start a new topic within a category.

Perhaps others have their own ideas, too?

Is it possible to set a specific category as the default category for new topic posts - or better yet, have no default category and force the user to select a category from the drop-down list?

At present my Kunena 1.6 setup defaults to the first category in the list (which just happens to be open to the public.) The problem is that it is easy to forget to select the correct category for your new topic and new (potentially private) topics end up in the public forum.

Any help appreciated.

Philip.

Good question.

I agree, it wasn't easy to find this subject when I searched because who would have thought to look at a topic with the subject "Is anyone else having this problem?" Another good reason that people should try to use meaningful subject names.

We have the same issues here. I've written about those issues (and workarounds) in my earlier message.

I am having problems where new posts are created by users when they don't first select the right category to post in. This is an extra step to the process of posting a new topic from previous versions of Kunena and like most things in life, people get used to doing things a certain way.

Consequently, they fail to select the right category and it gets chucked in the first one which happens to be a locked topic containing the rules of the forum. The result is that anyone below moderator level can read the post but cannot join in the debate.

Is there any way to alter the drop down list so that it at least only shows unlocked topics, thus at least avoiding the scenario of starting a discussion and only mods and above being able to reply to these topics?

Screenshot provided as my explanation is often insufficient to spark a response.