Small bug with discobot

Community Website and Forum
1

I just wanted to inform the forum developers of a small hickup i encountered after logging into my account for the first time today.

I registered my account without any issue, process was smooth and simple.
I located the proper subcategory for my post. And posted my question.

I was immediately notified that my post would be temporarily held until a moderator could approve it due to it being my first post.

Ok no qualms there. But while i browsed around hoping for my post to be approved shortly, which I already knew would be the case since while Im a noob, i can already see that arduino and its community is great!
Nonetheless,
I navigated to the new user tutorial bot (discobot) for the lulz I ran through the simple steps (a terrific idea quite honestly, kudos to whoever came up with that system)

But I did encounter a tiny issue.

Whether or not it is already known, or intentional, IDK, but I just know it didnt feel intentional, and prevented me from completing the tutorial without "skip"ing that step. I have to assume my issue was caused by my account being on hold, however i cant imagine i could be the only user to ever run into this exact series of events.
Mind you, after a minute or 2 of not replying, or my response to the bot not matching what it was expecting, not sure which, it did respond back telling me I could reply "skip" to skip to the next step.
So after receiving that message, I was ultimately still able to "skip" and successfully complete all the remaining steps to receive my certificate (trollolo)

However the issue arose on the very last step, when it says to flag the post as spam,
While I can now see the flag icon without issue, I assume due to my account being on hold awaiting verification, the flag option was hidden.

I would just like to suggest a clause be added to this step to state that
"If you have recently registered your account, and your account is temporarily on hold awaiting moderator approval, the flag button will not be visible for you.
Once your account has been approved, the flag button will appear next to the like, bookmark, and reply icons at the bottom of each post"
In the meantime, you may respond with "skip" to continue your onboarding"
Or something along those lines.

Cause i searched high and low, trying to find this elusive flag button.
Even went as far as inspecting the page source.

Small, insignificant issue I know, but as a new user, it was a little off putting.

Hope this helps

2

Exactly which site were you using ?

I ask because the "moderator must approve the first post" situation is one that, as a moderator for this forum, I am unaware of

3

apologies, it wasn't that "a moderator must approve the first post", it was a temporary hold on my account immediately following my first post, which resulted in my post, as well as acc, being on hold for moderator review. ..
Although I struggle to find a difference between those 2 things.
It seems reasonable that while awaiting the approval or unlock of the acc, one might wander to that first and only forum message notification, and complete the steps just to kill time if nothing else (like I did in my case)
so thats why i thought id share my experience, thats all.

I'm not saying every new user runs into this, only you would have that information.. but i did nothing out of the ordinary to warrant the acc hold, so i therefore assumed it was standard practice for all new users

and seeing as nearly all my next 5 posts after that were all held for review as well, I cant imagine my experience was unique.

acchold
acchold3181×1315 149 KB

4

The forum software has some automatic systems that flag what it considers unusual activity. This is then reported to moderators for action. The automatic flagging can sometimes be a little too cautious and it flags posts which are perfectly OK. This may have happened to your posts.

For obvious reasons I cannot go further in explaining what the forum software looks for and under what circumstances posts are flagged as suspicious

5

ya thats reasonable and I really wouldn't care anyway.

I just thought as a real life user accessing the forum for the first time, I'd share an easily correctable issue that I ran into.

No big deal really, but everyone knows the power of a first impression, and making the new user experience as hassle free as possible seemed like might be useful info to share.
Take it or leave it

I've already decided I'm gonna go ahead and steal the tutorial bot idea for my own forum,
and since I'm not paying you for it, thought I'd return the favor by providing some new user experience feedback.

Like I said though, take it or leave it
Not looking for any secret info