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Re: Members in alphabetical order

Posted by Wheatland Garden on Oct 21, 2014; 3:30am
URL: https://support.nabble.com/Members-in-alphabetical-order-tp7592053p7592083.html

> Perhaps you have not fully realised that as your users register and they choose a username this will overwrite the name you used when you set things up. So you will never manage to retain your initial neat alphabetical list.

Yes, I completely realize this.  What I hadn’t realized was that alphabetical order would be considered an exotic request.  :-)  

> I am unconvinced that a list sorted by username will help a user identify the person they wish to email any more than a list in random order.

The usernames typically start with either first or last name, so are sensible to the people who know them.  In general, scanning a list in coherent order is easier than scanning a list in unclear order.  

> As your forum begins to be used you will find that the default order makes sense - first by number of posts then by date of joining.

Most people won’t post; they may simply check to see whether anything of interest has been posted by someone else.  So the order of all the 0-post members will appear haphazard.  

> If you wish to give your users access to a list of members of your gardeners group then you must place that information in a post to your forum. I would recommend that the post be pinned and beside each member's real name you add their username and make that a link their user profile screen.

Yeah, there are all sorts of ways to pass along a list of contact info, I’m just not wild about any of them.  Membership is not stable.  So if someone imports the email addresses into their own system, that’s what proliferates, even if things change later (this is not a hypothetical; it is actually what’s been happening).  It would be simpler to have a feature where a few designated people could shoot an email to all current members via the forum.  This is not spam; this is normal operation for a local association of people who know each other in real life.  

> Only those who choose to subscribe will receive any forum post via email.

Yes, exactly.  This was a feature we wanted, because some people adamantly don’t want to be bombarded by email from a listserv.  (Other people far prefer email because they’ll forget to check the forum.)

> The email facility built into Nabble will only email an individual

Yes, and typically that’s both useful and sufficient.  

> It is certainly not intended that you harvest email addresses from the database that you have access to as an administrator.

That’s not what I’m doing, and I’m a bit disturbed that you’ve gotten this impression.  The garden requests contact information (email and phone number) from people who rent plots, so that communication can occur.  I entered the email addresses of gardeners in the Member list, and set forum permissions so only these people could view and post.  I have no interest whatsoever in the email addresses of anyone else.  My interest is in the efficiency of entering email addresses a single time in a single place.  

> I fear you may have made been misled by some of the things you have read with regard to the email facilities built into Nabble's software.

I’m not clear where you’re getting this idea?  

In setting up a forum, I had a list of desired features.  Some were available out of the box.  Some were available by tinkering with macros; I’ve found support threads to be extremely helpful here.  So when I encountered a desired feature (alphabetical order) that didn’t seem to be achievable by tinkering with macros, and a desired feature (directly emailing all members) that a support thread said would be available in the future, I thought it worthwhile to ask.  Neither feature is a dealbreaker.  I’ve experimented with various other forums, and Nabble comes closest to doing the necessary job as it stands now.