[RFC] Non-privileged bumping

[julian]

For context, please see this thread Mastodon

Julian Lam (@[email protected])

In NodeBB, admins can "bump" a topic by "marking unread for all" in the topic tools menu.

Right now, non-admins can only bring a topic to the top of the list by replying to it.

There's some utility in allowing regular users to do this too, although we'd want to associate it with a topic event, so you can see who is doing the bumping.

Good idea? Bad idea?

[julian]

The main concern here is that it would be abused... Users would continually bump their own posts for visibility.

The fact that it's associated with a topic event should curb this behaviour, as it attaches social accountability to the action.

The feature itself would be configurable. This would be a departure from expected forum behaviour, so even if the default were to allow for topic bumping, it would be disable-able by admins if desired.

[brazzerstop]

I know that usually a timer is used to prevent topic "bump" abuse, for example, raising the topic 1 once every 24 hours and then the topic "bump" button becomes inactive for the user for 24 hours.

The administrator sets the timer for all users or makes individual restrictions for different user groups.

[crazycells]

I agree with @brazzerstop

our motto is "if something can be abused, it eventually will be" therefore, we have disabled some features of NodeBB.

I believe a solution can be what @brazzerstop wrote. there can be a limitation of bump per person per week (I believe 24 hours is too short, then all users would bump their own topics every day), just like how people cannot downvote more than a certain number of times per day.

[brazzerstop]

If I understand correctly the strategy of tying the topic "bump" to some event, then this is something completely new that I have not seen anywhere before...

For example, in the Plugins category, you can "bump" your topic with the reason "New Release" and then all users will see a badge with the text "New Release" next to the topic name, which will automatically disappear after a specified time.

Yeah, I think that's cool!

[julian]

@brazzerstop @crazycells some good ideas. A timeout is very much needed to prevent additional abuse. There's even an HTTP header for it: 429 Too Many Requests

@brazzerstop by topic event, I just mean the little thing in between posts. I'll show you what I mean by pinning and unpinning this topic.

[julian]

Those above, are topic events. If a topic were bumped, need to add a line for that action there as well.

[brazzerstop]

@julian

[exodo]

Good feature if you can disable by categories, user groups, time, etc.
if not. A headache