Forum Access - Categorisation

by David Tails February 2nd 2012, 2:22 pm

Good Afternoon,

I was wondering if someone might be able to help with an issue I'm having on my forum. A couple of my members are having difficulty in accessing the sub-categories within the forum. They can log in, access the PM section and their profile page, but cannot access the sub-categories.

The problem appears to originate from their work internet filter. The sub-categories are blocked as "message boards". I was wondering if there was a way to change the categorisation of the forum to bypass this issue. The reason I'm asking is that we have all previously been on forums hosted by forumotion with no such issues.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
DT.

by Sanket February 2nd 2012, 3:40 pm

More information on the problem could help. What happens, when they click on a subforum?

by David Tails February 2nd 2012, 4:57 pm

They receive a message from their works internet firewall filter that stops them proceeding. The message received is as follows:

Work filter is blocking it as
Category: Message Boards and Forums

The main issue is that we have been on another forumotion forum for months now with no problems. The other forum appears to be classified as sports. I've been in to the Forum Directory section of the Admin panel and changed the listing to Sports and Hobbies: Other Sports. But that hasn't made any difference.

by Sanket February 2nd 2012, 5:00 pm

Can you show me that specific forum?

Have they blocked it by mistake? Something like this should not happen at all

by Base February 2nd 2012, 5:44 pm

Hi, the 'work filter' part is probably why they are unable to access certain parts. The words tell us that it's being filtered, possibly at a workplace. Do these members have problems viewing the forum when using an unfiltered computer?

by David Tails February 2nd 2012, 5:54 pm

The forum is at this link.

Yeah it could well be their work filter...but the fact they are able to access another Forumotion site set up in a similar way with no problem is what is confusing me.

by Sanket February 2nd 2012, 5:57 pm

Well, there seems nothing objectionable. I don't see a reason, why its filtered. See if clearing their cache helps?

by David Tails February 2nd 2012, 6:19 pm

Will do. Thanks for the suggestion.

by Sanket February 9th 2012, 2:15 pm

Is this solved?

by David Tails February 9th 2012, 5:10 pm

Not really. We've ended up resorting to all just emailing eachother at work instead.

I'll keep trying to find a resolution for it from my own side.

by BryanR February 10th 2012, 1:22 am

The only way to fix this issue is to use an unfiltered computer or network using a laptop and WI-FI. Anyways, you might also want to contact the person that set up the filter or network, maybe they may change some settings to make your forum 100% viewable.