PhD researcher asking about forum technicalities (Part II)

[ecoimbra]

Hello dear community,

I opened a thread (https://help.forumotion.com/t154456-phd-researcher-asking-about-forum-technicalities) with some questions that I had concerning a forum that I wanted to open for a social scientific study. Users TonnyKamper and SLGray answered to them but now I need more clarification.

[Please keep in mind that I have an extremely short knowledge of coding.]

To question N°2:

This one is still related to the databases. I understand that Forumotion has the right to prohibit the extraction of my forum's database. However, it doesn't say that it is a definitive no-go. Would I be able to ask for such extraction? Could I have a backup on my computer in order to analyse it? If not, do I have the right to extract the linguistic data by copy/pasting everything into my computer?

SLGray responded "No". Does this mean that I am not even allowed to copy/paste the linguistic data of participants even if they allow me to?

To question N° 3:

Is it possible to insert a Youtube video in the profile-creation page that would explain people why I need certain information?

How can I add this Youtube video to the page where new users have to give their e-mail address and other identity information? If I go to what SLGray said ("AP > General > Rules and FAQ > Additional Rules") I can't add the video to that specific page, but to the one that has the Terms of Service.

To question N° 4:

When clicking on "Register", it sends you to the page that contains the terms of service. I was wondering if it would be possible to create another page (containing information about the study) and inserting it before the ToS one. Basically, people would need to click on a button (saying something like 'I accept to participate in the study') that would send them to the usual ToS page.

TonnyKamper said: "you can put a button for question in the profiles which is required to be answered upon registration and you can add information to the registration page, but only after the TOS not before." Can somebody show me more specifically what he meant? Wouldn't it be possible to create a HTML page and insert it before the ToS page?

Thank you again for your valuable time in answering me

[SLGray]

2. We do not have access to the database.

3. The only way to add to the username and password page is to create profile fields that have necessary filled option activated.

[ecoimbra]

2. We do not have access to the database.

Excuse me, but that doesn't respond to my question. Am I able to copy/past manually all the messages that users write in my forum for my study or not? I know that you don't have access to the database, but we do have access to the forum (how it's presented on the internet).

[SLGray]

Do you mean what is posted on your forum?  If yes, you can do whatever you want with it.  You are correct about asking first your members.

[Guest]

Hello,

Forumotion will never give you the database of your forum for several reasons:
-They don't want you to get your data and move to another host
-If your forum is very active, it is not very easy to get the data to you
-If they give you your database data, others will ask for it too and FM will have to either give everyone the database data(and lose customers) or refuse to and get people angry.
Extracting the database yourself(by hacking your own forum or the fm system or by other methods) is not allowed by Forumotion(of course they don't like getting hacked), might be illegal(as long as no one catches you you'd be fine) and is not easy either. But what you or your members write on the forum(posts, topics and anything else) is yours and theirs(theirs as in the users) so if your members agree you can use what they write on your forum the way you want.

[ecoimbra]

That's how I understood it too.

Basically what I need is just the written conversations that people will have on the forum in order to analyze them with a special software.

Do you know of any effective (less time-consuming) way to extract such linguistic data from a forum? Is there any software for that?

[Guest]

I don't know if anything like that exists but I could write a small script to do it for you. The script would not be very fast but faster than a person. If you're interested, give me a PM.

[ecoimbra]

Oh that would be really awesome!

What exactly would the script do? I mean could you upload an image so that I can have an example?

[Guest]

The script would go through all the topics in your forum, get the posts and show them in some kind of table. I can't upload a photo of what the script would do because i have to write the script first. I'll contact you by PM.

[TonnyKamper]

Hello dear community,

I opened a thread (https://help.forumotion.com/t154456-phd-researcher-asking-about-forum-technicalities) with some questions that I had concerning a forum that I wanted to open for a social scientific study. Users TonnyKamper and SLGray answered to them but now I need more clarification.

[Please keep in mind that I have an extremely short knowledge of coding.]

To question N° 4:

When clicking on "Register", it sends you to the page that contains the terms of service. I was wondering if it would be possible to create another page (containing information about the study) and inserting it before the ToS one. Basically, people would need to click on a button (saying something like 'I accept to participate in the study') that would send them to the usual ToS page.

TonnyKamper said: "you can put a button for question in the profiles which is required to be answered upon registration and you can add information to the registration page, but only after the TOS not before." Can somebody show me more specifically what he meant? Wouldn't it be possible to create a HTML page and insert it before the ToS page?

Thank you again for your valuable time in answering me

Hi @ecoimbra you can add addional information to the 'Register page' but only after the TOS, but you can put any information there you want, even a picture or a Youtube video if you think that is nessecary, I'll show you a screenshot of my registerpage to show you how it looks like.. the part above the red line is the standard TOS, you cannot edit that.. the part beneath the red line is my additional information where I explained what questions they can expect when they register, you can use html codes if you like.. I hope this can clarify it for you? Keep in mind this is only an example to show you what's possible, my board language is Dutch, so you might not be able to actually read it..




Kind regards
Tonny