Maniaplanet Forum

Fellow maniapubers,

We're going to introduce in the forthcoming weeks a new moderation rule in ManiaPub. Because it will give work to Manialink developers, we're announcing it in advance to you all have time to adjust.

The rule is simple: your Manialink must be browsable as "guest" ; ie. we want to avoid Manialinks that first ask for authentication with ManiaConnect.

Let me explain this choice.

We introduced ManiaConnect to solve two problems that we have in TMF: first, addplayerid was used as an authentication method although it is not secured ; second, it was bad for privacy because you could be "tracked" on Manialink without your consent.

The first point is obviously fixed by ManiaConnect. But the second is not at the moment: numerous Manialinks use an "enter" page and have just replaced addplayerid with ManiaConnect ; because of that, a lot of Manialink are browsable only if you authentify. Hence, people tend to underestimate the importance of authentication. That is something we want to avoid on the long run. Plus, in most cases you really don't NEED authentication. And also, for privacy reasons, your users may want to browse your Manialink anonymously.

We believe that a very good way, in term of user experience, to use ManiaConnect on a Manialink is to be able to browse as guest (the normal behaviour) to see all the content of the Manialink, and to be able to authenticate with ManiaConnect to have access to some more features (like beeing able to post in the shoutbox, etc.).

It may seem a bit "extreme" to impose such rules, but we believe that giving the community guidelines like that help building a very robust ecosystem. We the arrival of ShootMania and the FPS this community, having solid foudations is critical. That's why we try to push such best practices right from the begining.

I do not have a precise date to give you at the moment ; in any case it's a matter of weeks.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

I support this decision

I always hate to give access to my data, without even knowing what I have to expect from the Manialink... Hence I directly close those MLs with an Enter page. (What I already did in TMF, if only an AddPlayerID-link was prompted to me.)

Nice solution

Anyway i think ManiaConnect should be reconsidered as it might also can be usefull to get only the login but that is something that nadeo live team/ nadeo main team must decide

I never really liked the solution of ManiaConnect, but same goes for the addplayerid solution. I would prefer to get just the playerlogin and this without any clicks or enterpages or whatever, just when the manialink is opened. But thats another discussion.

My question is will it be allowed to use a normal enterpage without ManiaConnect, just a page with an button enter?

htbplayer wrote:My question is will it be allowed to use a normal enterpage without ManiaConnect, just a page with an button enter?

Yes, as long as you do not force ManiaConnect authentication.

w1lla wrote:Anyway i think ManiaConnect should be reconsidered as it might also can be usefull to get only the login but that is something that nadeo live team/ nadeo main team must decide

If you have the playerlogin, you have all (basic) data of the player, because you can use the "normal" MPWS methods to request them. So giving the login means setting the "basic" scope to like "allow to all"

well its only neccessary to get a login.

You dont need to get SCOPES like: buddies, basic but only the login.

That can be fetched by just using the mpws part.

Other part might be ro rethink the whole ManiaConnect part.

htbplayer wrote:My question is will it be allowed to use a normal enterpage without ManiaConnect, just a page with an button enter?

You shouldn't have an enterpage.
What's the point of forcing the user to visit a page before accessing to the real content?

It seems that a lot of manialinks do the same errors as the first personal websites (enterpage, visit counters, big background images...).