"Validated" terminology

I got some feedback today that the term "Validated" is very confusing. We use this term because the original conception was 'validating' content that community members submit to the website, like a stamp of approval, 'this is valid for publishing'. But many websites don't accept any user content so it seems really weird to them. I'd like to gather some opinions.

I've attached a poll.

As an aside, anyone have feelings on the term "Block". Is "Widget" significantly better as a term?

I vote for 'published' with the opinion that its a straight forward term a newbie to any forum can understand.

Also, I prefer 'widget' over 'block' due to the familiarity the term 'widget' have, thanks to smartphones.

I voted for approved, but published works too

I've had people who been confused with the term "Validated" at afansite.net.  

I prefer "widget" as that's the term that Wordpress and other CMS scripts use and many members who are submitting content at afansite.net has manage fansites in the past built on Wordpress or Cutenews.

I voted for 'Published'. In my opinion, the term 'Published' will also mean that the content posted by the member has gone live.

I also prefer 'Widget' over 'Block'.

I'm fine with the term Validated since it is broad enough and accurate enough to fit all content, including member profiles if a site chooses to require members to be validated after joining. Perhaps the tooltip for the Validated option could be expanded to explain exactly what happens when Validated is set to On and Off. I could see how the current tooltips for validation may be confusing to someone that might not speak english as a first language, otherwise I think it is clear what the option does. In the case of member validation, terms like Published, Live, or Active might cause the same confusion there that Validated is causing with other types of content.

Perhaps the broader issue is the Validated option being available and not so much what the option is named. At the expense of adding yet another configuration option or two, maybe a configuration option to globally enable/disable validation and enable/disable user content submission? And possibly make it part of the setup wizard to set permission profiles accordingly based on the enable/disable user content submission option? For the enable/disable validation option, Enable would keep the current functionality; Disable would cause the Validated option to default to On and hide the option on submission and edit forms. For the enable/disable user content submission option, Enable would keep the current functionality; Disable would adjust the appropriate permissions so only admins (or admin specified usergroups) can submit content. Maybe too much work and added bloat to appease the confused?

In any case, if Validated needs to be changed, I would vote for Approved or Activated since those should also be broad enough and accurate enough to fit all major types of content (members, news, catalogue entries, gallery submissions, pages, comments, polls, etc). If the Validated option for members is completely separate from the Validated option for other content submissions, then I would vote for Published or Approved for content submissions and go with Validated, Approved, or Activated for membership validation.

For the Blocks vs. Widgets debate, I'm fine with either. I don't think many, if any, other popular CMS's use Blocks as a category for plugins/extensions/addons, and I think we're far enough removed from the old Nuke style CMS's that it shouldn't confuse newcomers to Composr. For the block/widget name change, are we talking about a superficial change that we only see on the surface (ie, in the installer/setup wizard and wysiwyg editor), or would this also mean renaming the directory structure and all references in code/tutorials/documentation to reflect Widgets as the new official name for Blocks? If the latter, it seems like a non-trivial amount of work with no real payoff.

I'm fine with the term Validated since it is broad enough and accurate enough to fit all content, including member profiles if a site chooses to require members to be validated after joining.
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In the case of member validation, terms like Published, Live, or Active might cause the same confusion there that Validated is causing with other types of content.

Oh, that's a good point. Major issue there.

Perhaps the broader issue is the Validated option being available and not so much what the option is named. At the expense of adding yet another configuration option or two, maybe a configuration option to globally enable/disable validation and enable/disable user content submission?

Actually we have it, you can uninstall the 'unvalidated' addon and Validation will disappear.

For the enable/disable user content submission option, Enable would keep the current functionality; Disable would adjust the appropriate permissions so only admins (or admin specified usergroups) can submit content.

A simple Setup Wizard checkbox to remove access to the CMS zone would be a good idea I think.

For the block/widget name change, are we talking about a superficial change that we only see on the surface (ie, in the installer/setup wizard and wysiwyg editor), or would this also mean renaming the directory structure and all references in code/tutorials/documentation to reflect Widgets as the new official name for Blocks? If the latter, it seems like a non-trivial amount of work with no real payoff.

You're right, it would be a lot of work for very small payoff. I do think the term block generalises a bit better too.



Ok, thanks all. I'm definitely tweaking the text on the form field description, and for my client I will change the form field label slightly to be clearer, while keeping the term the same.