It's very likely that this will get, let's say for the lack of a better word, brushed off (like the original thread) by staff. Nonetheless, I'm starting this new thread with a possible solution to the ongoing "issue" of having .org users posting their questions here.
I believe that one of the reasons why the WordPress people haven't done anything about this issue is because, us volunteers, keep answering, or better said, redirecting them to the right forum. It's like they were thinking:
Oh, it's alright if we take our sweet time addressing this issue; the volunteers are taking care of sending them to the right place for us.
Or something around those lines. Sure, I may be mistaken about this, but that's the impression I get from their lack of attention to this.
A lot of .org users are posting their questions here and nothing is being done about it. Well, here's a possible solution which I believe it'd be simple enough to implement. Check I made and click on "Register" (the other fields and button won't work).
If the user is not logged in, he/she would see such announcement that would clarify things for that person right away. By the way, the links in the nag screen do work.
But what if the person instead of going directly to the forums, goes to WordPress.com (home page) and clicks the "Sign Up now" button, creates an account only (no blog), and then goes to the forums? Well, since the user is already logged in, the system should check if a cookie (let's call it: wp_hasBlogg) exists; if it doesn't exist, then query the database and check if there's a blog associated with that username. If there's no blog associated with that username, then a similar announcement (like when you click on Register) should appear with a slight different text... instead of reading:
Before you register, make sure you DO have a wordpress.com blog...
It could read something like this:
Our system tells us that you don't have a blog registered under this username. Perhaps you have a self-hosted blog?...
Or something like that.
If the user does have a wp.com blog associated with that username, the cookie "wp_hasBlogg" should be created, its value could be "yes" or "no" depending on the results of the query (because they might have an account only for the stats feature). Obviously, if the user has a wp.com blog, no announcement/warning/nag (or however you wanna call it) screen would be displayed, and he/she would be taken to the forums with no more delay.
Okay, but what if the user logges out? Well, when they enter their username and password either form wordpress home page, forums or their blogs the "wp_hasBlogg" cookie should be checked. If it exists check for the expected values, if it doesn't create it with the corresponding value, and take it from there.
If for some reason the user, who does not have a wp.com blog, goes back to the wp.com forums, logs in to post his/her question, the system after checking the value "wp_hasBlogg" cookie equals to "no", instead of showing the "nag" screen, it could automatically redirect the user to the appropriate forum.
This is a very raw idea which could be polished nicely to make it work in the most efficient way. So... I put it on the table for them to pick it up, if they wish.
(I'll leave the mockup up for some time, then I'll take it down)
wesleysoccer
