What is your stance on requiring members to activate their accounts before registering...usually email activation? There are a few reasons people will do it....to prevent multiple accounts, to prevent spam, or to have a valid email to contact each member.

Personally, I don't think activation is a good idea for small to medium forums...as it discourages people from registering. I think it's important to make registration as easy as possible...but then again, there are obvious security issues with allowing people to register with a bogus email account.

Thoughts?

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i dont like them when i register i dont like waint and so lol

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Will Stumpf - TalkNikon
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I required e-mail verification with all new registrations. The security reasons alone make it worth it. If someone signs up at a forum with false info right from the beginning, you probably don't want them around.

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Mark Blair
NowParenting - "Parenting Discussion Community"
HostHideout - "Where Professionals Discuss Web Hosting"

I think that when you compare the number of people who will abuse that system to the number of people you lose in the validation process, it is better to not require validation - at least in the early stages. Few people actually register with a bogus account with bad intentions. I think that most who do it will enter a spam account they have in fear that the admins will exploit their email addy by sending spam, ads, etc. I also think that one of the biggest reasons to require validation is so that you know you have a way to contact each one of your members. Security issues are also important of course, but that's not the whole story.

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This thread gives me an idea. What does everyone think about doing something like this? What I am thinking of doing is sending a message via my forums to all those that registered but didn't complete the registration by choosing the activation link in the e-mail they received. I was going to ask them if there was one specific reason why they didn't complete the registration. Obviously people that create an account with a false e-mail address won't be able to respond to this. Any suggestions on either doing this or not?

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Mark Blair
NowParenting - "Parenting Discussion Community"
HostHideout - "Where Professionals Discuss Web Hosting"

I don't see how it could hurt. I'd love to hear the results if you did happen to do it though. Who knows, maybe you get a handful of people who had forgotten about or lost the activation link.

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It all depends on your content, how long you have been around.

If you are new, it would be good to make the registration easy since you want to get people on yoru fourma quick and start posting before they lose interest.

The content plays a factor, as they might see something they like and once they register change there mind, because there is to much to go through.

Every forums will need to look at there forums and see what is best for them. All will not have same results.

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When i use Registration Activation, i mean for it to make sure it has a Valid Email Address so when we send mail to our members they get into the right spot so that they can be updated if they dont check forum often or to make sure they dont register two users at once. But in my opinion i dont like them, one i dont want your fecking mail, two if the GMs cant change my usernames i'll change it myself. Three, it confuses our members. So they often post fake information in their profile and they find out that its email verified then we waste some bandwidth.

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Lathlain - David Pavelic
Titangates Administration Team
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I dont use Email Verification yet....coz of the reason that users find some difficulty in verifying, and the 1st impression goes bad..While, i've plans to start it whenever i think my forums have a suitable numbers of memebers, and have an ability to attact a guest to register..

Jazzz

Here's some unofficial stats on this issue... I sent an e-mail to all of the people that registered at my forum that didn't activate their membership. Of course only those that provided legit e-mail addresses would get the message. I also only sent it to those that enabled the option to receive admin e-mails. This left about 20 people that got my message. That was about a week ago and I've had zero replies. I had asked them if they did not complete the registration for a reason and offered them to come back... nothing! Only one of those 20 bounced back meaning the e-mail address was wrong. So I still wait to see if they eventually trickle in.

On another note, I removed the option to require activation last night and the very first person to register today already has spammed my forum. But don't worry, I'm not changing that option back that fast. I just thought it was amusing that less than a day after I make that change, a spammer posts which is why I set that option to begin with.

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Mark Blair
NowParenting - "Parenting Discussion Community"
HostHideout - "Where Professionals Discuss Web Hosting"