Post in Joining a Group and Registering an Account Using the Web

Feb 11 02:12 UTC

Hi Michael,

Congratulations on the progress you have made with this. I think this is an
enormous improvement on our current system, and I'm excited to see it so nearly
ready. Below are some comments.

Dan

. . .

1: I can access the Register page when I am logged in. As we have discussed, it
is not clear whether this is a bug or a feature. In any case, it's probably a
rather rare case, as we won't show the user a 'register' link if they are
logged in. Effectively it will function like the "invite someone to join"
feature, but without the chance to add a personal message. As we are working on
a sensible invitation feature, this is probably a reason to restrict the use of
"register and join" to non-logged in members. Anyone else got any comments
about this?

2: Register page text.

PARA ONE

  You must register with GroupServer.org to add
  posts to topics, receive email messages and
  join private or secret groups.

LATER IN THE PAGE

  Once you complete registration, you will be
  logged into GroupServer.org — and you will be
  able to join groups, post messages, and receive
  email messages from groups.

The later para seems to say the same as the earlier one, but in different
terms. Why not either omit one of the two statements of what you can do if you
are registered, or use the same terms in both statements? Also, "you must A to
B" is slightly ambiguous. You could interpret it to mean "you must A". Here's
my draft for para one.

  You must register with GroupServer.org before you can
  join groups, post messages, or receive email messages
  from groups.

3: Password reset email text.

CURRENT TEXT

  Hi Dan Randow,
    We received a request to reset your password. This is done, and now
  all you have to do is log in and set your new password. To do this go
  to the following address
    http://groupserver.org/r/password/5iGKy5fCm7D0Eo8fzXhnT5

  --
  GroupServer.org is powered by OnlineGroups.Net

COMMENTS

I suspect that many people will not know that 'reset' means that their old
password will no longer work. But who cares whether is will or not, as they are
likely to have forgotten it anyway.

I also suspect that many people will not get what is meant by 'This is done,'.
The receipt of a request?

The user does not have to log in to reset their password. We know that the link
logs them in, but is this the time to make that clear to them?

Let's reserve indenting for urls or email addresses. I much prefer missing a
line to indenting the first line of a para. We never use that anywhere else.

PROPOSED TEXT

  Hi Dan Randow,

  We received a request at GroupServer.org to reset your password.
  All you have to do is set a new password. To do this go to the
  following address.
    http://groupserver.org/r/password/5iGKy5fCm7D0Eo8fzXhnT5

  --
  GroupServer.org is powered by OnlineGroups.Net

4: Error page when you follow an expired set password link.

As discussed, we suspect most people are seeing this after double-clicking the
link. This will not happen when we alter the system so that it removes the
password reset token from the database when a password is actually set, rather
than as soon as the link is clicked.

5: What happens if I don't verify my email address?

I see that you have handled this very well.
  http://groupserver.org/r/post/3YizGNPQLRUpOYV5POGLNC
Effectively, if you abandon the process, you can restart it from the beginning,
perhaps having skipped the "edit profile" stage.