New Registration Suggestion

concreteweb · May 14th, 2009, 10:47 AM

Hi Chuck,

Surprisingly, we are finding that people are getting confused about registering and then getting logged in. (Makes me think I'm dealing with AOL'ers of the mid-90's.)

Anyway, to be fair, we are attracting fairly new (inexperienced) users to our sites. To make this as short as possible - here are bullet points:

1. They register. They see this: Thanks for registering. Please check your email for instructions on activating your new account.

2. They get the email. They click on link. They see this: Thanks for confirming your account. It is now active!! Return to the front page of xxx.

Now, they browse around and get frustrated and leave because they cannot post an ad. Why? Because they need to "login in again". To the untrained user, everything looks like they should be ready to post - but we've had complaints from several new users that they can't find the button to post! Reason is...they don't know that they need to log in again.

Is there a way to push a cookie when you register...validate...and when you end up back on the classifieds site, you are recognized and logged in already?

(I changed the language string to basically say...Don't forget to login! But people just don't grok it.)

Thanks for your thoughts! It's a super minor issue - but we are finding that it is a 4 foot speed bump for newbies.

Chuck S · May 14th, 2009, 11:06 AM

Well one very important issue here. The password requirement to authenticate and log them in.

You can try adding this in bold to your registration script but again if they dont verify they are not going to have any permissions

Code:

Content visible to verified customers only.

concreteweb · May 14th, 2009, 11:35 AM

Thanks Chuck. The code didn't do anything for me just now. After clicking validation link - and then being taken back to the main page - the user still needs to login.

No worries though. We have added in bold:

****When you head back into the site, you MUST LOGIN to begin posting ads.****

to the verbage.

Chuck S · May 14th, 2009, 11:35 AM

You misunderstand that code should simply create a cookie when they actually register as thats the only time it can be created as they need to specify their username and password to login.

concreteweb · May 14th, 2009, 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuck S

You misunderstand that code should simply create a cookie when they actually register as thats the only time it can be created as they need to specify their username and password to login.

I guess what I am wishing (requesting) for is a signup like you have on vbulletin, and other forums and cms's: You register/sign-up with username and password. You receive validation email. You click on email - takes you back to the website - AND - you are already logged in (recognized by system) so you can immediately post, update profile, etc.

(I hope I'm making sense.)

Chuck S · May 14th, 2009, 11:58 AM

well what I posted will log someone in. It should be the same as vbulletin already does because they do much like what I posted. The user is logged in after registering and they only have permissions based on user awaiting verification group it isnt until they verify they are moved to registered group.

concreteweb · May 14th, 2009, 12:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuck S

well what I posted will log someone in. It should be the same as vbulletin already does because they do much like what I posted. The user is logged in after registering and they only have permissions based on user awaiting verification group it isnt until they verify they are moved to registered group.

I'll have to try it again, because I wasn't able to duplicate that.

Chuck S · May 14th, 2009, 12:26 PM

No problem