Email verification?

[cscgal]

Do you think that it's necessary for a forum to require a user to click a link sent to them via email upon registration? Personally I think it totally gets in the way and is obnoxious. There were quite a few forums that I wanted to post on, realized I had to register, registered, then just didn't feel like opening up Outlook and ended up leaving the site forever. Is that just me?

What I've done at this site is made it so that you have to verify your email. But, upon registering, you still have the ability to post and create threads. You then need to verify your email to be able to have access to the User Control Panel, avatars, signatures, member profiles, private messages, etc. This way we don't lose prospective members who want a simple, quick way to join in on a thread.

[Roberdin]

Would you be talking about my site? :P

I've been forced to use that system because I've had people trying to sign up and abuse myself and other members. It also happened at another board.

Those people often fail to provide accurate e-mail addresses, meaning they can't post, and if they do, it's easy to trace them.

[cscgal]

I'm talking about this site, really. Just about every forum I know uses verificiation, and I'm wondering whether we should also. If every *major* forum does it, there must be somethin' I'm missing ;)

[rex_b]

i think its a good idea!

[floris]

If you have 1 online user and 100 guests online, I'd suggest allow users to sign up without email verification. But if it is a 50/50 situation, I don't think it will be a problem really. I even think it will prevent users from signing up with [email="[e-mail]"][e-mail][/email] and result posting spam and other stuff and get you a lot of bounced emails.

50% of the sites I administrate have verification, and 50% doesn't. There isn't a real difference in signups. But I do notice that if you run a games site, and you want your guests to post quick, you better not turn on verification.

[rantrave]

I'm with you on this one cscgal! There are so many problems with vbulletin and the verification email. Hotmail, and Yahoo mail programs filter the email and the new member never gets it. This would not seem to be a problem except probably 50% of the members use just these two email clients. That's 50% of your members that you will have to manually edit in order for them to post on your board. Very annoying to not only your fickle little members, but you as well.

Do you think that it's necessary for a forum to require a user to click a link sent to them via email upon registration? Personally I think it totally gets in the way and is obnoxious. There were quite a few forums that I wanted to post on, realized I had to register, registered, then just didn't feel like opening up Outlook and ended up leaving the site forever. Is that just me? What I've done at this site is made it so that you have to verify your email. But, upon registering, you still have the ability to post and create threads. You then need to verify your email to be able to have access to the User Control Panel, avatars, signatures, member profiles, private messages, etc. This way we don't lose prospective members who want a simple, quick way to join in on a thread.

[harishankar]

I absolutely *detest* the email verification business. If you're afraid of spambots, I guess the "visual confirmation" on registration is a good idea to keep them away.

As far as human spammers go, you can always ban them as needed. I really don't see a problem with allowing users to just sign up and post right away. Personally I find e-mail verification a nuisance.

Having said that, if you are a very large community and find your user list growing unmanageably (lucky you ;)) then you could turn on e-mail verification to keep a lid on spamming and such.

95% of boards probably don't need e-mail verification.

[Antonbomb22]

im running a small board and only have 1 or 2 members active at a time, is it wise for me to have email verification on at this point?

[RWD]

I had trouble with spammers, and they usually sign up with fake emails, I changed the settings so people had to varify their account through email, it at least stops some spammers from joining the site.

[RWD]

I absolutely *detest* the email verification business. If you're afraid of spambots, I guess the "visual confirmation" on registration is a good idea to keep them away.

They are good, but I have dyslexia, and I find it very difficult at times to read. letters strange shaped and are merged into the background, I have real difficulty in working out what the code is. I quite often give up on those sites and go elswhere.

[cscgal]

I, too, hate those visual confirmation things. Besides, what is the biggest harm done if a bot registers on your site? What would be the advantage for a bot to do so, anyways?

[servertweak]

it is not is good keep it off until you have alot member database

[cscgal]

Servertweak, are you referring to that visual confirmation thing or the email confirmation? We, too, had email confirmation disabled for our first 500 or so member phase, when I was more concerned with building the memberbase and spam was easy to control. I then entered into the phase described in the first post of this thread (over a year ago) but now we do require email confirmation.

[servertweak]

yes, around 500 or even 1000 members

[RWD]

I have removed the email varification and will give it a try without it.

[goldeagle2005]

I, too, hate those visual confirmation things. Besides, what is the biggest harm done if a bot registers on your site? What would be the advantage for a bot to do so, anyways?

One way for those visual confirmation thingies to be less annoying is if they wouldn't warp the image. What purpose that serves, I fail to understand. I personally find it annoying if I have to re enter the word just because it was too distorted to read.

In response to your question, cscgal, the biggest harm of bot registrations is wasted bandwidth, wasted disk space and wasted resources. :mrgreen:

[joeychgo]

I prefer to verify email so that I have some kind of contact ability. I like to send newsletters and what not.

[Babolo]

Yes because if someone uses a fake email and you really really need to get in contact with them it is important that they provide a valid email.

[Arwym]

I never iked the idea od verification emails. I actually hate it and one of the things I love about Invision is that you don't need to do this.

I hate having my email account filled with verification emails. I think it is not necessary.

They should remove that.