Activated Over 400 Accounts In Last Two Days & It's Not Over Yet!

TheBigK

Well-known member
I found out that my community has over 7000 registered but 'not activated' accounts. Instead of asking them to login to the site and ask for activation mail, I decided to send an email and asked them to reply with word "ACTIVATE" to activate their account. I thought not more than 50 will activate their accounts. The last time I had done it with vBulletin; only 10 out of 1000+ clicked on account activation link.

But now, I've already received 400+ "ACTIVATE" mails and mails are still flooding in! Totally tired of activating all accounts manually :unsure:

Makes me wonder, whether we need to take another look at the account activation process. :)
 
did you check /ask why they hadn't activated there account?

No I didn't. From what I've found out that it requires them an extra step - login to the email, 'read the instruction in email' and then 'click' on the link. People (trust me, that's true) think it's a LONG process!

For you and me who use forums regularly, that step may not even count. But it matters to people

Ever wondered why iPhones and iPads are so popular? Because they only have just one button to get people back to the home screen! In short - it's simple.
 
No I didn't. From what I've found out that it requires them an extra step - login to the email, 'read the instruction in email' and then 'click' on the link. People (trust me, that's true) think it's a LONG process!

For you and me who use forums regularly, that step may not even count. But it matters to people

Ever wondered why iPhones and iPads are so popular? Because they only have just one button to get people back to the home screen! In short - it's simple.
no, i agree, the extra steps is "normal in the net", but many don't use (do) it:D

that's why i experimented a while ago with the vice versa way.... => DON'T click the link
it's NOT A REGISTRATION LINK, it will mark you as spam bot and delete your account


but it didn't work...:D
many users just clicked it... (i agree, i've also never read the mail, i've always just clicked the first link in the mail)
So i included another page, with the verification and since then my spam problem didn't exist anymore..

should probably try to code this for xenforo:D
 
I can see it is safer to ask people to activate their account, but what exactly are the pitfalls if skip this and just let the users be registered at once?
 
I got another idea for an addon:

add an additional key or a unique id to the activation process and don't add it to the mail..
the user have to include it himself into the activation form....
this wouldn't help against the human spammers but it could stop maybe the bots
 
I think the primary idea behind using email activation is to verify that the user is using a real email. Imagine you sending out 100s of system emails to a non existing email on a random domain... This will most likely get you blacklisted by some servers.

Opening up the forum via a secondary easy method for users could be a good idea, but you should not send out system mails until the email is verified...
 
Is it possible to let user register and post even though they have not activated their email, but ONLY send emails to those accounts which have activated their emails?
 
I cant remember if there are a usergroup for unactivated users, but my guess is that you could allow people to post, but I don't know if there is a way to prevent system emails except disable them by default.
 
People seem to keep getting lazier and dumber. The more advancements we make in technology, the more dumbed down it becomes to include "the general public". Rather than the general public learning more about it so they can make use of it, they're only willing to use the dumbed down versions as it requires no effort.. and the makers are willing to provide it as they need the money. The more this happens, the more others need to dumb down their programs etc. as well. It's a deadly circle.

Maybe we're doomed. :(

More ontopic: I can't believe that actually got you so much activations... I'm quite interested in seeing how many of those activations will actually become active, or stay it.
 
People seem to keep getting lazier and dumber. The more advancements we make in technology, the more dumbed down it becomes to include "the general public". Rather than the general public learning more about it so they can make use of it, they're only willing to use the dumbed down versions as it requires no effort.. and the makers are willing to provide it as they need the money. The more this happens, the more others need to dumb down their programs etc. as well. It's a deadly circle.
People also spend 1000s of dollars on computers and are just expecting them to run, 24/7, with no maintenance, and if it breaks, they just buy a new one instead of injecting life into their old computer, and quite often at similar specs as their old one...

I think I have at least one desktop standing in my basement, which I haven't thrown out, cause I know it works, though I can't get rid of it cause nobody wants that old "POS". It is a use and toss society..
 
More ontopic: I can't believe that actually got you so much activations... I'm quite interested in seeing how many of those activations will actually become active, or stay it.
I don't have anything to prove and it does not matter to the rest of the world. Ultimately, the users may not become active or stay. But I can't deny a chance to anyone of them. They took the pains to register on the site and I'm taking the pain to make sure that their accounts are active. They may come back after a month's time, if they want.

If someone's interested in coding an addon - why not make it as simple as 'Simply Hit "Reply" & 'Send' this mail to activate your account? . Is that possible? I'm sure it will work.
 
I don't have anything to prove and it does not matter to the rest of the world. Ultimately, the users may not become active or stay. But I can't deny a chance to anyone of them. They took the pains to register on the site and I'm taking the pain to make sure that their accounts are active. They may come back after a month's time, if they want.

If someone's interested in coding an addon - why not make it as simple as 'Simply Hit "Reply" & 'Send' this mail to activate your account? . Is that possible? I'm sure it will work.
I didn't mean it in a bad way! Just being curious.
 
Don't worry. You may believe me if I tell you our daily registration rate :). It doesn't matter anyway. I was even tempted to post a screenshot of my inbox.

I started this thread to see if someone can come up with an idea of simplifying the whole registration process. I hate to admit it, but people just don't get it. It's always 'too complicated' for them.
 
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