What parts of registration/onboarding process feel clunky or outdated on a forum?
- Thread starter Katrina
- Start date
Honestly thinking from an outsiders perspective, using a email to sign up for a forum seems a bit outdated. Yes we're used to doing this, but social media integration should be an option for new users to join a forum. I feel like this may be one of the reasons why people are hesitant to join forums. It's easier to log in using a social media account.
Pretty much anything beyond a single click process.
Having to type in a username, password, an email address, fighting with a CAPTCHA and verification by email should all be redundant. The technology exists to forgo all of that but the majority of forum software is years behind in terms of modern expectations.
Many forum emails go directly to the spam folder.
I don't use either, and I would never use admin validation unless I were forced to.
They can both be annoying.
I've seen so many forums recently with admin activation turned on. A lot surprisingly are Proboard forums.
I have it turned on over on RPG Haven since I've been getting too many bots and I can't figure out how to set up emails properly. Though for Zippy Promotion, the forum I'm reviving I'm going to just allow new members to join immediately. Hopefully I get less spam bots now that I'm going to be using UBB Threads instead of MyBB.
I assume any service has a lot of spam issues that do this.
This.
Registration should be a process that can take less than 15 seconds to be honest.
Username, email, password, DOB -> Submit
That should be the process.
Of course, you may want to require email confirmation. I prefer to manually approve myself.
It helps to weed out those who use VPN and try to bypass a ban 😉 We have it turned on for Christianity Haven for this reason.
If it requires a ton of information that isn't really needed and won't be shown publicly... the sign up page being hard to use on mobile (that's what I typically use for everything unless I am already on my laptop), email confirmation going directly to spam and having to wait a few minutes due to email not updating quickly on my phone...at that point, I'm ready to just give up. 🤣
I switched the registration process on my forum, new users must have their first post manually approved before being able to post without approval, because I've had spam attacks in the past. I also have issues with not all of emails being received from my forum, so I turned off email activation.
Parts of forum registration feel outdated, it's like having to fill in long sign-up forms, wait for email verification, or go through complicated profile setup before you can even post. Old-style CAPTCHA, unclear instructions, and too many required steps can make the onboarding feel slow and frustrating instead of quick and welcoming.
FAST FAST they want - EASY
FAST FAST they want - EASY
I've disabled the CAPTCHA process, I find it totally annoying at best. Basic email verification is usually enough to stop spammers (with the proper defenses running to catch them). I'd configure more than just Google and Facebook for registering accounts, but I haven't figured out how to properly configure them. Reddit and Discord for example, just error out. However, after reading some of these comments, I may disable the birthdate and gender entry registration fields.
Forums are pretty simple. It's the updated stuff I don't like. Like multiple verification steps I find annoying. Verify phone number, sms text verification, check email, facial verification, license check, etc.
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