solved Email validation for new members, an incomplete error message, and incomplete activation link message

Below is the message my new sign up test user saw when attempting to join my site:

(start of quote) "Invalid Activation Key!

Make sure you are entering the full URL from the activation email - some email clients will cut the URL off." (end of quote)

In fact there was no problem with the URL. The testuser merely got distracted or discouraged during the sign up process, and let the browser close without completing the actions required to complete registration and fully activate the account.

When the test user went back to the validation email message, and clicked the activation link, this error message appeared as a red-highlighted banner at the URL

Yoursite/user/activate/f8d27146144dd996d4c8b68dc37f1af2

So what are new potential members to do? Many may simply give up. At this stage, a user account will appear as "Pending" in the Admin user accounts dashboard, but will have incomplete details, making approval difficult.

I need to change the language somewhere so that the error message is something like this:

(new error message) "Invalid Activation Key!

If this is your first attempt to activate your account, make sure you are entering the full URL from the activation email - some email clients will cut the URL off.

If the URL is not being cut off, please login to complete your account details.

Go to to the site login page here, with your username (or email address), and your password: Yoursite/login URL" (end of new error message)


To be double safe (i.e. in order to make it as easy as possible for new members to join) we should probably provide a little extra information in the validation email itself: The current text begins:

(start of quote) Thank you for signing up for a YOUR SITE account!

You are one step away from joining our community - simply click
on the following link to activate your account...(end of quote)

To which I would like to add (if my understanding is correct):

(new message to add to validation email) "Please note: this link can only be used once. If the process is interrupted for any reason, and fails, then to complete the registration process you will need to:
(i) go to the site login page (link here),
(ii) login with your username (or email) and password, then
(iii) answer two profile questions for which answers are required"
(end of new message for validation email)

Other sites will not have the same requirements at step (iii), but a similar instruction might help in the validation email, so the new user can know what is happening and what needs to be done after log in, if anything.

I think I can sort this out using the language strings, but any comments or advice on the matter would be welcome.

Have other site owners had similar issues that may confound new users when signing up?


--
PJ Matthews, Kyoto
Migrated from Ning 2.0. Now at Jamroom 6 beta and using Jamroom Hosting for The Research Cooperative (researchcooperative.org)
updated by @researchcooperative: 05/27/18 05:13:14AM

Users just click on the link and their account is activated. They don't need to enter anything else to complete registration.


--
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Education, learning resources, TEL, AR/VR/MR, CC licensed content, panoramas, interactive narrative, sectional modules (like jrDocs), lunch at Uni of Bristol. Get in touch if you share my current interests or can suggest better :)

OK... this may be an issue unique to my site following a customization that makes it necessary for users to complete their public profile details before they can finish logging in.

The idea is to avoid having anonymous ghost members.

Except that they can break off the process, or it may break with a bad connection, which then leaves me with an incomplete account to approve or not approve.

I will take this into the personal support ticket area.

Thanks


--
PJ Matthews, Kyoto
Migrated from Ning 2.0. Now at Jamroom 6 beta and using Jamroom Hosting for The Research Cooperative (researchcooperative.org)

That is the problem with putting up barriers to easy signup - you get a lot more people who don't complete the sign up process.

Wouldn't it be better to make the signup really easy, then not list or reduce features on profiles which haven't entered your extra required info?


--
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Education, learning resources, TEL, AR/VR/MR, CC licensed content, panoramas, interactive narrative, sectional modules (like jrDocs), lunch at Uni of Bristol. Get in touch if you share my current interests or can suggest better :)

It seems I can't win... from experience so far.

When signing up was easy, people did a minimum and didn't come back to complete blank profiles. When signing up is designed to enforce filling out profiles, people drop out of the process midway, and I am left with blank profiles again.

So, in fact to "win" I need to somehow do more to gain the interest of new members, or reward them, so that they voluntarily choose to display a complete profile.

For example, I could reduce the number of features available in the signup group, and explain that members with completed profiles can request or automatically be moved into an "advanced membership" group with other features added.

I need to think about this more as I cannot spend too much time trying to help people who may not want to be helped.

Thanks


--
PJ Matthews, Kyoto
Migrated from Ning 2.0. Now at Jamroom 6 beta and using Jamroom Hosting for The Research Cooperative (researchcooperative.org)

What exactly is it that your new members need to do or add in order to 'complete blank profiles' after successfully signing up?


--
...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

Thanks for asking... I have a public profile form that has "name", "location", and "work interests" as simple text fields that are required.

The name field is filled out in the initial registration, so that all that remains as mandatory are "location" and "work interests".

There are six further optional fields that if filled out, may really help others to know about a new member, and if and how to contact him, her, or it. (including an extended biography/cv field that can be displayed across the top of the public profile page).

I have a custom "Form completion" module that requires the "required" fields to be completed before login can be concluded.

I may need to remove this from the initial sign up and first login process, but make it a condition for a new quota into which I can downgrade anonymous new members if they have not bothered to reveal who they are to the world, after a certain time.

The downgrade quota could provide just a "basic regular membership" with much reduced communicating functions (and hence spamability) - just the minimum needed for being active on the site.

This quota could provide the option for such a downgraded member to upgrade themselves (as a power user) to the original signup quota with all it's communication functions.

This self-upgrade option would become available after the profile form has been completed.

Completing the profile form would allow the login to succeed, and this would then provide access to the option to switch to the original 'open regular membership' (i.e.the signup quota with open public profile information, and open access to full communication functions).

I am assuming that it is better to downgrade anonymous, inactive members than to delete them outright.

P.


--
PJ Matthews, Kyoto
Migrated from Ning 2.0. Now at Jamroom 6 beta and using Jamroom Hosting for The Research Cooperative (researchcooperative.org)

The best thing to do is to design your quota system to be as simple as possible. It will become more complex over time anyway (in response to actual needs).

Why do you need to downgrade them? Just make location and work_interests search conditions in your jrCore_list calls. Your members without a location etc will then not show up, no-one will find them, they won't log in, they don't take up space, they are just inactive accounts.

I don't know what the figures are now, but in 2013 Business Insider reckoned that of 883 million Twitter accounts 651 million were inactive. Twitter doesn't waste energy deleting accounts that haven't entered a location or logged in for 5 years, those accounts just don't get listed anywhere or seen by anyone.


--
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Education, learning resources, TEL, AR/VR/MR, CC licensed content, panoramas, interactive narrative, sectional modules (like jrDocs), lunch at Uni of Bristol. Get in touch if you share my current interests or can suggest better :)

Thanks. I have a custom search system for the profile list, but although the inactive members without profile details will not be found, their profile photos are displayed in the list, so people can waste time scrolling and looking at empty profiles. Is solving this problem a matter of further customization of the skin?


--
PJ Matthews, Kyoto
Migrated from Ning 2.0. Now at Jamroom 6 beta and using Jamroom Hosting for The Research Cooperative (researchcooperative.org)

Yes, probably a very simple one.


--
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Education, learning resources, TEL, AR/VR/MR, CC licensed content, panoramas, interactive narrative, sectional modules (like jrDocs), lunch at Uni of Bristol. Get in touch if you share my current interests or can suggest better :)

I now have the signup quota set for email validation and Terms of Service check, so this will likely help reduce the interest of spammers.

I will try to talk to very new members directly to encourage form filling, rather than forcing them through. But the inactive accounts might be moved into a sleeping quota with form completion requirement to guide them back into the system if they ever bother to return (and to prevent anonymous spam).

Not deleting accounts and not downgrading their account options is a good plan.

I will keep thinking about this. Thanks.


--
PJ Matthews, Kyoto
Migrated from Ning 2.0. Now at Jamroom 6 beta and using Jamroom Hosting for The Research Cooperative (researchcooperative.org)

Further thoughts... perhaps an ideal process in sight?

1. As SteveX and others have often rightly pointed out, a signup process should be as easy as possible.

2. Agreed - and this can be done by not forcing form completion at signup.

Email validation and a Terms of Service "human check" may together weed out most spammers. The "landing page" at login can be set to the profile page to encourage setting up and maintaining a public image.

3. A quota based on a clone of the signup quota can be made. Into this I can manually dump inactive members with no public profile data. Profiles in this quota can be automatically made Private - visible to profile owners only (they won't have any followers, being blank profiles).

The profile owner may eventually realise that his/her profile can be switched to global visibility.... but ideally this would be automatic, with the switch happening at the same time as the profile form is completed, and with the profile returning to original signup quota automatically (perhaps as a "new member") (see last point, 7, below).

4. My goal is to make it easy to join, but then to remove blank profiles from the visible member profile list, without actually deleting members who might one day return.

5. Ideally, removal from public view would be automatic, triggered say when a public profile form has not been completed within two months of the account being opened.

6. The owner might never realise that the profile had become invisible to others. But on log in to their account, will find - unlike the first time at sign up - that she/he MUST complete the profile form in order to complete the login process.

This is where the Form Completion module may be most valuable, because (a) having to complete the form is not likely to be attractive to spammers who never had any intention of creating a visible profile, and (b) a spammer will not be able to make public comments until after making a public profile, which will generally reveal a spammer, being composed of gobbledegook.

7. Upon form completion, the profile might return to original signup quota automatically (perhaps as a "new member").

Can quota switching be automated by adapting the scheduled quota change system?

The quota change schedule system may be a key element that when linked to the Form Completion module (created by @paul) makes enforced form completion a powerful tool for managing large inactive member populations productively -- not merely abandoning them.

I have 7000 members but might be lucky if 700 of them are active members. When these 700 look at the network, they see mainly 6,300 inactive members, which is a great way to encourage inactivity!

Failure to inspire social activity is structurally embedded in my network I am afraid. There may be a structural solution.


--
PJ Matthews, Kyoto
Migrated from Ning 2.0. Now at Jamroom 6 beta and using Jamroom Hosting for The Research Cooperative (researchcooperative.org)
updated by @researchcooperative: 02/01/18 06:50:53AM

Just a few thoughts randomly:

You might want to think about how you could possibly utilize certain things to identify/stimulate activity by the 'sleeping' members:
-newsletters
-polls
-Likes
-member badges
-perhaps a Group for certain new members.. to encourage them to come forward
-profile comments or automated new member 'greetings' or 'follows' by a created Greeter member
-required profile/account avatar/photo
These are all positive reinforcement methods rather than negative/punishment ones.

Also have you considered using user browser "last login" information for deleting long inactive members by their last log in date, rather than making people invisible because they didn't complete profile form details satisfactorily? The chances of someone who joined 4 years ago and never contributed anything suddenly returning and becoming active are TINY. Besides, all their signup/bio info would have likely changed enough during that time that it would make better sense for them to simply join anew. You've probably had members join twice anyway with a different email address and username without your knowing... all the more reason to simply delete very old blank profile members who have not logged in for years. That's how I make sure that duplicate members eventually get deleted. (again, in my opinion)

Is your network viewable to non members, publicly? I suspect it's private, but if not, anyone who is interested in browsing it is ALREADY in effect a downgraded 'sleeper' member of your site, without ability to post or communicate.

IMHO, (and everyone's network has different function/needs) but I can't think of a better way to frustrate and lose members than to: A) have members at some point realize their profile has been invisible, B) force them to spend time typing/completing a lot of info as a new member, or C) require them to reveal their personal contact info to everyone else... i.e. to thousands of online people they don't know.
None of the above may be relevant to your situation- if so ignore it all!


--
...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

Hi,,, thanks. The last reply is ALL relevant! The site is viewable to the public, and I do have sleepers from years back. Deleting the sleeping ancients is probably the first thing I should be doing. Kickbox (valid email checker) has been slowly removing some old accounts. I actively encourage members to not post their email addresses online, but they often do anyway!

How does one automate a greeting message, and should it be as a comment on the public profile page or as a private note or some other way? I sometimes manually greet members with a comment on their public profile, signed Admin.


--
PJ Matthews, Kyoto
Migrated from Ning 2.0. Now at Jamroom 6 beta and using Jamroom Hosting for The Research Cooperative (researchcooperative.org)
updated by @researchcooperative: 02/01/18 03:42:24PM

I'm hoping someone else can advise on this specific issue better than I can. I tried searching for the subject- I know it's in a thread on here... somewhere.

Meanwhile, there's this:
https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/networkmarket/287/auto-follow
-you may find a good use for it considering all your options and goals.


--
...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

You would need to build a module for this that used the "Events and Listeners" system. That would allow you to understsand when something happens, like a new user signing up.

Then you would use your module to write a comment on their profile, or wherever.

Docs: "Events and Listeners"
https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/documentation/module-developer-guide/1011/events-and-listeners
updated by @michael: 02/02/18 11:03:53AM

Why?
Why?

I bet you both spend hours a week deleting old emails, amending your xmas card list, and tidying up your 2GB hard drive!!!

Why do you want to delete inactive members? They are inactive, nobody sees them.


--
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Education, learning resources, TEL, AR/VR/MR, CC licensed content, panoramas, interactive narrative, sectional modules (like jrDocs), lunch at Uni of Bristol. Get in touch if you share my current interests or can suggest better :)

Lots of good points ... thanks all.

1. @Strumelia The Auto-Follow Module may be very useful for me. The key functional area of my site is a "Profile" that operates a forum where people can offer or request services. Most members fail to pay attention to it. I can set up the autofollow so that all members find a profile follow link to this page in their own profile page.

2. @ultrajam My sleeping ancients ARE visible if people scroll through the profile list showing profile photos and user names. I suspect a lot of people like to explore visually and scroll rather than using search fields. The actual interesting profiles are scattered through a sea of inactive profiles.

I don't see any alternative to manually either deleting inactive profiles, or shifting them into a quota in which profiles are private - until manually reset to be globally visible. If I delete them, there is zero chance of reincarnation.

If I put them into a quiet quota, they will receive occasional newsletters from the network, and may rediscover their original interest (more likely not, of course). The truly dead with invalid emails are already being buried by Kickbox.

3. @michael A scheduled automatic greeting message might be a very good thing. This could be set to be sent out 24 hours after the last login by the user, to reach them at what might be their usual active time of day or night. I would be happy to sponsor such a module for general use on JR, assuming it does not cost too much.


--
PJ Matthews, Kyoto
Migrated from Ning 2.0. Now at Jamroom 6 beta and using Jamroom Hosting for The Research Cooperative (researchcooperative.org)
updated by @researchcooperative: 02/02/18 04:59:53PM

LOL. ;D
Hey, I don't run a social network for dead people. Their stuff takes up space on my server, which will eventually cost me money to have to expand to house all their old junk. I like dumping SuzieQ's long defunct membership along with her years-old photos of her hanging pot of petunias.
Yes, I do delete old emails... but I don't spend hours a week on it.


--
...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

Filter them out of your jrCore_list calls.

If you don't want to list profiles which haven't entered a website:

If you don't want to list profiles which haven't been updated in the past year, something like:
Then in your jrCore_list:



--
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Education, learning resources, TEL, AR/VR/MR, CC licensed content, panoramas, interactive narrative, sectional modules (like jrDocs), lunch at Uni of Bristol. Get in touch if you share my current interests or can suggest better :)

@ultrajam

If those kinds of actions are possible, then perhaps a Profile Management Module could be built using them.

I am using Kickbox to weed out invalid emails and shift very dead accounts into a separate private quota. This still leaves many other inactive accounts, that clutter up search results and the public page of profile images.

I would like a module that can move profiles from a selected quota en masse into another selected quota automatically, on the basis of two different selection criteria:


After choosing the quota with profiles to be managed:

1. Find and select all profiles with no login since ABCD date (shift selected profiles to XYZ quota).

2. Find and select profiles with no data in profile form fields EFGH (one or more fields to be chosen from a checklist of all profile form fields) (shift selected profiles to XYZ quota).

This would allow me to first move all the very old accounts out of the active member quota, while not deleting them, and then I could send reminder mails to them on the basis that they are very old accounts.

Among the remaining profiles, I could then move those that have no public profile information into a different quota, also private, and then contact them separately as a group.

A Profile Management Module like this would be very useful for large sites with many members. I have more than 7,000 members and cannot manage them one by one.

I need this in the form of a JR module as I cannot manage the kinds of code changes that are needed directly. And it is a process that might be best implemented occasionally, not necessarily as a built-in continuously active process.

I have mentioned this as a possible request in private support, but wonder if the idea looks useful to other JR network owners.


--
PJ Matthews, Kyoto
Migrated from Ning 2.0. Now at Jamroom 6 beta and using Jamroom Hosting for The Research Cooperative (researchcooperative.org)
updated by @researchcooperative: 02/03/18 11:06:07PM

You just add to the jrCore_list call in the jrProfile templates in the ACdmin Control Panel. It would take you about 10 minutes to do..


--
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Education, learning resources, TEL, AR/VR/MR, CC licensed content, panoramas, interactive narrative, sectional modules (like jrDocs), lunch at Uni of Bristol. Get in touch if you share my current interests or can suggest better :)

Thanks.... This is good to know... however it's not the simplicity or otherwise of the coding work that matters in my case, but having an interface that I can use without dealing with code - as far as humanly possible!

This is important not just for me, but also because I may eventually have to pass management of the site to someone who is equally incompetent in the technical aspects. The site needs to be constantly evolving towards something that can be administrated very simply.

I appreciate that others who read this thread may find your advice usable and useful. So thanks again.

I also appreciate that JR is already evolving towards simplicity in administration... there have been huge improvements in the time I have been using the system.


--
PJ Matthews, Kyoto
Migrated from Ning 2.0. Now at Jamroom 6 beta and using Jamroom Hosting for The Research Cooperative (researchcooperative.org)
updated by @researchcooperative: 02/04/18 04:34:10AM

I agree with PJ. Right now, the User Browser can SORT members by their last log in date (and that has been HUGELY useful for me)... but you cannot select and delete them from there except on a one-by-one basis... nor can you shift-select them to move them into a different quota. It'd be incredibly useful for a site manager to be able to do these actions with a simple click, as existing site tools, without needing to code it in. Perhaps the User Account Browser can have one or both of these extra functions added to it?
My site has many hundreds of members I'd like to do this with, who have not logged in for years. I can identify them in the User Account browser by last log in date column. If I had an easy way to move them to a different quota, I could then send them a 'newsletter' informing them they'll need to log in at least once to show they are still active, or else their accounts will be removed as defunct. And then (if only) I could again sort by last login and shift-select to delete the ones who did not log in after the newsletter.


--
...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

@strumelia

I have put in a private request to sponsor a module for this.

A module might be best if it is easier for this to evolve as a fully-featured Profile Manager. But your suggestion for further user browser options might be technically preferred, so I am open as to what JR thinks is best here.

If the user browser approach is taken, then we would need to be able to select multiple profiles for transfer to a different quota, rather than just one by one.

Please suggest any specifications you think might be good for a future Profile Manager module... even if they go beyond what we have discussed so far, it would be good to think about this in advance.


A. For monitoring activity (before managing quota location):
1. Sort profiles within one or more selected quotas according to last login, or a login period? (two choices)?
2. Sort profiles within one or more selected quotas according to how many times they have logged in, after first login, or within a chosen period?
3. Sort profiles within one or more selected quotas by amount of content added (all media or specific media)?

B. For managing profile locations
1. Establish sort, single-select, multi-select, and transfer options
2. Maintain automatic record of transfers made?

C. For reporting changes to affected members
1. Send automatic notification to all?
2. Send personal notification to one at a time?

D. Other?


--
PJ Matthews, Kyoto
Migrated from Ning 2.0. Now at Jamroom 6 beta and using Jamroom Hosting for The Research Cooperative (researchcooperative.org)
updated by @researchcooperative: 02/04/18 07:53:55PM

We'd need to be able to 'sort' by the columns in the User browser, and to then shift-select batches of them, and apply an action like change quota, delete, make inactive/active ?

1. & 2. Last login date would be sufficient for all purposes (just my opinion and my useage)

3. currently, we CAN see (and sort from most to least content) what profiles have added how much content to our server, in the Profile Browser (not the User Browser), at https://(yoursite).com/profile/browser . And PJ, you CAN see the numbers for specific media they've loaded....just click on the the disk space number for a particular member in the profile browser- it will open a new window breaking down what content that member has added, by type.
I have always wished I could both Last login date along with server space they take up, and Date the member joined all in one functional 'action browser'. Along with being able to sort by quota and switch quotas. I've always disliked the separation of the Profile browser and the User browser... though I realize that is perhaps necessary and is likely very useful on some sites like band sites. My other wish item would be to see the IP address of each member... thought these can change, perhaps just the IP address they signed up under. IP maybe not feasible or practical.

I myself don't need a record of such transfers.

Again, I myself don't need this, but I can see a use for it.

It'd be great to be able to perhaps combine the functions of User and Profile browsers somehow? And be able to sort columns by last login date, or by amount of content on server, or by date of having joined, sort by user OR profile name columns, etc etc... and then shift-select a big group of them you've sorted and get an option to send them a message, email, or newsletter. delete/modify, change quota...
That's all i can think of for now.


--
...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

hmm, not sure why my quote functions didn't pan out. But you get the idea I hope.


--
...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

quote functions didn't pan out because you had an open, then another open. I'll fix it.

I cannot send validation emails to newly signed up users. They appear as Pending but no email is sent to the new user.
I am using Mailgun. Also I can send test emails to myself but not to anyone else. It seems I've missed a setting or something

I am a new user in the trial period. I presviously used Jamroom 8 years ago. This was never a problem previously.

Thanks

@emerge - I've already responded to this this morning in your support ticket asking the same question. You haven't entered your MailGun key in your server configuration.


--
Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

Thanks Paul. I have entered the Mailgun key but I can only send test emails to myself and new signups do not receive the signup validation email. I'm sure I'm overlooking something very simple.

Stan

If you look at your email delivery log (in your Hosting Control Panel domain settings page), the 'rejected' emails do not have a recipient. Are you sure your domain at MailGun has been validated?
Send us a ticket with your site admin login and your MailGun login and we'll check it out.
Thanks


--
Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

Mailgun status is validated, yes

needs to be validated AND have a credit card entered. Otherwise you can only send emails to email addresses that you have entered into a list at mailgun.

Excellent
Thank you

My Mailgun account is validated; I have a credit card on file but still no success in sending emails to anyone other than the admin account. No email validation on signup even though this option is selected.

found it.

You'd added WAY too much stuff to the settings. Since your on our hosting, the only thing that needed doing was to add the mailgun key to the hosting control panel. You'd changed the mail settings in your ACP to use the mailgun module and changed the sending server settings to mailguns.

Since your on our hosting that is un-necessary and was causing the system to not send. I've changed them back to the defaults and it looks like its working now.

Thank you so much!!