Forum Activity for @researchcooperative

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

Using Jamroom

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.
updated by @researchcooperative: 02/01/18 06:50:53AM

Can the number of allowed profiles be 1 while the number of allowed quotas is 2?

Using Jamroom

1. I would like members to manage just one profile, but have ability to switch to another profile in another quota, leaving the first profile behind. And perhaps to be able to switch back again to the first profile.

2. If this can only be achieved only by switching Privacy settings, some users might not realize that they can make one profile private, and one public, and might end up trying to manage two public profiles with overlapping functions, which would be confusing for everyone.

3. What am thinking to offer is:
-- a simple signup profile with limited functions (blog, followers, gallery) (in a "standard regular member" quota) and
--a more complex profile with further functions added (e.g. group, files, pages) (in an "advanced regular member" quota that is not a signup quota)

4. Can we set the number of allowed profiles at 1 for the signup quota, and also just 1 for the "advanced regular member" quota, and allow users in both quotas to be "power users" for whom the two quotas are displayed and thus made available?

(i.e. after signup, can the user switch to another profile in a different quota, and abandon the first profile in the signup quota?)

5. Or does the number of profiles have to match the number of quotas made available, or be at least two for a power user with access to two or more quotas?

(meaning that the original profile associated with an account cannot be abandoned)?

6. Perhaps the simplest solution is to only let users have an "Advanced Regular Member" profile by asking Admin to manually switch their entire account from one quota to another.

I think I have persuaded myself to take the last route - Route 6.

This is likely easier than offering complex alternatives and then having to tell members how to switch between them.
updated by @researchcooperative: 05/05/18 09:53:16AM

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

Using Jamroom

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.

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

Using Jamroom

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?

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

Using Jamroom

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.

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

Using Jamroom

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

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

Using Jamroom


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

How to change order of Chapters in Documentation? (and related questions)

Using Jamroom

Hmm... thanks.

There is a kind of cross-hair thingy that appears when my cursor is hovering over the document section text when not in editing mode. So I clicked and yes, it is sticky and allows me to start dragging the whole text. But then I run out reach because my laptop screen is too small. I can't actually drag the later section into position above the earlier section, and vice versa.

Nor can I drag and drop the section titles in the section table of contents, at the top of the document. That is what I expected after being able to drag and drop the document titles and chapter titles.

So, yes, in principle the document sections can be dragged and dropped, but it does not seem intuitive or convenient. I should be able to do it at work, on my larger work screen.

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

Using Jamroom

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?
updated by @researchcooperative: 05/27/18 05:13:14AM

How to change order of Chapters in Documentation? (and related questions)

Using Jamroom

Great - that helped a lot.

Here is my new interpretation (perhaps it can be adapted for use in JR documentation?)

1. To change the order of chapters, drag and drop in the chapter list view. The chapter numbering will change automatically.

2. To move documents between chapters, open the document in the editing view, then change the category (i.e. chapter title) to an existing category in the dropdown menu, or create a new category.

If a category is left completely empty, it will conveniently disappear from the Chapter list.

3. To change the order of documents within a chapter, view document list in the "Table of Contents" view, then drag and drop.

4. To change the order of sections within a document, drag and drop does not work (why not?). However, the order can be changed by (i) copying the contents of one section to a clipboard, then (ii) creating a new section with the (rather obscure) "Add new section" button, then (iii) pasting the old section contents into the new section editor and saving. (iv) After the copy is saved, the old section that is now redundant can be deleted with the section editing tools.

I would be nice to have the drag and drop option for sections in documents!

Thanks.