solved Approve Users on Sign up

1. Is "admin verification" the only method of approving users at sign up. Is there a way of adding email verification as well?

2. Where can I see the information users submit during initial sign up (sign up form questions)?
updated by @isleander: 07/09/16 09:21:02AM

Go to ACP -> Users -> User Accounts -> Quota Config and you will see there are options under "Signup Method" (including instant validation).


I'm not sure about this one in regards to Ning imports - Paul might know this.

Hope this helps!


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Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net
updated by @brian: 12/29/14 09:23:54AM

At present it is only possible to select one of the three options. My question is, can this be extended to two types of verification; both email and Admin?

Email verification alone does not allow admins to check who is actually creating an account. Whereas the addition of Admin verification (providing Admins have access to the person's details used at sign up. Hence my second question), will add that extra level of security. So what I am asking is this: Is it possible to add "two" levels of verification, whereas now only one of three is available.

The details that I refer to in my second point are those submitted on the "created an account" form. Where can these be found after the new user has submitted them (before accepting the user)? Please see screenshot.

Trust that is a bit clearer.
Thanks.
updated by @isleander: 12/29/14 09:23:54AM

There is a profile_active checkbox that only admins can see. If it is unchecked the profile (and all profile items) effectively disappear from the site.
When an account is validated, by whatever method selected, profile_active is set automatically. What you might be asking for is an email validation option that doesn't check profile_active so that admin can then look over the new account and make it active if ok, or maybe delete it.
Not sure if this is practical or desirable atm but will bring this thread to Brian's attention for comment.
Thanks
Pa


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist
updated by @paul: 12/29/14 09:23:54AM

Thanks Paul - quick question is "how" does having an admin check an email add a second level of security? Unless you've memorized domains that you feel are suspect it's not clear to me how email validation is less secure than also having an admin "look at" the email address.

Note that whenever a new user signs up on your system, you also receive an email to the admin account - you can click on that to view their info and deactivate them if needed.

Sorry for the followup question, we've just never had anyone ask for this in 11+ years of doing user signups, so I would suspect it's something very specific to your use case.

Thanks!


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Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net
updated by @brian: 12/29/14 09:23:54AM

OK Thanks, Paul.

Basically it would be helpful to see what information people have submitted on the form before accepting them, with the additional security of email verification (on their part).

I believe that's how it worked on the Ning platform.

Thanks again.
updated by @isleander: 12/29/14 09:23:54AM

Brian,

The link in the new user email does not show the details asked for on the Create a New Account form. That is what I'd like to see before accepting users. That is why the questions are presented; so we know who is asking to join.

If I can see those somewhere it would be really helpful.

Thanks,
Alex
updated by @isleander: 12/29/14 09:23:54AM

Got it - yeah those items can be shown on the email, since the email is a template as well and can be modified to suit your needs. You can modify it in the ACP -> User Accounts -> Template tab. It's called "email_notify_signup_message.tpl".

You can add user fields inside. For example if you have a field called "user_hometown" as a custom user form field, in the template you would add something like:


And that would be included now in the email.

Hope this helps!


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Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net
updated by @brian: 12/29/14 09:23:54AM

That looks like an answer.

Thank you.
updated by @isleander: 12/29/14 09:23:54AM

No problem!


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Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net
updated by @brian: 12/29/14 09:23:54AM

That worked great.

Thanks again!
updated by @isleander: 12/29/14 09:23:54AM

Would this same method also work to make applicant 'quiz questions' which could help us detect a spammer trying to join before we approve them?

Such as instead of "Hometown: Chicago" we could use a longer query like:
"What style of music is your favorite?:" and they could anmswer "Bluegrass" or "I would like to play classical music" etc.. but if they answered "make friends" then it would usefully send up a red flag as a possible spammer.... ?

Or is there a more logical place to use such type spammer-exposing questions to pending member applicants? Or are such precautions not even needed on JR? They always have been on Ning, in my experience.


--
...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015
updated by @strumelia: 12/29/14 09:23:54AM

Yeah - you could use it for that no problem.

Hope this helps!


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Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net
updated by @brian: 12/29/14 09:23:54AM

Any site that gets popular is going to deal with spammers on a daily basis - there are no technical solutions that keep out spammers 100%, since very few "spammers" nowadays are bots - MOST are actual people sitting at their computer that either earn like 1 cent for every site they sign up on OR there is a javascript that gets loaded that lets a real user "break" the captcha so they can access something (usually on an "adult" site).


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Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net
updated by @brian: 12/29/14 09:23:54AM

For me, this is about using the answers to the Ning signup questions in a meaningful way.

On Ning I used a two-step verification process.

Step One: the person signing up has to verify that the email address is really an email address.
Step Two: manual review of the answers to the questions on the signup form before accept/decline.

The best place to review what's in Step Two is on the page where you make the accept/decline decision, which is where it was on Ning.

It's easy to add questions to the signup form, though if the fields imported from Ning are readily accessible that would make the process easier and would allow integration of that information on the profile page (right now I only surface the country out of the location information).

Adding the fields to the email signup notify template (this email gets sent to both parties? Just to admins?) means I am switching back and forth between my email client and the new member approval page. That's not a deal breaker, but it does add time to an already tedious process.

:: Clay

Here's a fun Catch-22 question I just spent a few minutes looking for ...

I want to add fields to the new member sign up form. I can see it when I am logged out, easy peasy.

http://www.thechocolatelife.info/thechocolatelife/user/signup

But as I am not logged in there is no Form Designer button.

Never mind. Just copied the http://www.thechocolatelife.info/thechocolatelife/user/signup I got when logged out into the browser when logged in.

If I add fields to the signup form, I probably want to use field names that exist in the user database. In which module is the user datastore browser so I can see the field names in use?

This way, if I want to surface data for all members pre- and post- Jamroom, I can do that. Example is the country field from Location on the profile.
updated by @claygordon: 01/17/15 08:36:57PM

Right now there is no way to view the "raw" datastore data for the jrUser or jrProfile modules as they have their User and Profile browsers that "override" the default key/value viewer. So for now go into Tools -> Developer Tools -> Database Admin, and in the "jr_jruser_item_key" table you will see all the key/value pairs for your user accounts by _item_id (which lines up with the _user_id).

I've been meaning to make a way for you to view this in the "normal" datastore browser (for both user and profile) and will see how to work that in.

Hope this helps!


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Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

FWIW...in ning we do have a great memberdata .csv file we can download at any time, whic opens in excel as a nice spreadsheet- showing member names, locations, emails, answers, last login date, and whatever else we asked for at signup like birthday, male/female, etc. I have to say it's awesome and so easy to find stuff when you need it.


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

@strumelia

You can get to the important stuff from within JR right now. Just go to the user account browser. Username and email address - searchable from within JR. I have already used this feature at the request of a member waiting for me to bring the site back online.

What I was looking for was the name of an existing database field.

What I would like, because this is not something I do very often and I never need to look at more than one person at a time, would be to have a "Detail" view when I select "Modify" a member record (Profile or Account). This would show everything that's in the member's record right there. If there were a way to modify some things then that would be huge as well.