Testers Needed - User registration problem

[robototitico]

Hello,
Forgive me if this thread is in the wrong place.

Users to my site need to register an account in order to place ads. Recently, a significant proportion of new users are registering but then failing to log in afterwards.

Can some of you guys register on my site and tell me if you are receiving the registration email. Also let me know if the email was sent to your inbox or spam/junk folder.

I have tested it myself obviously with different email accounts. A couple of times in yahoo, the email went to the spam folder, but in eircom.net, gmail, hotmail, it seems to go to the inbox. Why are my users having trouble? If you can shed any light I would appreciate it greatly.

One possible factor is that my users would be, generally speaking, middle aged people, or people who might not use the internet that much. To combat this, I have put instructions on the register page, and tried to make the process as simple as possible.

 

[robototitico]

I forgot to say, that one of my worries is that my emails are on some blacklist somewhere.

I have heard that its really easy to get blacklisted, and impossible to get off once it happens. I emailed eircom, but they havent got back to me yet.

Out of the last 12 new users that registered, 5 haven't logged in afterwards.

 

[mneylon]

Making the mobile number mandatory is annoying

 

[mneylon]

County - if it's Ireland, why don't you just have a dropdown? Free text input is going to cause you headaches

 

[mneylon]

The email came through to me without any issue.

If you're having issues with Hotmail and Eircom it could be because the site is new and if there's a sudden increase in email from an unknown source it's more likely to get flagged as spam

 

[MOH]

Not sure if it's in any way related (or even accurate), but this reminded me of a thread over on boards just before Christmas regarding Eircom and spam

edit: Registered with both Gmail and Hotmail and got the confirmations e-mails immediately, login links worked fine (well, I had to approve the message content before the hotmail one worked, but that happens for all embedded links). And I tried loggin in manually just to confrim name/pwd were correct.

 

[robototitico]

Thanks you guys for testing the website.

The reason I ask for mobile number is so that I can text the user his password if his email doesnt work.

My registration email used to contain a link to activate the account, but now I dont have a link, as some email providers will block links, and make you click something to show them. Now my emails just give the password without link. I notice a reduction in number of unsigned in users since I did this. I also made clearer instructions on Registration page.

Any other comments will be appreciated.

 

[mneylon]

Thanks you guys for testing the website.

The reason I ask for mobile number is so that I can text the user his password if his email doesnt work.

Ok, but I can't see how making it mandatory is a good idea.

My registration email used to contain a link to activate the account, but now I dont have a link, as some email providers will block links, and make you click something to show them.

That's rubbish

If anyone is blocking emails it's the users themselves

 

[robototitico]

Erm, I am using squirrel mail, and links don't show in my inbox.

Also look at what MOH said above

(well, I had to approve the message content before the hotmail one worked, but that happens for all embedded links)

Yes the mobile number might be less annoying if it wasnt mandatory, but I would worry that people then wouldnt bother entering it.
Thanks for your help!

 

[mneylon]

Erm, I am using squirrel mail, and links don't show in my inbox.

Also look at what MOH said above



Yes the mobile number might be less annoying if it wasnt mandatory, but I would worry that people then wouldnt bother entering it.
Thanks for your help!

You're asking people to trust you with something very personal when they have absolutely zero reason to do it

MOST web services DO NOT ask people for mobile numbers

MOST web service ask people to confirm via email

 

[MOH]

Erm, I am using squirrel mail, and links don't show in my inbox.

Also look at what MOH said above



Yes the mobile number might be less annoying if it wasnt mandatory, but I would worry that people then wouldnt bother entering it.
Thanks for your help!

If I've signed up for something and given my e-mail address, I've no problem clicking on a message to enable links in it.

But I'm not going to give my real mobile number - if it's mandatory, I'm just going to fill it with a random number, or change a few digits in it, and I'd say a fair few people will do the same. Which means you'll end up sending texts either to non-existent numbers or random people.

You already have a warning on the site that e-mails may go to spam/junk - maybe just amend that to indicate that you may need to accept links, or something similar.

Also, just looked back at the signup page - there's no * beside e-mail - is it optional?

Finally, I think micktest1 and micktest2 were the two test users I registered, if you want to delete them.

 

[robototitico]

Thank you for your assistance gentlemen. I have now made the mobile number optional.

Any further suggestions you may have will be warmly received.

 

[waynewex]

Just had a look. Everything seems fine. The form is small and simple, which is a very good thing. The longer a form is, the less likely people are to use it.