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PLEASE READ: streamline signup process!

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    PLEASE READ: streamline signup process!

    Hello I am a new member as of today! I would like to open up the signup process for discussion. My personal experience to the sign up process for the Kubuntu forum was really annoy. I found there to be too many questions and one in particular I kept getting wrong, I finally gave up in disgust. So time passed and something didn't sit right with me so I tired again just so I could share my sign-up process with the site admin if nothing else!

    FYI: I have been a member of the Ubuntu forum as a Kubuntu user for over a year because of this one reason! I gave up then and I almost gave up again a week ago.

    Other than the image captcha having more questions doesn't make it harder for the bots, the questions are static, there is no guessing for the bot. However the human will be annoyed like I was and I am willing to say many will not bother or abandon there process.

    I was asked to post on here to help get the community involved in the process of seeking an alternative process to keep spammers and bots off our community site. First the ubuntu forum has a very simple streamline process and I would argue that because of the multitude of questions one needs to answers you're going to have less people sign up.

    Let me point out, that on the site, the site admin said (not picking on anyone):

    >I have noticed that we have a large number of guests online
    >all the time. Why not sign up for a free account ...

    I claimed to the site admin the reason is because of the sign-up process, as a result this community is not allowed to grow and get bigger, over at the ubuntu camp they are much bigger!

    One of the things I would like to see implemented here is to empower the community to get involved to keep spammers and bots at bay! I propose and would like community feedback that we install a policy for new members post to be validated by existing community members. This will only empower the community and allow others to get involved at keeping this forum clean for others.

    Overtime if we install a simple signup process our community will be allowed to grow (faster), and by the law of large numbers, the community will find it easier to find volunteers to help with community duties and tasks.

    This is your community, where you come for help, so please give this great thought! When replying lets stick with solutions.

    My philosophy is that you should give more than you take! At first there will be growing pains, but eventually things will work out for the better if the community supports it and there is buy in.

    I feel strongly that we need a simple signup process, that we need to empower the community and get them involved as being a part of the solution. What we need to move away from is building walls and making things harder at the cost of the user experience.

    The site admin thinks this will enrage the community to make new user's have their post validated not as spam! I'd like to think otherwise, what are you thoughts?

    Do you have other solutions to make it harder for spammers and bots but dead simple for the good guys?

    Our goals needs to be

    1) make is dead easy for the good guys to sign up & get help
    2) grow the community
    3) get the community involved
    4) empower the community

    Kind Regards,
    Rajinder Yadav

    #2
    Re: PLEASE READ: streamline signup process!

    First, welcome to KFN. We do encourage our 'guests' to register.

    You're comments are welcome, and here in KFN we do not censor ideas, even if we may not agree with them. KFN is, as you point out, not nearly as large as Ubuntuforums is. But, in the response to you by Claydoh, one of our Moderators, he pointed out that KFN, unlike Ubuntuforums, is a private forum site. It is wholey funded by one individual, our Host, Open Source. He pays all the bills associated with maintaining KFN. The only revenue stream he has are from the ads that are displayed here to guests - regular members do not see them.

    Open Source is 'open' to suggestions on how to improve KFN. But because it is his site, he has to make the decision as to any changes. The Global Moderators here also listen to what our members have to say concerning issues/problems/suggestions on KFN. We often discuss such issues among ourselves with the goal of reaching a concensus and recommendation which we offer to Open Source.

    As Moderators, we don't dispute that some find the registration questions frustrating. But we had to balance this against the onslaught of spammers that were getting in. Our current registration process has practically eliminated spammers here.

    All that said however, we are aware that KFN could 'do it better', allowing more legitimate guests to get through the registration processes, and still keeping spammers/bots at bay.
    Using Kubuntu Linux since March 23, 2007
    "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." - Sherlock Holmes

    Comment


      #3
      Re: PLEASE READ: streamline signup process!

      Note that this topic is not a new one, as noted by the couple of posts on this subject.

      really, what is missing is a 'contact us' link/page/form for this sort of problem on the site



      Comment


        #4
        Re: PLEASE READ: streamline signup process!

        Originally posted by claydoh
        really, what is missing is a 'contact us' link/page/form for this sort of problem on the site
        A suggested 'improvement' that has been recommended (by me IIRC). Was it determined that adding such a link on the Registration page was doable with the version of SMF OS is using, or only if SMF is upgraded to version 2?
        Using Kubuntu Linux since March 23, 2007
        "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." - Sherlock Holmes

        Comment


          #5
          Re: PLEASE READ: streamline signup process!

          iirc it would involve hacking KFN's theme files for a mod to work, or upgrading to newer software

          Comment


            #6
            Re: PLEASE READ: streamline signup process!

            It's been a long time since I've seen the register page, but I just had a look and I do think two of the questions are a bit difficult. Specifically the use of "*" as a multiply symbol. I know it is common in some circles, but it is definitely not common everywhere and not easy to "Google". The other one is the non-parallel construct of the last "question" which is not a question.

            That said, the idea of adding a contact is easily solved by putting a sentence in the text to that effect. For example something like: "If you have difficulty with the questions, you can request registration by sending e-mail to register(at)kubuntuforums(dot)net", should do the trick.

            Comment


              #7
              Re: PLEASE READ: streamline signup process!

              I like these ideas. The "Contact Us" link would be worthwhile.

              Comment


                #8
                Re: PLEASE READ: streamline signup process!

                What about using OpenID? One problem I, and lots of other people, have is making new account on each site. Using OpenID can solve that problem.

                Though, I am not sure if the option can be easily added to SMF or not.

                Comment

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