Hi all, I am having a debate with my friend about his website signup process. When signing up to most networking websites, you create a profile and the site sends you an email with a link to verify your email is working and you are human and not a bot. Currently his site only has a "confirm email" box, but his noticing as more users sign up more incorrect email addresses are entered and are bouncing back. As most users copy and paste if its wrong in the first box, the profile will still be created and the user wont get future email notifications when people contact them.
His argument is the email verification is an extra click he thinks is unnecessary and will annoy users and stop them signing up. He says if they enter an incorrect email address they must be fake profiles or they will miss out on the full experience for their own user error.
My argument is 1, its important to verify they are human (and not a spam bot) to ensure a valid email address and real members are joining the site and responding to alerts. 2, for security reasons anyone currently can signup with someone else's email address (which would be annoying for random people). 3, people have already spent 5 minutes creating a profile on a site they want to use regularly, a few extra clicks to ensure they get the full experience shouldn't bother them as its standard on nearly all websites these days. 4, the purpose of his site is to signup members and expand the community, if 5% enter incorrect email addresses, its better to NOT have them taking up server space and inform them they entered a wrong email when it doesn't arrive - at the signup stage, thus having to re-signup because of user error. 5, if the verification is not in place, the member will assume they entered a correct email address, however if they forget their password at a later stage the site is then unable to send them a password reset as their email address was entered wrong, in which case is MORE annoying as they have to signup all over again or contact the webmaster.
He doesn't agree with me and wants some statistics So what do you think?
- YES - I think email verification is important for security and don't mind the extra clicks to ensure I get the full website experience.
- NO - I think the email verification process is annoying and if you get spam bots signing up or lose a few members it's fine, let them take up server space.
I looked for the poll in "additional options" but its not there, any mods can help make this thread a proper poll please?
Thanks!
His argument is the email verification is an extra click he thinks is unnecessary and will annoy users and stop them signing up. He says if they enter an incorrect email address they must be fake profiles or they will miss out on the full experience for their own user error.
My argument is 1, its important to verify they are human (and not a spam bot) to ensure a valid email address and real members are joining the site and responding to alerts. 2, for security reasons anyone currently can signup with someone else's email address (which would be annoying for random people). 3, people have already spent 5 minutes creating a profile on a site they want to use regularly, a few extra clicks to ensure they get the full experience shouldn't bother them as its standard on nearly all websites these days. 4, the purpose of his site is to signup members and expand the community, if 5% enter incorrect email addresses, its better to NOT have them taking up server space and inform them they entered a wrong email when it doesn't arrive - at the signup stage, thus having to re-signup because of user error. 5, if the verification is not in place, the member will assume they entered a correct email address, however if they forget their password at a later stage the site is then unable to send them a password reset as their email address was entered wrong, in which case is MORE annoying as they have to signup all over again or contact the webmaster.
He doesn't agree with me and wants some statistics So what do you think?
- YES - I think email verification is important for security and don't mind the extra clicks to ensure I get the full website experience.
- NO - I think the email verification process is annoying and if you get spam bots signing up or lose a few members it's fine, let them take up server space.
I looked for the poll in "additional options" but its not there, any mods can help make this thread a proper poll please?
Thanks!
