board77

The Last Homely Site on the Web

ATTENTION PLEASE! New Process for activating new members!

Post Reply   Page 2 of 2  [ 38 posts ]
Jump to page « 1 2
Author Message
tinwe
Post subject:
Posted: Sun 17 Jul , 2005 11:37 pm
Waiting for winter
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 2380
Joined: Fri 04 Mar , 2005 1:46 am
Location: Jr. High
 
Areanor,

There are three different settings for activation in the General Admin - Configuration panel of the Admin panel -“None”, “User” and “Admin”. We are currently set to “Admin”, which means that when a person registers they get an email that says “Your account must be activated by an administrator” (more or less). When set to “User” they get an email that says “Click on the link below to activate your account”. They can activate themselves, but we still have to turn on their permissions by adding them the “allmembers” group. Otherwise, the permissions remain set to “off” for everything, and even though they can activate themselves, they cannot post.

Under either setting a person who clicks on “under 13" gets an automatic age confirmation email. So, if we change to the “user” activation setting a person clicking on “under 13" will not get the email that lets them activate themselves. They are automatically kept out of the site.

We cannot customize the automatic age verification email except to put in a fax number and a mailing address. What we are proposing is to make the address say “we do not accept people who are under 13".

The signature I was talking about is the one that gets added to all of the automatic emails that get sent out for various things. One gets sent out when a person is activated, whether we activate them (as we do now) or they activate themselves (as they would under the “user” activation setting). It’s the same email either way. If we change to the “user” setting a new member would get this email as soon as they register, and be able to activate themselves immediately. But, they still couldn’t post because their permissions would not be turned on. We have to do that regardless of which activation setting we. The idea is to put a note in the email telling people that they may not be able to post immediately after they activate themselves. The only way to put that note in the email is to add it the “signature”. Currently the signature says “The b77 Management” we are proposing to change it to text I gave earlier.

Does this make sense, or am I just confusing you more? (I have a way of doing that, you know.)


Top
Profile Quote
truehobbit
Post subject:
Posted: Sun 17 Jul , 2005 11:40 pm
WYSIWYG
Offline
 
Posts: 3228
Joined: Wed 27 Oct , 2004 6:37 pm
Location: wherever
 
Have you changed the settings already? (Not that I'd mind, I just came here to look whether you had, but I see people are still discussing.)

Our newest user got here within minutes. :scratch

_________________

From our key principles:

We listen to one another, make good-faith efforts to understand one another, and we treat one another respectfully at all times.


Top
Profile Quote
tinwe
Post subject:
Posted: Sun 17 Jul , 2005 11:45 pm
Waiting for winter
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 2380
Joined: Fri 04 Mar , 2005 1:46 am
Location: Jr. High
 
No, the settings have not been changed. Someone activated them without sending the age verification email. I suppose we are now obligated to send that email like we have been doing for the previous three registrants, even though it’s rather pointless now.

We need to have majority of Rangers agree to make the change, right? We currently have six Rangers, so we need four to have a majority.

Should we start a poll?

:devil:


Top
Profile Quote
Areanor
Post subject:
Posted: Mon 18 Jul , 2005 12:01 am
Sharpe-sighted
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 1312
Joined: Thu 28 Oct , 2004 7:46 am
Location: Hyrule
 
Yeah, Truehobbit, quillon was very fast. I sent out the age verification email and while I was still rummaging in the mail account, the reply came in.


Tinwe, I try to understand ;) - I'm a bit slow in thinking these times, sorry. (and it's 2 AM over here)

So using the proposed changes it goes like this:

1. a person registers.

2a) the poster says "I'm over 13"
2b) the poster says "I'm under 13"

3) the poster shows as "New registered"

4a) over 13: the poster gets activation mail
4b) under 13: the poster doesn't get activation mail

5) we send the age verification mail

6) we get the reply and save it.

7) we set permissions for the groups and whenever the new member activates via activation mail, he/she can post since then.

okay, think I got it - I wasn't aware for a moment that a poster who clicked on "under 13" would not get the activation mail. Thanks for clearing up, though you explained some things I knew. :P

:hug:

_________________

[ img ]


Top
Profile Quote
Areanor
Post subject:
Posted: Mon 18 Jul , 2005 12:04 am
Sharpe-sighted
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 1312
Joined: Thu 28 Oct , 2004 7:46 am
Location: Hyrule
 
tinwe_linto wrote:
Someone activated them without sending the age verification email.
:P nope.

and if you check the "New Registrations"thread I stated that there - before I sent it, so it wouldn't be done twice - by me and by another admin who happened to be on the board.

That's why I do that beforehand.

_________________

[ img ]


Top
Profile Quote
tinwe
Post subject:
Posted: Mon 18 Jul , 2005 12:09 am
Waiting for winter
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 2380
Joined: Fri 04 Mar , 2005 1:46 am
Location: Jr. High
 
Areanor,

Oops. I didn’t check to see if you had sent the email. My apologies. Wow, that was quick.

Yes, you’ve got the process, except for one thing. We would not have to send the age verification email at all. As it is now we cannot tell if someone clicked under 13 or not. We have to ask if they are so we can activate them. Under the proposed plan we would not be activating anyone, so someone who is under thirteen simply would not be activated. End of story. No verification email necessary.

We probably would need to check the memberlist periodically to see who hasn’t been activated, and possibly delete anyone who goes a certain time without activating themselves, since those people would be either a.) under age or b.) not have a valid email address.


Top
Profile Quote
truehobbit
Post subject:
Posted: Mon 18 Jul , 2005 12:17 am
WYSIWYG
Offline
 
Posts: 3228
Joined: Wed 27 Oct , 2004 6:37 pm
Location: wherever
 
Ah, good to hear about quillon! Thanks, areanor! :)

tinwe, I was just assuming that we need a majority - I haven't had time to ask Jny if that's true (oh, ok, I admit that, like Eru, I was busy reading Harry Potter :oops: ) - I had thought she'd probably read this thread and yell if I say something wrong.

We know that you and me like it, and that apart from Alatar, who is on holiday, everybody is aware of it, and nobody has said anything specifically against it - so I'm sure we'll have the necessary votes by tomorrow without a poll. ;)

_________________

From our key principles:

We listen to one another, make good-faith efforts to understand one another, and we treat one another respectfully at all times.


Top
Profile Quote
tinwe
Post subject:
Posted: Mon 18 Jul , 2005 2:12 am
Waiting for winter
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 2380
Joined: Fri 04 Mar , 2005 1:46 am
Location: Jr. High
 
Hobby,

I was joking about the poll ;)

Areanor, I noticed one other thing wrong in your post:
Areanor wrote:
So using the proposed changes it goes like this:

1. a person registers.

2a) the poster says "I'm over 13"
2b) the poster says "I'm under 13"

3) the poster shows as "New registered"

4a) over 13: the poster gets activation mail
4b) under 13: the poster doesn't get activation mail

5) we send the age verification mail

6) we get the reply and save it.

7) we set permissions for the groups and whenever the new member activates via activation mail, he/she can post since then.
Under the new system we would not add new members to the groups until after they have activated themselves. The reason is because adding them to groups sends out another automated email telling them they have been added. It would not be fair to send that email to under 13 registrants who are unable to activate themselves.

What we will have to do is check the User List in the Admin Panel to see if a new registrant is activated or not. If they are we then add them to the groups. If not, they don’t get added.

Everyone

It will make it easier to keep track of the status of new members if we have a list in here of who has been added to the groups, but I would suggest starting a new thread instead of using the one we have now. It will be easier, I think, to have the list in chronological order instead of alphabetical order. That way we can simply compare the list in the thread to the memberlist, without having to dig through all of the names to see if someone has been added. We also need to have a new post of instructions on how to process new members.

I say we lock and de-announce the existing thread and start a new one. I’ll be glad to get the new thread up.

Once we decide to do this, that is.


Top
Profile Quote
laureanna
Post subject:
Posted: Mon 18 Jul , 2005 4:16 am
Triathlete
Offline
 
Posts: 2711
Joined: Wed 26 Jan , 2005 2:08 am
Location: beachcombing
 
OK, how about this:

1. RangerA signs onto B77 on the 7th of August, and looks at "the newest registered user is ..." at the bottom of the index page, and notices that it is PosterE.

2. RangerA looks at the "new activations" list - a thread that Tinwe is about to start up, or might add as a third post to the "list new registrations here" thread. "New activations" list will be a single post, frequently edited, that looks something like this:

PosterA- noticed 02aug05, self activated 02aug05, permissions set by RangerB 02aug05
PosterB - noticed 03aug05, not self activated yet
PosterC - noticed 04aug05, self activated 05aug05, permissions set by RangerA 05aug05
PosterD - noticed 06aug05, not self activated yet.

3. RangerA signs into Admin panel and notes that PosterB is still not activated yet - probably because Poster B is under 13. After a few months, PosterB will be removed, if not still inactivated. PosterD is self- activated, and PosterE is, too.

4. Ranger changes the list to read as follows:

PosterA- noticed 02aug05, self activated 02aug05, permissions set by tinwe 02aug05
PosterB - noticed 03aug05, not self activated yet
PosterC - noticed 04aug05, self activated 05aug05, permissions set by eru 05aug05
PosterD - noticed 06aug05, self activated 07aug05, permissions set by Ranger 07aug05
PosterE - noticed 07aug05, self activated 07aug05, permissions set by Ranger 07aug 05


5. RangerA then goes and adds PosterD and PosterE to the "all_emailee" and "all_member" lists, and adds them to the "list new members here" thread.

6. The next time RangerA signs in, he notices that the "newest registered user" is still PosterE, so there is no reason to go checking up on anything.

_________________

Well, I'm back.


Top
Profile Quote
tinwe
Post subject:
Posted: Mon 18 Jul , 2005 5:17 am
Waiting for winter
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 2380
Joined: Fri 04 Mar , 2005 1:46 am
Location: Jr. High
 
Laureanna,

You posted while I was typing this up, but yes, that’s essentially what I was thinking of. :)


While looking through the old “List of new registrations” thread a few things became apparent to me.

1. The new process does not address how to deal with RP characters, but come to think of it, neither does the existing one. The only way to know if someone is an RP character is if they PM one of us or post in the registry thread in There and Back Again. I’ll admit, I haven’t been checking there, but there must be a better way. Any ideas?

2. The new process doesn’t guard against multiple screen names, but come to think of it, neither does the existing one ;). Won’t this new process make it easier for people to register multiple screen names?

3. The charter currently says that someone who registers with an invalid email address is to be restricted to the Bike Racks. I assume that the activation email will get bounced back to the b77 yahoo email account, so we will need to check there on a regular basis to see if we get returned mail. The confusion will come when we check the user list and see that the person is not activated. Without checking the email we may simply assume that person is underage.

Here is my proposal for the new “LIST OF NEW REGISTRANTS AND INSTRUCTIONS FOR PROCESSING” thread.
Quote:
LIST OF NEW REGISTRANTS AND INSTRUCTIONS FOR PROCESSING

This thread contains two posts. The first includes instructions for processing all new members and a complete list of new members. The second gives instructions on how to process RP characters.

Please be conscientious about updating this list. Your fellow Rangers will look here first to see what needs to be done about a new registration. Thanks!

The board is now set up so that newly registered members can activate themselves, however it is still necessary for the Rangers to add new members to the appropriate groups. A new member cannot post until their permissions have been set by adding them to the groups. Please follow these steps to ensure that new members are properly processed.

**********
Processing a new member:
  • 1. Rangers should check the memberlist on a regular basis to see if there are any newly registered members.

    2. If there is a new member please check this thread first to see if they have been processed. If their name is not on the list please add it, along with the join date, in the chronological order in which they joined, and proceed to step three.

    3. Go to the Admin panel and from the menu on the left choose “User List” under “User Admin”

    4. Check to see if the new member has been activated. Go to the last page of the user list and find the new registrant. The box on the right hand side of the name will tell if the registrant has activated themselves or not.

    Note: Do not activate anyone. They must do this themselves. This is the only way that we have to keep underage (13) registrants off of the board! If they have not activated, do not do anything

    5. If the new member has been activated, add them to the appropriate groups. (If this is an RP character, go to the second post in this thread.) Check the box to the left of the users name. Go to the bottom of the page and open the pull-down menu that says”select one”. Pick “add to group” and click “go”. Pick “All_Members” from the next menu and click “go”. This will set the permissions for the poster automatically. They will not be able to view the ToE forum.

    6. Repeat the process to add the member to the “All emailees” group.

    7. Return to this thread and, next to the persons name, note that they have been added to the groups, along with your name. If they are an RP character please say so next to their name.

    8. The Rangers should periodically check the b77 yahoo email account to see if there have been any returned emails from new registrants. This means they registered with an invalid email and are unable to activate themselves. If this happens please follow these steps:

    A. Go to the Admin panel and choose “Management” under User Admin on the left hand side

    B. Enter the user's name. On the page that appears, scroll down to the bottom administrator-only section. Next to "User is active," click "Yes." This sends an automatic welcome email to the user.

    C. Follow step #5 for adding the user to groups, except add them only to the Bike Racks group. This will restrict them to the Bike Racks forum and allow them to send and receive PM’s. Note your action in this thread next to the users name.

    D. PM the user to tell them that their posting rights will be restored as soon as they provide a valid email address.

    E. When the user has provided a valid email address, return them to the All_Members group and remove them from the BikeRacks group. Note your action next to their name in the list below.

By maintaining this list we hope to make it easier for Rangers to quickly check who has been added to the groups and who has not. Please check the list periodically and compare it to the user list in the admin panel to see if someone who was not previously activated has done so. Failure to activate could mean one of three things. Either the registrant is under 13, they provided an invalid email address or they have not yet activated themselves. The Rangers may wish to periodically purge the memberlist of registrants who have not activated themselves after <a period of time to be determined>.

List of activated users

example:
n00b77 joined 17 July 05.

n00b78 joined 18 July 05. Added to all members and all emailees group 18 July 05 by tinwe

n00b79 joined 19 July 05. Added to RP characters group 20 July 05 by tinwe

n00b80 joined 19 July 05. Returned email. Restricted to Bike Racks 21 July by tinwe.


I think it makes sense to post all of the new members in this list, including the RP characters, underage registrants and invalid email registrants, just so we can see at glance who has been processed and who has not.

Second post:
Quote:
RP characters:

These are role-play characters belonging to B77 members. They are restricted to posting in the “There and Back Again” forum.

What to do when you get the notification email:
  • 1. Verify that the person is an RP character—there is a sticky thread in “There and Back Again” where people can request them, or they can PM a Ranger.

    2. Check in the User List to confirm that the person has activated themselves.

    3. Check the box next to person’s name and pick “add to group” at the bottom of the page. Click on “go”.

    4. Select “RP characters” from the groups list and click on “go”.

    5. Finally, please add the RP character’s name, the member, and your name to the registry thread, in the correct alphabetical position.
This is essentially the same post that is in the existing thread.


Top
Profile Quote
truehobbit
Post subject:
Posted: Mon 18 Jul , 2005 11:21 am
WYSIWYG
Offline
 
Posts: 3228
Joined: Wed 27 Oct , 2004 6:37 pm
Location: wherever
 
Hmmmh, I like the all inclusive chronological list, but I think there are things to be said for a chronological as well as for an alphabetical list, so just adding a third post for chronological entries to the list we have might be a better idea, I think.
And replace the activation instructions with what you typed here.

We don't as yet have a way to verify whether someone is an RP character that the starter forgot to identify as such.

If someone lets their RP character be registered as a normal member, that's the same as starting an alternate ID!

So far we only got n00bs whose names we recognised from TORC, so I've been putting off realising a suggestion Alandriel made a while ago, but which I guess might now be useful: to make routine checks on user IP addresses! That way we could see whether two different IDs come from the same person. Doesn't work with those varying IP addresses some people use, though.
We might need a new thread in Sensitive info to keep track of that.

_________________

From our key principles:

We listen to one another, make good-faith efforts to understand one another, and we treat one another respectfully at all times.


Top
Profile Quote
tinwe
Post subject:
Posted: Mon 18 Jul , 2005 3:44 pm
Waiting for winter
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 2380
Joined: Fri 04 Mar , 2005 1:46 am
Location: Jr. High
 
truehobbit wrote:
Hmmmh, I like the all inclusive chronological list, but I think there are things to be said for a chronological as well as for an alphabetical list, so just adding a third post for chronological entries to the list we have might be a better idea, I think.
And replace the activation instructions with what you typed here.
I was just trying to simplify things :damnfunny

Seriously, I have no desire to keep up with two separate lists, and I think the chronological list will be easier to use then an alphabetical one. We shouldn’t abandon the existing list, but I don’t want to have to go back and reorganize the old names into the new list. Which is why I think we should just start over. Lock the old thread and start a new one with all the new registrants from this point onward.
truehobbit wrote:
We don't as yet have a way to verify whether someone is an RP character that the starter forgot to identify as such.

If someone lets their RP character be registered as a normal member, that's the same as starting an alternate ID!
The only way to maintain the RP characters is if people are honest and tell us about it in the registry thread. We can easily switch the groups after they let us know, but if they never tell us, we have no way of knowing.
truehobbit wrote:
So far we only got n00bs whose names we recognised from TORC, so I've been putting off realising a suggestion Alandriel made a while ago, but which I guess might now be useful: to make routine checks on user IP addresses! That way we could see whether two different IDs come from the same person. Doesn't work with those varying IP addresses some people use, though.
We might need a new thread in Sensitive info to keep track of that.
Now that really sounds like a hassle ;). But you’re right. This is the only way we have to screen for multiple screen names. Well, I was opposed to rule against multiple names to begin with, so I will have no enthusiasm for checking IP addresses. Not that I would anyway. :)


Top
Profile Quote
laureanna
Post subject:
Posted: Mon 18 Jul , 2005 4:07 pm
Triathlete
Offline
 
Posts: 2711
Joined: Wed 26 Jan , 2005 2:08 am
Location: beachcombing
 
Looks good to me Tinwe, except for the use of "they" and "their" as a singular. Call me old fashioned, but it still bothers me, despite its prevalence.

Hobbi - I really don't think we need to do even more lists. We do, after all, have the user list in the admin panel, that can be listed either alphabetically or chronologically. We do need Tinwe's list, though, in order to show what had been done to whom. We could even trim the older names off the list every few months, since we only care about the newest posters.

_________________

Well, I'm back.


Top
Profile Quote
tinwe
Post subject:
Posted: Mon 18 Jul , 2005 7:15 pm
Waiting for winter
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 2380
Joined: Fri 04 Mar , 2005 1:46 am
Location: Jr. High
 
laureanna wrote:
Looks good to me Tinwe, except for the use of "they" and "their" as a singular. Call me old fashioned, but it still bothers me, despite its prevalence.
I could change most of the references to plural, but not all. At some point I have to either use “they” or “him/her” and personally I can’t stand the hyphenated-multi-gender-singular. But, anyone is welcome to go back in and make corrections after it’s up. Won’t hurt my feelings at all :).

It seems as though we are in agreement about making the change to the board settings, but not about the list thread. The options are to start a new thread or re-use the existing one. I favor starting a new thread.

Anyone else?

I’ll be glad to make the changes to the board as soon as we settle this issue.


Top
Profile Quote
tinwe
Post subject:
Posted: Tue 19 Jul , 2005 1:08 am
Waiting for winter
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 2380
Joined: Fri 04 Mar , 2005 1:46 am
Location: Jr. High
 
After consulting the Mayor I have gone ahead and made the changes to the message board settings. We are now a member activated board.

I was going to log in using the Admistrator screen name to start a new thread here for the member list, but I seem to be suffering a rather unusual problem - I CAN’T LOG OUT! What’s up with that? Is anyone else having this problem?


Top
Profile Quote
truehobbit
Post subject:
Posted: Tue 19 Jul , 2005 12:48 pm
WYSIWYG
Offline
 
Posts: 3228
Joined: Wed 27 Oct , 2004 6:37 pm
Location: wherever
 
Good work, tinwe! So we needn't bother about the e-mails anymore, now, right? :D

And I guess you solved the problem of logging out? Because the thread is there now.

_________________

From our key principles:

We listen to one another, make good-faith efforts to understand one another, and we treat one another respectfully at all times.


Top
Profile Quote
tinwe
Post subject:
Posted: Tue 19 Jul , 2005 2:06 pm
Waiting for winter
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 2380
Joined: Fri 04 Mar , 2005 1:46 am
Location: Jr. High
 
Thanks Hobby, and thanks for coming up with the idea about changing the settings to user activation.

No. We do not need to worry about sending emails anymore, although there is still one person, RandomPasserby, who joined before the change was made who has not sent in a confirmation email, so we will need to check to see if they do.

And yes, I did finally manage to log out. I had to delete my cookies. It was the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen.


Top
Profile Quote
truehobbit
Post subject:
Posted: Tue 19 Jul , 2005 4:30 pm
WYSIWYG
Offline
 
Posts: 3228
Joined: Wed 27 Oct , 2004 6:37 pm
Location: wherever
 
*insert very pleased with herself looking smiley* ;) :D
Thanks! :)

Too many cookies preventing logout is really weird - must have been some of Anthy's cookies among them! ;)

_________________

From our key principles:

We listen to one another, make good-faith efforts to understand one another, and we treat one another respectfully at all times.


Top
Profile Quote
Display: Sort by: Direction:
Post Reply   Page 2 of 2  [ 38 posts ]
Return to “Business Room” | Jump to page « 1 2
Jump to: