

Ask HN: should you have users verify accounts through e-mail confirmation? - palidanx

I'd like to hear from the HN community what you think about the pro/con of a user having to verify a new user account on a website by clicking an e-mail verification.<p>So the workflow would be
+ go to website
+ create account
+ click e-mail confirmation
+ login
======
ColinWright
Multiple times I've had someone complete a registration, only to find that
they'd mistyped their own email address. Twice. Without their subsequent
"Where's my confirmation?" email I might not have known, and they might never
have completed their registration successfully.

It's a pain, but it's now reasonably familiar, and it serves a specific
purpose - confirming the email address.

If you can get accurate details from people without requiring the explicit
test of the explicit function then I'd be interested.

~~~
skrish
That is right. But you need to reduce friction in signup to allow user to
explore app.

So a better way could be Signup => Allow them in but say that email
confirmation is required for next login => Send email confirmation => Allow
login only with confirmation.

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27182818284
I think people reasonably expect it these days. I'm often comforted by it
because generally a site with it also has the correct lost password recoveries
by email, etc.

~~~
ScottWhigham
I love how this is downvoted b/c someone disagreed. Silly.

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a12b
It depends of your needs. If you plan to use their email (newsletters,
password recovering, ...), then that's very valuable to have a verified email.
But if you don't, I think you could go further by removing the email field
from the signup form.

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koopajah
You also could allow the user to create an account and access the website
directly but remind him that he needs to verify its email address. Of course
it depends on your website and what you are offering, but allowing user to
access your application as fast as possible should be a good idea.

Take the example of twitter which allows you to create an account and start
using it without the verification. But it reminds you to verify the email
everytime you log in.

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pseudorocker
We've found it's easiest to just ask for email adress twice in the initial
form (and try to prevent pasting for the second field). Works pretty darn
well. Email confirmation is a hassle to build and often for users to act on,
from our experience.

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pasbesoin
When a company does _not_ use or correctly use email confirmation [1], and I
start subsequently receiving emails regarding an account I never set up, I
consider that a form of abuse on the part of the company.

Please confirm the email addresses of your users.

\--

[1] And I've had more than one major player boggle the latter.

