Registration woes, More difficult than it should be Options

[Claude]

The pinned thread "Important! New rules and regulations" states "From today, anyone who has registered will be able to post their thoughts and views straight on to the new forum".

Great, I thought, as I registered then validated my e-mail address.

I tried to post but was faced with an error message. Not to worry, I'll wait until tomorrow, perhaps things update overnight.

Tomorrow came and still my posting privileges were denied. OK, I'll read the Help content and see if something becomes more clear. Alas, no joy.

I tried to contact a moderator via PM, however, this action was also unauthorised, resulting in the same error.

As a last resort I clicked on the Contact an Administrator link, which generated an e-mail to the address donotreply@... No surprises it was bounced back. Grrrr.

I called the NWN switchboard for advice was eventually put through to a very helpful gent called Martin, who approved my posting rights.

Perhaps my experiences could be used to improve the registration process:
- Re-word the pinned thread and mention the fact that you can't post until your registration has been validated and approved
- Ensure the Contact an Administrator link provides a valid e-mail address

Hopefully these comments will be seen as constructive and some good can come as a result.

[Simon Kirby]

Dear Admin

Is it really this hard to create an account? This Forum is an incredibly valuable platform in a town that is hostile to free-speech, and personally I would just love to see this forum thrive. It's difficult enough encouraging Newburians to join up and express themselves, so I'd hope that the registration process was as simple as possible. The other place is moribund, and we've been pretty quiet around here lately too, so would it be possible to look at Claude's experience and see if anything can be done to make it easier to register, because it would be dire if the NewburyToday forum dwindled to nothing as well. Maybe you could promote the forum in the paper a bit more too, maybe drum up a few more forumistas for us?

Thanks.