Should I implement email verification during sign up? • Hacker News Board

Re: Should I implement email verification during sign up?

#11

Post by OldSamaritan » Thu, Apr 29, 2021, 5:37 AM UTC

randomlurking wrote: post #9

OldSamaritan wrote: post #8

Instead of verification, you could use the emailaddress as a login-method. Don't use passwords, but let the users login by email, sending a mail with a time-limited authentication-token and make them login that way. That way you don't have to deal with passwords, and you will know the user has a mailbox which they control.

I’ve thought about this method. I think this is what should be done for sites where you log in very infrequent (say, yearly). Do you know of any examples where this is implemented?

https://medium.com uses it. And I'm working on a little project myself which will use this way of login.

About the frequency: there aren't many situations where a user has access to your application, but not to email. I've been thinking about that, but when you have access to a browser, (most of the times) you have access to your mail.

Re: Should I implement email verification during sign up?

#12

Post by sanmak » Thu, Apr 29, 2021, 7:29 AM UTC

I'll suggest to definitely do it and prevent from Spam/Junk logins. I'm also doing that in my app right now.

Re: Should I implement email verification during sign up?

#13

Post by readonthegoapp » Thu, Apr 29, 2021, 8:26 AM UTC

arkitaip wrote: post #2

Please do. I hate getting transactional email intended for someone else because the devs don't verify email addresses. It doesn't even mean you have to do verification early in the onboarding process, but definitely before you start sending any email.

This actually sounds like a good solution.

That is, you want to allow people to stroll in and start using your app.

Great.

But just don't send out any emails on their behalf unless/until they've clicked the verification link in the one email you will send to them.

This makes me think - should there be a link in the email that says, "This was not me" -- that allows the website dev to ban the offending IP?

Re: Should I implement email verification during sign up?

#14

Post by arkitaip » Thu, Apr 29, 2021, 8:58 AM UTC

readonthegoapp wrote: post #13

arkitaip wrote: post #2

Please do. I hate getting transactional email intended for someone else because the devs don't verify email addresses. It doesn't even mean you have to do verification early in the onboarding process, but definitely before you start sending any email.

This actually sounds like a good solution. That is, you want to allow people to stroll in and start using your app. Great. But just don't send out any emails on their behalf unless/until they've clicked the verification link in the one email you will send to them. This makes me think - should there be a link in the email that says, "This was not me" -- that allows the website dev to ban the offending IP?

> This makes me think - should there be a link in the email that says, "This was not me" -- that allows the website dev to ban the offending IP?

Maybe not ban the IP but definitely remove the email from the account (after a confirmation CTA). Some services do this and if I known them I hit the link.

Re: Should I implement email verification during sign up?

#15

Post by dmarlow » Thu, Apr 29, 2021, 2:13 PM UTC

arkitaip wrote: post #2

Please do. I hate getting transactional email intended for someone else because the devs don't verify email addresses. It doesn't even mean you have to do verification early in the onboarding process, but definitely before you start sending any email.

The best is when these transactional emails don't have a way to unsubscribe (thanks Comcast).

Re: Should I implement email verification during sign up?

#16

Post by skinnymuch » Thu, Apr 29, 2021, 3:13 PM UTC

OldSamaritan wrote: post #8

Instead of verification, you could use the emailaddress as a login-method. Don't use passwords, but let the users login by email, sending a mail with a time-limited authentication-token and make them login that way. That way you don't have to deal with passwords, and you will know the user has a mailbox which they control.

I despise this method. I rarely have such a negative instinctive take on minor tech things. The annoyance of having to click an email link though does it for me.

Re: Should I implement email verification during sign up?

#17

Post by CinematicStudio » Thu, Apr 29, 2021, 7:47 PM UTC

As someone who's about to implement this myself (for a long time, while in beta, I allowed users to skip typing their email), I can tell you this: some of the feedback you will get will be much more polite if people know you can reply back.

Just my $.02.