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Activation emails

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Activation emails

#31

Post by attack »

parker wrote: post #16

We've used a hard activation process previously, and only around 40% - 50% of people who signed up actually activated. Think about that ... over half of our users who spent the time getting to know the product enough to sign up didn't even get to use the site properly. Now that I think about it, I think it's crazy... and I'm not using any activation on my new site. If they got their email wrong during sign-up (an occ…

..Or half realized that a fake one wouldn't cut it and signed back up with their real email.

A while ago I put more rigorous user tracking on a site of mine and found that a very large percentage of the dead accounts where just duplicates from active users.

Re: Activation emails

#33

Post by mixmax »

joshwa wrote: post #29
mixmax wrote: post #3

Look at it from a business perspective: What do you gain from having an e-mail: - usually nothing, unless you send your users spam. What do you lose from having an e-mail: - around 10% of your potential customers. (the number probably varies wildly from site to site) - People who lose their password can't get into their account, unless they choose to provide an optional e-mail adress. To me that is a pretty clear cho…

The other legitimate use of email is for actual features that use email-- internal messaging, invitations, notifications, reminders, etc. All your users have it-- have you thought about when your users might like to be notified about new activity relating to them? (opt-in, of course)

You're absolutely right - this is a good reason for having a users e-mail. There are probably many others as well.

You just shouldn't request an obligatory email adress, or even worse a confirmation by email, unless you really have to. It tends to scare a lot of users away.

Re: Activation emails

#35

Post by jhrobert »

If activation mails were to get me back to where I was when I was REQUIRED to register, then I would find them less annoying.

Instead, they get me to some new windows, on some profile page. And when I get back to the original window, guess what? I have to "login"!

Dude, I just registered and now you want me to "login"?

Conclusion: Activation emails suck. At least the way they are implemented today.

BTW: When I enter my email address and password in a "login" form, please don't blame me "You are not registered", register me instead!

"login" + "register" = "login" -- There is no need for two actions.

Re: Activation emails

#37

Post by shiranaihito »

jhrobert wrote: post #35

If activation mails were to get me back to where I was when I was REQUIRED to register, then I would find them less annoying. Instead, they get me to some new windows, on some profile page. And when I get back to the original window, guess what? I have to "login"! Dude, I just registered and now you want me to "login"? Conclusion: Activation emails suck. At least the way they are implemented today. BTW: When I enter…

> BTW: When I enter my email address and password in a "login" form, please don't blame me "You are not registered", register me instead!

I had the exact same idea, but maybe registration should require a captcha too, so..

Re: Activation emails

#38

Post by huhtenberg »

kirubakaran wrote: post #5

People use Mailinator anyway so it is just one more airport TSA type annoyance that accomplishes nothing.

True. But if you ever run an online forum, you notice that junk comments are typically posted anonymously. Adding even a small hurdle cuts down the amount of junk by as much as 80-90%.

It is similar to the "crime of opportunity" in real life .. or a "heat of the moment" if you will. Make people pause or engage before posting and most of them change their minds about posting crap.

Re: Activation emails

#40

Post by huhtenberg »

mixmax wrote: post #3

Look at it from a business perspective: What do you gain from having an e-mail: - usually nothing, unless you send your users spam. What do you lose from having an e-mail: - around 10% of your potential customers. (the number probably varies wildly from site to site) - People who lose their password can't get into their account, unless they choose to provide an optional e-mail adress. To me that is a pretty clear cho…

An ability of directly communicating with your users has a very positive effect on a valuation of the company. One thing is when you have N million User IDs, and another - N millions emails.

Also if you are running a service with termed licensing, an email communication is how you drive the license renewal process. This sort of communication does not qualify as spam, because it is more of a service reminder rather than an unsolicited commercial offering.

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