Fedibridge

[email protected]

A lot of us are in tech and we come across these problems and just troubleshoot our way around them and don't really think about them, so I figured a "case study" might be helpful. ~~Image unrelated.~~

Anyway, yesterday I tried making an alt account on lemmy.world. When last we left the situation, I had been notified that my registration application had been denied, but I'd been asked to confirm my email and https://lemmy.world/u/sergio had been created. A couple helpful commenters suggested my account might still be under review.

• Today I tried logging in again. But when I entered my username and password, I got a popup that said "incorrect login credentials". Maybe I needed to verify my email again? I went to my email, clicked the "verify your email" link, and just got a page with text that said "verify email" and nothing else. Maybe it didn't like me using my username to log in? So I tried logging in with my EMAIL and my password, and still got that "incorrect login credentials".
• Maybe something's wrong with my password? I'm using a password manager but OK, let's just try changing my password. I clicked on the "forgot email" link on the login page. I entered my email address and clicked "reset password"... and nothing happens. No feedback, and I don't get an email. (10 minutes so far).
• maybe I should check https://lemmy.world/u/sergio ? Hey, that's no longer there, I just get an error! I check the user page of another lemmy.world user and it works, so it's not a server problem. Maybe my application really was denied? Was it really reviewed? What do I do now?

(my intuition is to try again with a different username, email address, computer, and browser from a different location at a different time of day...)

So I post a fair number of links to youtube videos on [email protected] and [email protected] and sometimes a couple of movie-related comms. Anyway, recently lemmy.world updated their server software and the way that they handle youtube thumbnails. So I wanted to check it out.

So I went to create an account on lemmy.world. So I entered my email info, and where it asked for an explanation I explained that this is [email protected] wanting to post to those communities.

• First of all, their captcha is really difficult. I could not figure out the first 3 that it presented so I kept hitting the icon to get a new one. The 4th one I thought I knew so I entered it.

• So I tried to log in and it said "did not verify email." OK, so I go to my email, find the link, click it and enter my password and it says "registration application denied"

I'm not complaining about either one. I don't really mind having a tough captcha if it keeps out bots. I guess I don't mind having my registration application denied, though I wish it told me why. Did I get the captcha wrong? Did I say something wrong in my application text? Should I try again later? Weirdly enough, https://lemmy.world/u/sergio does exist and it was created at the time that I signed up for that account.

Anyway, that's one example of the problems a new user can have trying to join lemmy.

I've noticed several Redditors over in r/Lemmy and r/LemmyMigration who are experiencing issues with email verification on signup.

Examples:

• I can't verify my email because the page doesn't give me a button to do so. The link from my email just takes me to a blank page
• Unable to log in, got verification email, but go to log in and get a "bad password" message. Not getting password reset emails either. Junk/spam folders have nothing.
• Email never showed
• Can't reset password
• Can't register

I see several people in helping out as best they can in the comments, but I think it would probably be better if the relevant instance admins could reach out directly.

What is the best way to do this?

In order to maximize the number of users who join Lemmy, I think it is important that we streamline the sign-up process as much as possible. It would be unfortunate to miss out on potential users due to email issues.