Please fix registration

[antstar]

Dear forum admins,

This really wasn't supposed to be my first post, but things like this really really really annoy me.

OK, you have to ask questions to determine I'm not a bot. And thank you for at least highlighting which question I didn't answer with the response YOU EXPECTED. But then the form deleted my password fields and complained again. Please leave other fields intact. Reinputting information is perhaps the single most annoying thing in the world.

Thanks muchly

[Calahan]

Hi and welcome to the forums.

The registration process here is a little more arduous than in other places (but less arduous than others). IIUC many (most?) sites wipe the inputted data that is deemed security sensitive upon a failed registration, and again IIUC it's due to the risk of the secure connection being lost because of the failure. ie. the options are either annoy the person slightly by asking them to input their data again, or retain the data that may no longer be secure and risk that user id being compromised. Given those options I think it should be obvious why the former is chosen by many (all?) sites.

And irrespective of that, this forum uses third party software for its forum architecture. Which (again) is something that many (most) forums do because creating a reliable, robust, and secure forum (amongst other things) from scratch is a very time consuming task. Which is precisely why very few forum admins/sysop do it, and preferring to buy a license to use SuchAndSuch forum software instead. And in the case of Ludeon Studios, SuchAndSuch would be Simple Machines (which you can see in the footer of every page here).

So the decision to wipe the inputted data upon a failed registration is a decision made by the SMF software and not Ludeon Studios, plus I highly doubt there is any way the admins here could override this even if they wanted to. Which they wouldn't because it'd almost certainly invalidate their Simple Machines license. And as you should be able to conclude by now, it is Simple Machines that you need to direct your feedback towards in relation to changing how their software works. In that regard the footer contains links to the SM forums.


tl;dr - So in short, I'm sorry you had a bad experience during registration but you are posting your feedback in the wrong place because Ludeon Studios did not design the forum software this forum uses. Simple Machines did that, and Ludeon Studios just purchased a license to use their forum software. So any feedback regarding the forum software should be directed towards Simple Machines. Links for doing that can be found at the bottom (ie footer) of any page.

[BlackSmokeDMax]

Also, you are almost through with the hassle!

What is it, like 3 or 5 total posts, and then you'll stop seeing that I believe.

[antstar]

Hi and welcome to the forums.
.........
tl;dr - So in short, I'm sorry you had a bad experience during registration but you are posting your feedback in the wrong place because Ludeon Studios did not design the forum software this forum uses. Simple Machines did that, and Ludeon Studios just purchased a license to use their forum software. So any feedback regarding the forum software should be directed towards Simple Machines. Links for doing that can be found at the bottom (ie footer) of any page.

Fair enough... its just that I'm in France at the moment. Have you ever had to type in a password on an AZERTY keyboard, when you can't even see what you type??? The last several weeks has been one failed login after another for me :O

[Calahan]

Have you ever had to type in a password on an AZERTY keyboard, when you can't even see what you type???

From having had to use AZERTY keyboards many times before (as a QWERTY guy), I can certainly understand how that can make things a lot more annoying. Some forum software allows you the option to see the characters you've inputted instead of hiding them with ***. SMF doesn't allow that though, so in that regard that is certainly a suggestion that could / would improve the registration aspect of their forum software.

But then it's almost certain that idea has been suggested to Simple Machines already, since that sort of suggestion is comparable to Z-levels or Multiplayer suggestions for RimWorld (ie. It's simply bound to have been suggested already given how long SMF software has been around). So if they haven't implemented it by now then it's likely not on their list of plans.