At his blog today, Ben Langhinrichs
posted some concerns with the registration system at BleedYellow. I have replied at his blog but would also like other users of this site to see those answers as well.
Following is my reply at his site (his questions are italicized).
All, on the main www.bleedyellow.com website there is a link for you to click if you "Forgot your password".
1) Most web based systems that require a login to comment tell you so near the "Add a Comment" rather than simply leaving it inactive. I clicked on "Add a Comment" on Scott Hook's blog and it didn't work, so I came to the erroneous conclusion that comments were blocked. There should be a parenthetical (You must be logged in) or something like that.
1 - We have asked IBM since December, 2007 to allow unauthenticated comments for Lotus Connections. We're with you on this.
2) Many web based systems that require a login have a dual Register/Log In page. When you go to log in with Connections (because I am fairly sure this part is generic Connections), there is no option to register.
2 - We have a "Register" link at the top of EVERY Lotus Connections page on the site. We want people to register and we want it to be simple to register. But we could look into adding a registration link on the login pages. (see 4 below)
3) When I went to register and it found my name, there was no option to simply log in with it. This is less common, but very useful.
3 - We request that you use your email address. It's how pretty much all websites these days work (like Facebook, LinkedIn), so that's what we figure is the best way to do this.
4) This is the most annoying issue. When you attempt to log in, and your password doesn't work, there should be some indication about how to either retrieve or reset your password.
4 - Thank you for the suggestion. That would require modifications to some Lotus Connections js files that we haven't done.
5) Finally, when I go back to the BleedYellow confirmation, and follow the original link, instead of a link directly to my profile, there is a long to a search place from which I can search for my profile. Why? You know my profile name, so why would you want me to search for it again?
5 - Not sure I'm following you - I believe the older registration emails took you to where you are supposed to login to "My Profile". The registration system had some changes in the past and it doesn't do that any longer.
6) Back to the confirmation letter, which has the line "You MUST login with the e-mail address that you provided at registration." which seems to contradict the registration page, which clearly says "Your username will be composed of your First Name + Middle Initial (if entered) + Last name." The first seems to indicate I should use my email address as my username, but the second that I should use "Ben Langhinrichs"
6 - The registration page states that "You will login with this email address." All of these changes were in prior to Lotusphere 2009.
We don't check for duplicate email addresses at this point. I believe the registration probably went through but now the system is confused because there are two accounts with the same email address. We will take this into consideration. Feel free to post a request at http://wisdom.bleedyellow.com.
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