Improve email communications for registration process for wordpress.org profile

[00travelgirl00]

Comment

I wanted to onboard a collegue into the wordpress make slack, but the first step (to register at wordpress.org) was already a barrier.

1. she could not find on her own, where to register at wordpress.org, as the links are not visible and the homepage
2. She did not got a conformation mail at first. After 1 day couple hours she got a message, were the first phrase was: "You don't need an account here". (I will add the whole content later)
3. she has to write back and explain, why she would like to have an account at wordpress.org

This seems like a big barrier and is not really encouraging to go further in this process. I would suggest, to make this much easier and add the information, for what you need an wordpress.org account and for what you don't need an account at the register page.

While I understand the intention, I think this could be a big turn of for potential new contributors, espacially, if there don't have connections yet into the WordPress Community.

Also reladet: #167 and #169

[00travelgirl00]

This is the message:

While you are asking about having an account approved on WordPress.org, there's a strong possibility you actually don't need an account here.

We know this email is long but please read the entire message. It has important information and directions for you. If you do not follow the directions, it will greatly delay our ability to help you.

Why This Happened

Due to a massive uptick in both spam and people making accounts they realize they didn't need (and thus demanding they be deleted) we have instituted new checks for accounts.

This often results in a new account being flagged in a peculiar situation where it is half-approved, resulting in the issue that you see, where you cannot create a password.

We understand this can be confusing, but you do not need an account on WordPress.org in order to setup your own site. Everyone is free to download WordPress from our domain, all the plugins and all the themes, without making an account. You can just download now and go :) We promise.

If, after you've begun making your site, you need help debugging or using plugins or themes, then you would want to make an account, but most people don't need it right away.

If you're making an account for a class or course, please double check that you actually need an account! You will NOT need one to download themes or plugins (or WordPress itself) and most classes do not have any use for your account here.

Why you DO NOT need an account here

If you are trying to do any of the following things, you DO NOT need an account on WordPress.org:

• Download WordPress or any themes or plugins
• Install WordPress on your own server
• Host your website
• To log in to a website (like your own blog)
• To reset your password on another website
• To connect your website to Jetpack
• To log in to WordPress.com

If any of those are the case, you can just ignore this email. We will automatically clean up your account in 2 weeks. Don't worry about it at all.

Why you MIGHT need an account

There are, of course, some reasons people do need accounts:

• To ask for help on specific WordPress related questions in our forums
• To participate in the learn.wordpress.org quizzes
• To host your original plugins or themes for public use
• To actively contribute to WordPress core

If any of these are the case, please reply to this email and explain the following:

1. What you plan to use the account for
2. What question (if any) you intend to post on the forums/trac/github
3. What plugin/theme (if any) you intend to create

We know this sounds weirdly intrusive, but we've found that asking people this ahead of time saves users from frustration and anger down the line.

WordPress.org vs your WordPress Install

Your website will be running a piece of software called WordPress. This software is free and open source, and it runs on your own servers or web hosting account.

WordPress.org is where we support and develop this software. However, WordPress.org is a separate site and is not connected to yours at all. Your username and password on your site will not work on WordPress.org, which is where we have our site and support forums. Our logins are different from your logins.

[Otto42]

That is the fairly standard response that is sent out when people ask about registration without giving us any real information.

Basically, when account creation gets halted due to looking like spam, then that email is sent usually as a first response to them. As you can see, it has three questions at the bottom, and if they even attempt to answer those questions, then the very next response they get is: your account has been created, and you're get an email shortly.

However, this rarely happens. It only happens when they fill in something that looks like spam, to a robot. And usually it's more helpful than it is harmful, because people will respond thinking that they needed a wordpress.org account to create a website, or trying to log into their own website, or something like that. Something where they did not actually need an account. Having this standard response aids that process immensely because it explains exactly what's going on.

By the way I know who you're talking about, because I personally handled this earlier this morning. Her response made sense, and her account was created shortly thereafter. No fuss, no muss.

[sereedmedia]

Even though this is a known and intended process, I think we can provide two upgrades here:

1. Clearer language on the signup page itself about the process
2. Some copy revision on the email that goes out.

[Otto42]

It should be noted that this is only when their registration gets caught by the spam catcher. Not every registration does. The vast majority of them go through automatically with no problem.

[00travelgirl00]

@Otto42 is there a way to register somewhere to provide more information? As far as I see, you can only register and give the information for mail and username.

This respond also needed around 1 day to send out. If this would be a faster respond time, that would be better.

Also I found this mail way to long to read and I don't know if I would feel incouraged to go further in the process, if I would not have any access-point into the WordPress community.

[00travelgirl00]

It should be noted that this is only when their registration gets caught by the spam catcher. Not every registration does. The vast majority of them go through automatically with no problem.

ah okay. I thought that is tthe default for everyone.

[Ipstenu]

is there a way to register somewhere to provide more information? As far as I see, you can only register and give the information for mail and username.

There's a second page, and that's where people tend to put in things that are out and out spam. So it's a 'half-approved' account that got caught by something they put in the initial profile (physical addresses/phone numbers, specific words that are used by spammers like 'casino', etc).

This respond also needed around 1 day to send out. If this would be a faster respond time, that would be better.

That's not realistic at all. "Faster" response by volunteers isn't a reasonable ask.

[00travelgirl00]

That's not realistic at all. "Faster" response by volunteers isn't a reasonable ask.

Originally I thought its an automatic process and we were wondering why there is no mail. If it is approved by hand, it makes sense

[00travelgirl00]

@Ipstenu which one is the second page to register?

[Otto42]

@Otto42 is there a way to register somewhere to provide more information? As far as I see, you can only register and give the information for mail and username.

Actually, when you create a account, it sends you an email, and then you click the email to verify it and fill in information like your URL and other things like that.

This respond also needed around 1 day to send out. If this would be a faster respond time, that would be better.

No, it did not. Her email was sent 9 hours ago, and it was responded to by me 7 hours ago. She responded to that two hours ago and I created her account and had it working within about a minute. The following email was a "thank you for letting us know, your account has been created."

Also I found this mail way to long to read and I don't know if I would feel incouraged to go further in the process, if I would not have any access-point into the WordPress community.

You're free to suggest improvements to that email. If you can make it short enough for people that to get that information and actually read the damn thing, I would say it'd be a good improvement.

[00travelgirl00]

@Otto42 okay, thanks for the insights. I think she did not got the mail to verify. But of course I have a delay, of the responds from her. We were just confused, that it was so complicated and thought that this is the default process to register to wordpress.org.

I will have a look at the mail, to make it shorter. Thanks for your fast responds.

[Otto42]

By the way, her registration is still pending because she hasn't clicked the automated email yet. I clicked resend on it just to make sure she got it, but tell her to check her spam.

[00travelgirl00]

@Otto42 I have asked her again and also updated the 1 day. sorry for the wring timeline, I did not ment to be mean.

[Otto42]

@Ipstenu which one is the second page to register?

OK let me out line out the process for you.

1. They register, put in a user name and email.
2. They get an email automatically to verify their email.
3. When they click the link in that email, it takes into a page where they can put in their information such as URL, location, occupation, interests, standard stuff.
4. This is where the spam catcher really takes over and potentially can hold up a registration. If the spam catcher doesn't stop it, then they get another email to put in a password. From there, they're registered, it's fully automatic.
5. If the spam catcher stops it then they email the password resets and ask what's up? That is a fully human intervention. That's not an automatic email, although we do use standard form type emails for such things.

[sereedmedia]

This is not an issue of whether or not the spam email should be there. It should. No changes needed on that.

However, we can improve the communications for the small percentage of real humans who do get caught in the filter.

[sereedmedia]

Here is a doc where we can create recommended copy. I've made some structural recommendations to start. If you agree with those recommendations, please comment on the suggestion, so that we can close things out as we go.

Notes:

• Please input all edits as SUGGESTIONS in the Working Copy section
• The Current Copy that is included first should remain unedited for intent and comprehension comparison purposes

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oQZzS4VkdC5orvKdHGDWKj73qPkEOUfWpDk8iz6ETnM/edit?usp=sharing

[Otto42]

For reference, we use a lot of these types of replies And because we do it all in Helpscout, we have actual statistics.

For example, here's the top six replies last week.

Reply: Don't need a forum account		98	49%
Reply: This is Not An Automated Email		43	22%
Reply: No pending account for your email	13	7%
Reply: Can't reset passwords on your domain	12	6%
Approved: Account was caught in our spam traps 	10	5%
Approved: Actually does need an account		6	3%

Now, most of those are not first time replies. For example, if we send the "don't need a forum account" to somebody, and they respond, then they will get the "actually does need an account" response. Or more likely, the "can't reset on your domain" and things like that. We have 20-odd pre-made responses for the different situations that crop up.

Edit: That would be out of 191 new conversations last week. For reference, there were approximately 6000 user registrations that went through just fine.

[abhansnuk]

Hello, I have added some comments to the google doc. Can I also suggest adding an update to the top of this ticket to make clearer that this email response text is for a limited number of account creators whose account application is caught by the spam filter, and the solution being explored is to improve further the email communication for rare instances. This would also help it be shared in the marketing meeting itself more effectively. Perhaps also maybe tweaking the title of the ticket a bit more from the update Se has already done. It is great that the actual issue has been identified and its context appears on this issue. Updating the copy can be a good iteration on the existing needed email and help both the Meta team and a user inadvertently caught in the spam filter too.

[JosVelasco]

Hi, we probably need to open a new issue, but I wanted to add my comment here to see what you think.

Having the register/login links everywhere, including the WordPress.org homepage, would bring new contributors and consistency.

I know this could lead to people registering thinking they need an account for their website, but this could be solved by adding more information to https://login.wordpress.org/register explaining why you would need a WP.org account.