Helping Users with Email Address Changes
A site Administrator asked: Is there an easier way to change people's addresses? Often my group members say that they are unable to change their own address because they cannot remember their user ID and/or password. I usually remove the user from all of their groups, and then re-add them. If I could see their email addresses I could just change them when they request it. Also when they have two or more usercodes (because of the above system I am using) when they want to change them again next time because the 'old' usercode is not removed when I remove them, I have difficulty trying to figure out which one I am change. If your internal rules means I cannot change addresses then when they are removed from the group, can you please remove their 'old' usercode also. Self-helping Users
------------------
The best way for your group members to maintain their email addresses is
to do it themselves.
Unfortunately, administrators can not change the email addresses of
group members. This is because there are security problems with this
that we have not yet resolved.
Logging In
----------
There is no need for a user to remember a user ID as they log in with
their email address -- they should know this as it is the thing they are
trying to change.
If a user has lost their password, they can use the password reset
system to get a new one. This does, however does require that the user
can access their old email address.
If the user can access their old email address, and they log in and
change their own email settings, everyone wins.
- the user gets:
- their email address changed
- a chance to update their profile, and
their other settings
- more familiar with the web ui, where they
may prefer to read or make posts
- the admin gets self-helping users
User Can not Access their old Address
-------------------------------------
If the user can no longer access their old email address, things get a
bit more difficult.
As a site or group admin, you have two options:
1 ignore the old profile and invite the
user to set up a new one
2 ask us at <email obscured>> to
add the new address to the old profile
Often, the user takes option 1 on their own. In this case, or sometimes
for other reasons, the user ends up with two profiles. If the old
profile simply becomes inactive, this is not too much of a problem. If
the email address starts bouncing, the status of that address will
become "unverified". The Manage Members page shows this.
User With Two Profiles
----------------------
If the user is able to access both of their profiles, things can get
confusing, as the profiles may not have the same group memberships. This
often causes questions such as "I am logged in but getting a 'permission
denied' error on this page".
The ideal process in this case is as follows:
- choose one profile to retire and one to maintain
- give the maintained profile the current email address/es
In order to do this, it may be necessary to remove an address from the
old profile but the old profile will need to have at least one verified
address. There are two ways to achieve this:
1 the user adds a little-used spare address to the old profile
2 ask us at <email obscured>> to retire
the old profile
Again, the user the best person to carry out this process. Firstly, they
are the one motivated to make the change. Secondly, it is easy for the
user to figure out which email addresses are associated with which
profile, as they can log in and access them.
Despite this, the user may still struggle to understand what is
required. That is where you as admin can help.
In rare cases, the user has made posts from more than one profile. In
this case, if the posts are important to the user, let us know. We may
be able to help.
Dan
--
@danrandow +64-27-431-4928 +64-3-377-5377
Chief Wrangler http://onlinegroups.net
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