[thelist] Asking for email address twice

[Bill Moseley]

On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 01:10:58PM -0600, Jack Timmons wrote:
> I would say that it inherently prevent from typos unless they do it twice in
> a row, in which case it's their own fault.

Maybe asking them to type it three or four times would really drive
the point? ;)

I'm a cut-n-paste person, too.  I'm also really good at typing the
same mistake multiple times.

> My question would be whether or not your typical confirmation pages are
> helpful, since most are structured in a format that doesn't get people to
> actually confirm the information. I'm only sort of doing so with my current
> website, namely because the producers are more concerned that it get done on
> time.

Again, my preference is to ask for the email once and then send a
confirmation (which provides either a one-time password or a URL to
confirm the registration (or whatever).  But, today I came up with the
situation where I need to complete the process before I can confirm
the email.

Anyway, it's something to debate, but without a real study there's
probably no proof what effect entering the address twice has.
Maybe I should randomly ask for one or two email addresses and publish
the results. ;)

-- 
Bill Moseley
moseley at hank.org
Sent from my iMutt