Forum Moderators: phranque
It seems to be one of those things that's been done for so long, I've forgotten how to make a good argument -for- it, and only see it as more of an annoyance than something of practical value.
With so many free email providers, what is the benefit that either my business gains or a user of the site gains by including an extra step to 'confirm' an email account? In fact, the only thing that's confirmed is that, "yes, you have an email account"- not very helpful in the overall scheme of securing our website or providing a better user experience.
While it can catch if you mis-type your email address on signup and provide a headaches, more and more people are using automatic form-filling add-ins for their internet browser, so their email, name, etc. are filled in automatically on signup forms in sites they visit.
I believe time is short for most people and although it is a familiar task, answering a confirmation email is just one more step that is unnecessary and adds to user frustration. In terms of security, I have numerous techniques in place, and do very well with the current strategy.
With new AJAX forms, simple typos can be caught quickly and thus erroneous email inputs reduced. I'd personally rather have two email inputs (like the standard double password sequence), that must match. A form-filler program would make this even simpler..
Opinions?
It's also not just about validating that a user has entered their email address correctly, it also validates that mail can and does actually reach them at that address.
we view email accounts as being meaningless in terms of security verification
I agree with that. I don't think it's actually still in use for that reason though.
TJ
