I have just uploaded our class list. When a new classmate visits the site, they can not create an account - going to the list of names and then clicking on their name does nothing. What am I missing or did wrong?

After clicking their own name, look at the bottom of the screen. There is a place on the bottom of each Classmate's Profile for them to join your site.

I have had similar problem. As Site Admin, I couldn't see what a classmate would see when she logged in for the first time, so I logged in as a first timer and clicked the name of a friend, created her profile and copied each page. Now when class member have a problem, I know what to tell them.
It would be helpful if the first page that just says "Thank you! Please click here to continue" had brief instructions as to where this was taking her. When you click to continue, the Classmates Profile comes up with no instructions to tell her to click on her name to create her profile. I think they can get distracted by the menu on the left side and start browsing the site instead of continuing with the wizard.
The rest of the Wizard is pretty user friendly. This is a great site that just needs a little tweaking here and there.
Thanks Class Creator!

Actually that would be impossible, because during the member wizard we hide the entire left navigation. In fact that's precisely why we do it -- so people don't get distracted and not finish the wizard. Once you're in the new account signup process, there is absolutely nothing else you can do other than finish that process.

I'm going to go in and do some things to make it even more clear where to sign up for the site. For instance I'm going to add a brief blurb on the bottom of the Classmate Profiles page. And I'm going to make the signup area on the Classmate's Profile itself clearer. We've already got something in the home page login box that directs new users to go to their own names and click on them, but that's not always enough. There are also 2 things you can do as the Administrator to make it clearer:

1) Tell people in your initial email inviting Classmatse to your site that they need to go to their own name and click on it to sign up.

2) Put these same instructions in the body area of your home page.

Although generally people do not have trouble figuring out how to sign up for the site, the more we both do to make it abundantly clear, the better.

Hi Brad, I don't know why but I went in again as a new user just to see if I was imagining things and sure enough the Classmate Profiles list came up with the side panel. As you see we're celebrating the 50th anniversary of our Graduation so most of my classmates are not very computer literate beyond doing email and they sometimes have problems with that. I have only published the site to a few to get out the kinks before publishing to the entire class and one ran into a problem accessing the registration form and I think it was because she didn't click on her name but went right to the Reunion page after logging in.
Sorry to be such a pain and thank you for doing the fixes and for being so responsive.

Yes, on your Class List page your Classmates would have your full left hand navigation. But the entire left side links are hidden during the member wizard (the signup process) itself. I'm obviously still missing something here. After successfully signing up for your site, your Classmates would then have the left hand links available everywhere they go.

Oh by the way, since you also have those exact same group of left links available, you can see everything just like your Classmates are viewing it too.

General rule of the link groupings:

1) The top block of links are what the public can see.

2) The second block of links are what your Classmates see (and you can also see, as you are a Classmate as well as the Administrator)

3) The third block of links only Administrators can see.

By clicking on the first, second, or third group of links, you can see anything just like anybody else would be seeing it. Hope that makes sense.

Brad,

Is there anyway to have the invite that is sent out to the classmates tell them that they should go to their name on the classmates list?

Right now it only reads....

The (Name of School Class of XXXX has a web site located at http://www.com.
You have been invited by a fellow classmate. Please join us and reunite with your Classmates!

Maybe if in this invite it gives them clearer directions from the original email it would help not only the classmate but also keep from having to do all the duplicate work.

When will we be able to customize the wording on our invite ourselves to since we each have our own ways of doing things on our sites?

I for instance have the classmate profiles password protected because of all the privacy issues I have been having and I have my classmates use the missing page to make their profile so that the general public cannot see who has made a profile and who is or is not going to the reunion. Underneath the log in box it tells them to go to the classmate profiles page which generates a lot of emails from people saying they need a password to make a profile because they can't seem to read the home page where I give them instruction on going to the missing page because they read your instructions first and then get frustrated. Will there also be a way to have this read either go to the classmate profiles page or the missing classmate page?

Answers:

1) I'll make the directions in the auto invite clearer, sure. Good idea.

2) When the new Preferences area is live. I believe you're in the thread about the new Preferences area, but for anybody who hasn't seen it, the thread is here. A couple major things are still ahead of the new Preferences area.

3) The Missing Classmates page was never intended to be where people join the site. Having 2 places to join makes it more confusing than 1 I think. Everything throughout the site guides people to the Classmate Profiles page to join. The vast majority of sites out there do not password protect their Classmates Profiles page, as there is no confidential information on that page except for names alone, and each Classmate already has the ability to restrict his or her Profile to viewing only by fellow Classmates. If you want to guide people to Missing Classmates as a way of joining your site you can certainly do that, but you'll have to do it in your own outgoing emails and/or home page directions as you're doing now. Administrators with password protected Classmate Profiles pages generally give out the system password to get in. That's the way it was designed to work. Don't forget many Administrators change the criteria for what constitutes a Missing Classmate. If somebody has not joined the site at all, and an Administrator changes the critera for what constitutes a Missing Classmate, the non site member may not even show up on the Missing Classmates list at all -- another reason we can't put in our instructions to go to the Missing Classmates page to join the site. It's just not intended as a joining place. With the criteria you have personally set for Missing Classmates it's clearly working for you though. Unless you want to unpassword protect your Classmate Profiles page, then I'd say keep doing exactly what you're doing.

Brad Switzer wrote:

The only reason why I am having to do this is because it does list who is and is not going to be attending the reunion and some of the classmates are concerned about strangers and also estranged exes knowing where and when they will be on a certain date.

There is no way to give out a system password to new classmates that finds the site by stumbling across the website on their own. Yes when I send out an invite to a classmate this is possible but when I send an email to a classmate I give specific instructions for them on how to make their profile.

I will just continue on as I am. Having to get the emails from the classmates who don't read the instructions I have put before them on how to get their profile and then explain to them that they need to go to the missing page is worth the inconvenience to me if it means that it gives my classmates the added privacy that they expect and deserve. I would rather do that than lose more classmates because they don't feel safe on the website.

T

What typically happens if an Administrator password protects the Clasmate Profiles page, then a Classmate out of the blue finds the site and has no way of getting in because they never got an invite with the system password to access the password-protected Classmate Profiles page, they just email the Administrator right on the very same page that advises them they cannot get in. The Admin then emails the Classmate back with the system password. This is really not a very difficult process and I've never heard of even 1 school who's password protecting their Classmate Profiles page having a problem with this. Sure, it's 1 added step, but there are tradeoffs for having a higher level of security.

Your personal Missing Classmates criteria is allowing you to circumvent this extra step by guiding non members to that page to join, which is actually pretty creative on your part. I never even thought of this possibilty until you told me you were doing it. In fact to date you're the only one I know of who's doing it.

Hey Brad, I'm sorry to beleague this subject but please let me try to clarify, as yes, I think you're missing something, but only because I probably have not explained it clearly enough.
Yes, the left links are hidden during the wizard which starts after they click on their name on the class list. The one that comes up after they enter their password for the first time, then click on "Thank You, please click here to continue". They then need to click on their names to enter the wizard, but this is the page that has the link to the other pages and with no instruction to click on their name they, or my test subject did, see the links on the side panel listing slideshow etc and went directly to browsing without clicking on her name. When she clicked on the Reunion page she got a message that she has to log in to register for the reunion, but since she had not clicked on her name and created her profile, the site did not recognise her when she logged in as a returning user. Or I assume that's why. In addition she could only see the first set of links, not the member functions section, and so didn't have a log out link and couldn't get back to the log in page. I had to send her a link. At the time I didn't know how to tell her to fix it but as I said I went in as a new user and was able to figure out the problem and have told her how to fix it but she hasn't done so yet.
So my suggestion to fix this problem is just to include instructions to click on their names to create their profile and maybe explain why it's important for them to do this, and put this at the top of the page with the initial list of names, not the bottom.
I also plan to include directions in the email when I go live with the rest of the class.
Incidentally another of my test subject was able to do it correctly without any problems, so it's a 50/50 chance of someone messing up.
Thanks for your time and again I apologise for being pesky about this.

Ok, i GET IT finally... You've got your entire home page password protected, which less than 1% of people do. I should have started there, I'm just used to so very few people doing that, that it didn't occur to me to look there first. There is certainly nothing wrong with password protecting your home page if that's what you want to do, but it definitely makes things far harder for your Classmates when initially trying to join your site.

Ok, here's the deal: You are making non members come into your home page and get in with your system password which you're providing to them in advance. Normally people don't have to enter a password to get to see your home page -- thus some Classmates might have the false sense that they're officially "logged in" to something even though they have only entered a "barrier password" to get beyond the first hurdle. Then they're confused that they can't do anything on the site or see restricted Classmate Profiles, etc.

In light of the fact that you are password protecting your home page, when you tell people to access your site using your system password initially, you need to be extremely clear with them what they need to do next. I.E. that they need to go to the Classmate Profiles page, click on their own name, and actually sign up for your site. Once they've done this they can now log in with their own user name and password -- in fact they SHOULD do this for now on, and should no longer use the system password that got them past the initial hurdle.

Also with your home page being password protected, I would definitely put some specific directions right on your home page itself so once people reach it after inputting your system password they'll know what to do next. Also tell people in your initial blast email to go to the Classmate Profiles page and click on their own name to sign up. You need to explain that the initial password you are giving to them is nothing but a security barrier password, and that they need to get a REAL, UNIQUE password for their own account next. Your emails to your Classmates, and your home page verbiage, are the very best ways to do this.

Note, we can't hide the left links on the Classmate Profiles page, as that's the page people visit more than any other part of the site by far, and they do this many times long after the initial signup process is over. Hiding those links might have a small impact on "signupability" early on, but the long term effect would be a big drain on usability -- it's generally not a good idea to hide navigational links that people come to expect to be present.

Overall people have little trouble figuring out how/where to sign up for the site. Although in your particular case with your home page being password protected, and needing 2 unique passwords instead of 1, I can certainly understand it would cause some additional confusion. We're going to add a few things shortly to help make it clear on all sites (whether your home page is password protected or not) where to go to sign up. Even though this really hasn't been a big issue overall, I have indeed heard of some confusion here or there in the past, and anything we can do to make it more clear would certainly be helpful...so we'll do it. In your case though, I think the very best thing you can do is provide specific instructions to your Classmates in your emails, and on your home page, about what the system password is, and how/where they need to go next to create their own account with their own unique login and password. That's the best way to end confusion before it starts.

By the way thank you for this -- you really got me thinking today. I just melded with my computer -- that was fun.

Thank you Brad, I learned some things too. I really appreciate your prompt responsiveness. This is a great site!
Thanks again.

Hi Brad, it's me again.
Was reading your last message again, and I really want to make it as easy as possible for people to sign into the site, so just want to make sure I understand you clearly.
So here are some questions:
1) If I don't password protect my Home Page are you saying I don't need to send them the system password, just a link to the home page? Once they get to the Home Page, they click on "Classmate Profiles", click on their names, and create their profile, and their personal password. Did I get that right
2) If the rest of the site is password protected, will the links on the left be active when they first enter the site and before they create their profile
3)I assume the Classmate list of names would be visible but not the profiles? (My class members are culturally very private so I have to be sure their profiles, pictures, writings etc, are protected from intruders.)
Thanks for your help
JoyJoy

1) Yes

2) Yes

3) I generally don't recommend password protecting your home page or your Classmate Profiles page. I don't know what you want to put on your home page though, so if there is something really sensitive then you of course have that option. Our logs show less than 1% of people password protect their home page, because as you've realized it makes it very hard for new Classmates to come on board. Same with the Classmate Profiles page. The Classmate Profiles page is a list of names only. It's a list that would be very easy to get from many places, such as a simple old yearbook. Classmates already have the ability to restrict their own Profiles to only logged in fellow Classmates even if you don't password protect your Classmate Profiles page. Password protecting your home page and/or your Classmate Profiles page is something we've made possible because we can't predict what 100% of people are going to want to do, but doing it makes your job as an Administrator far more difficult, and it makes signing up for your web site far more difficult for your Classmates as well.

Other than those two pages, anything else you password protect won't cause any problems.

Tracy Estrada wrote:

Tracy, a way around having exes and other people not discover where the reunion is would be not to publish it on your public homepage. You can put the location etc., in all your password protected pages so that only registered classmates can see it. That may avoid the privacy concerns you are experiencing.