Finding myself with a bit of spare time to work with, I decided to work on a bit of E2's code. Here are the results:
New User Creation
July 3rd - 4th, 2008
We now use reCAPTCHA for humanity checks on new user accounts and send verification links in the welcome emails. New users will now not be able to post writeups until they verify their email account. We also have finer-grained controls on new user signups at the IP level.
Major changes:
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Create a New User (superdoc)
- Added reCAPTCHA stanzas, which required installation of HTML::Tiny and Captcha::reCAPTCHA;
- Expanded input form to include username, real name, password, password verification, email, and CAPTCHA;
- Checks for registration through a blacklisted IP address;
- Places new user on writeup suspension until they verify their email address;
- Send out the (new and improved!) welcome email, including a verification link.
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Welcome to the Everything2 Community! (mail node, renamed from "new user mail")
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Verify your email account (superdoc)
- Created - it verifies a new user's email account based on an authentication code sent to that user's email address.
- Allows users to request a new authentication code if their previous one isn't working or wasn't received.
1 - parseLinks(), for reference, creates relative paths, and shouldn't be used to parse mail nodes. Also, if it's important to have a user logged in when they click a link sent via a mail node, remember to use "http://$ENV{SERVER_NAME}/" rather than $HTMLVARS{site_url} for your link interpolation.
So everyone doesn't sign up for a second account just to see the new new user mail, this is what it looks like:
From: postmaster@everything2.com
To: danne@stayskal.com
Date: Fri, Jul 4, 2008 at 3:12 PM
Subject: Welcome to the Everything2 community!
Danne,
Hi there, and welcome to Everything2, one of the internet's oldest and largest writing communities!
E2 is different things to different people: it's fact, sort of. It's fiction... in a way. It's prose on weekdays, poetry on weekends. It's a community with a community's complexities, from loves to rivalries to bad jokes and good stories. It's a place to grow and to learn, both to showcase your writing and about each other. In short: pretty much everything you could want. Pretty much ... everything!
Verifying your account
The next step is to verify that you actually signed up for an account. All this takes is either clicking on the following link, or copying and pasting it into your web browser:
http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1948165&user_id=1948281&validationkey=OJsnW8UV71G7lxGnrliEN6iIT
If that link is giving you any hassle, you can validate this email account manually: On Everything2, search for "Verify your email account". It will ask you for a user ID and an verification key. Your user ID is 1948281, and your validation key is OJsnW8UV71G7lxGnrliEN6iIT.
Getting started with Everything2
We're an open forum, but we have content standards - writing well and following the site's guidelines are key to becoming a successful contributor. To help ease you in as smoothly as possible, we ask that you do a few things.
Your first stop should be E2 Quick Start. It'll give you the rundown on the site basics: what to write, how to format and integrate your writeups, and how to use our on-site messaging system. For specific help, you can check out the many topics in the Everything2 Help. Five minutes there can make a world of difference.
We're a site for readers as much as writers, so take your time to get to know us! Look at the Page of Cool to see a selection of our current favorites.
If you need us, we're here to help; every member, whether we are part of the administrative staff or not, can answer questions for you. We have a mentoring system, usergroups to join and a chat facility for the asking of questions, as well as for indulging in buffoonery.
Your homenode is your personal page on Everything2. Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself? Don't forget, your username on Everything2 is danne_test. If you'd like help improving your writing or getting to know E2 better, sign up for a volunteer mentor and we'll connect you with someone can help your writing grow.
Most importantly: have an open mind, and Welcome to Everything2!
All love,
The Everything2 Staff
http://everything2.com/