Sign Up Without Email Address

[hottakes]

I was looking for the option for users to register without providing an e-mail address.

If it doesn't exist, it could be added. Even some major websites like Reddit don't require it, so it's not such a crazy idea.


But there should also be a "require approval of new posts for new users without an email address" option. That would make dealing with spammers much easier.
Once you see that the user is legit, you can turn it off for that user.

[Arantor]

And what happens if you forget your password? You won't be able to reset it unless you use the secret question feature which almost no one does.

Edit: also need to heavily rework both notifications and newsletters that assume every user has an email. Also, bans.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

Honestly, if it was just an option, left up to the admin, it wouldn't really be a bad idea IMO to allow registration without contact details, perhaps even allow the admin to decide whether to log IP addresses in SMF.

That said, I do understand and agree it would mean having to rework many things, and this kind of usage could actually even be illegal in some jurisdictions. Publishers may be required by law to have some form of identification or contact for user created content.

[Steve]

In which case I'm marking this solved and moving it to 'Declined Requests'.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

Well, that might have been a bit fast - but yeah, I would say most likely not happening any time soon.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

It's actually not too difficult to remove email address upon account activation (wasn't in 2.0, anyway), but as noted will break some functionality.  If a member wants to remove their address they can just put a dummy address in profile settings.

[Arantor]

It's bad practice to just make changes that leave things actively broken like that, though - and as noted potentially without a user being able to recover their own account if they forget the password.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

About ten years ago someone had asked about anonymizing a forum in 2.0.  Don't remember the reason, or know if it was ever used, but still have the files.  Basically involved removing email address on activation in Registration.php, preventing ip detection in QueryString.php, removing related functionality in templates, and some other things I see that don't ring any bells.  It was understood that some features would be removed, and if members lost password they would have to register new account.  There were some data logged on server (ips/timestamps, iirc) that could not be removed without access to Apache config, but forum database did not contain any trackable member info.  Obviously a special case, not something anyone would ordinarily want to do.

[Arantor]

I assume they also understood that notifications wouldn't work, nor would newsletters, nor would bans, at least not properly.

[landyvlad]

reddit doesn't require an email?  Yeah and look at reddit quality.  That's enough argument to insist on emails in my book!

[Sir Osis of Liver]

I assume they also understood that notifications wouldn't work, nor would newsletters, nor would bans, at least not properly.

Yes, that was explained, and things that wouldn't work were removed from ui.

[hottakes]

So why is this being rejected? Just too much work or something else?

this kind of usage could actually even be illegal in some jurisdictions.

Er... seriously? Is Reddit illegal somewhere? Or Hacker News? Both very popular forums that don't require email.
But even if it is illegal somewhere, I don't see why that would affect SMF. An admin can already do plenty of illegal things with SMF as it is.

In fact this setting could make it easier to respect some privacy GDPR laws or whatever, laws that discourage collecting users data.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

As explained, it breaks a lot of basic functionality.  And if an admin wants to do something illegal with SMF, there's no way we can prevent it, but they won't get any support here.

[Kindred]

There are a lot of issues within SMF that would have to be changed to remove emails.
So, yes, this is rejected as a feature request.  We will not do it... legal issues aside, it would require a major rewrite of ALOT of code... for a request that has one, maybe two, people who want it.

[hottakes]

As explained, it breaks a lot of basic functionality.

If implemented properly, the functionality (email notifications etc.) would just not be available for those users and that's that. I thought this was implied and obvious. I don't think this is the same as something being broken.

But I won't insist. I can accept "too much work" as a valid argument, I just wanted to know.

There are a lot of issues within SMF that would have to be changed to remove emails.
So, yes, this is rejected as a feature request.  We will not do it... legal issues aside, it would require a major rewrite of ALOT of code... for a request that has one, maybe two, people who want it.

Alright.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

Er... seriously? Is Reddit illegal somewhere?

You are thinking about that the wrong way around. I'm not gonna get in to a deep discussion over the legality of this, but I will say that there are places and situations where forums, chats, etc. are legally obligated to require registration and provide moderation, for example to provide protection to minors online.
Also, Reddit requires identification to register. You need a Google account, an Apple account or an email address. ( All of those mean an email address if you think about it. )

[hottakes]

there are places and situations where forums, chats, etc. are legally obligated to require registration and provide moderation, for example to provide protection to minors online.

Yes. For example, some 18+ websites require uploading an ID in some places.
Does this mean that SMF and all other forum software is in some legal trouble, because it doesn't have baked-in ID upload that you can't turn off?
Of course not, that would be ridiculous. It's the responsibility of the website admin to pick the correct software for the job and to configure it properly.

Reddit requires identification to register. You need a Google account, an Apple account or an email address.

No. You can leave email blank and register with just username and password.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

No, no you can not.

[Arantor]

Also note that old.Reddit.com signup also asks for email first.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

I stand corrected, old.reddit does allow you to skip that, which is surprising actually.
Still, if you are looking for an anonymous platform, at this point it is best you seek out an anonymous platform. SMF is not it.

It's the responsibility of the website admin to pick the correct software for the job and to configure it properly.