Better Layout of Reg. New User Page

Better Layout - Action Required More Obvious

I would like to suggest a better layout for the Register New User Page (register_confirm.asp) so that it is more obvious that a user has to take action. 

I sat down a friend of mine who I was recruiting to use the forum and who was having difficulty using the forum.  I learned a lot about where new users get confused, and that page was one of them where they skipped over the message.

In fact, I had three of three people (people who never used a forum before) totally skip over your message telling them to check their e-mail.  Then they were complaining that they couldn't use the forum.  I think part of the reason was that message was BELOW the link to Return to Forum Discussion instead of ABOVE that link.  They read everything above that link, then clicked on the link.  They never read anything below the link.

On my forum, I've rearranged the page a little bit and put the important text in a shaded box. 

See how I layed out the page here:
http://www.caribbeanchoice.com/forums/register_confirm.asp?T P=ACT&FID=0

15 Seconds vs. 15 Minutes

I also changed it to say 15 seconds instead of 15 minutes, with a note below saying for some people it might take 15 minutes.  I did that because many new computer users thought they actually had to wait 15 minutes before they check their e-mail.  And they did wait 15 minutes or longer before checking it!  And some never checked it and went somewhere else, never to use my forum.

All the text was changed in the language file, but the layout was changed in register_confirm.asp.  I also added an entry in the language file for the help text at the bottom.

Shorter Registration Page

I also made many other tweaks that seemed to help new users (users who have never used a forum before) such as as adding additional help text in various places and shortening the registration form which they complained was too long and asked too many personal questions (they once again failed to read that most of it was optional).  I added text above the profile info. section restating that the following profile information was optional.

Better Error Messages

I would also suggest better error messages, so that a user who hasn't verified they e-mail yet would get a message when they access a restricted area saying that they need to activate their account by verifying their e-mail instead of the general error saying they don't have permission.

These are just some of the things I noticed that needed a little tweaking.  I know you are working on 7.5 and would love to see some of these tweaks in the new version.

Keep up the good work and thanks for the great forums.