Help talk:Logging in

Revised text

I do not have permission to edit this page, but I'd like to suggest rewording it with the following instructions in order to sound friendlier to newcomers. (The current text may be confusing - it may sound like account creation is entirely off, with only special requests permitted.)

Everyone is welcome to register an account (from typo fixers to technical contributors), but because a public registration form would invite spammers, please instead visit this list of administrators, click those usernames to find an email address, and then email that administrator with your preferred username and email address so that they can set up an account for you.

--Britta (talk) 20:05, 30 September 2013 (UTC)

"because a public registration form would invite spammers" sounds like we haven't had a spam infestation before, or maybe that's just me. --5urd (talk) 22:51, 30 September 2013 (UTC)

Ah, that's true. We could use this phrasing instead: "but because public registration forms invite spammers". Britta (talk) 23:14, 30 September 2013 (UTC)

I think this would be better (just did some minor rewording):

Everyone is welcome to register an account (from typo fixers to technical contributors), but because public registration forms invite spammers, you must contact an administrator to create an account for you. Visit this list of administrators, click a username to find an email address, and then email that administrator with your preferred username and email address so that they can set up an account for you.

Thinking maybe we should also create a page such as The iPhone Wiki:Account creation which contains the admins' contact info on one page so it's a bit easier to find. —thekirbylover 13:21, 10 October 2013 (UTC)

I like that. However, should we link "public registration forms invite spammers" to The iPhone Wiki:Spam? --5urd (talk) 22:51, 10 October 2013 (UTC)

That wording sounds good to me! It also makes sense to me to have an account creation page - I wrote a draft there. I don't think this text needs to link to the spam page; better to have just one "target" link that goes to where the person needs to look, to reduce confusion/distraction. Here's a new suggestion that links to the account creation page:

Everyone is welcome to register an account (from typo fixers to technical contributors), but because public registration forms invite spammers, you need to contact an administrator to create an account for you. Visit this list of administrators and send one of them a message with your preferred username and email address so that they can set up your account.

Britta (talk) 00:32, 15 October 2013 (UTC)

Also, who does have permission to edit that page? Is it something an administrator can do, or do we have to ask geohot to do it? Britta (talk) 02:12, 15 October 2013 (UTC)

All administrators are able to edit the page. I looked over the text and it looks pretty good (if not lengthy :P), but I do have a few tweaks I'd like to propose.

Everyone is welcome to register an account (from typo fixers to technical contributors). However, because public registration forms invite spammers, you need to contact an administrator to create one for you. An account can be set up for you if you send a message to one of them with your preferred username and email address.

Let me know what you guys think. --Dialexio (talk) 04:20, 15 October 2013 (UTC)

Long and friendly seems more helpful than short and unfriendly. :) I'd say implement whichever version sounds good to you - since it's easy to edit, the wording doesn't have to be perfect before putting it up, and any/all of these versions sound better to me than the currently-live version! But I'm curious about your suggestion - I liked saying "visit this page" to make sure people would notice the link and click it, instead of potentially missing that "contact an administrator" is a link they should click, and then being confused about how to contact an administrator. It's a minor difference though. Britta (talk) 07:17, 15 October 2013 (UTC)