Nasty things you do to a new user - why?

Informal
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Guys…first off,something must be said.

  1. why don’t you clearly write what is necessary to complete one action?
    For registration here I had to chose password.OK,so I did.Then error appeared,saying that password has to be 6 characters long.So,I did that also.Then AGAIN says it has to be 8 characters minimum.
    Is it necessary to play around like that with a new user?

  2. so,verification email was sent to me.I received it and clicked on it.Then,when I tried to log in - I can’t.I was sent to a page to verify my email (which I already did).OK,so I waited for like 5 minutes,tried again - AGAIN NOTHING.I am sent again to verify email page (which I did,more than 5 minutes ago).
    Again,is it necessary to play around like that with a new user?
    Had I not clicked to send me another verification e-mail after 15 minutes of WAITING FOR NOTHING,who knows when I would be able to verify it.

  3. next…I thought,OK,now I will be able to FINALLY post my inquiry in this forum…but NOOO,I won’t…FIRST I must edit my profile,THEN post in the forum.
    (PLUS,before ANYTHING,I had to click in the top right corner,so I could see some unimportant notification and THEN I could post - C’MON!!!)
    And again,is it necessary to play around like that with a new user?

All in all…
Why,but WHY you put new user THROUGH HOOPS AND LOOPS,just so he could ask one SIMPLE question?!
Do you understand how much is that FRUSTRATING?Is it necessary?!
Can’t you see how much it puts advantage to other similar services,who made it pretty smooth to contact them?

Guess you don’t think about it…but you should.
That is not how premium service should treat new users.

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Huh, strange. I never had any problems when registering and verifying. It could be a bug, in which case it’s not intentional.

Of course you have to make a profile for the forum first. It’s a forum. The account you signed up for is for hosting, not the forum itself.

Normally I would agree with something like this, except it’s not really the case with InfinityFree (despite what you say). And either way, this isn’t a “premium” service, it’s a free service.

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You’re right, that’s definitely not necessary. Or intentional. The HTML validation on the field is incorrect, I’ll make a note to fix this.

Again, not necessary and not intentional. If you click the verification link, you should automatically be logged in to the panel for the user you clicked the link for. That should happen instantly, without waiting and without question.

I just tried this for myself and this is exactly what happened. What did you see exactly when you clicked the verification link?

We could demand people would need to choose a forum name when signing up. But not everyone is interested in visiting the forum, so we don’t make that a requirement.

Now that you mention it, we could make it an optional field on the registration form so people at least know the field exists.

I can understand that having so many set backs makes the service feel bad, and what you just experience is really bad. We really do try to make the service as smooth and easy as possible, so this is definitely not what we want you to experience. We do think about user experience a lot, because we also believe it’s very important.

Good thing we’re a free hosting, not a premium hosting service then.

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  1. well,that was the case - in my case.Everything I wrote.

  2. OK,I know this is forum.And that you have to choose username.However,usually you’re choosing username along when you’re doing registration (or you’re given some generic username and password,just for logging in and then later you can change it - when you want).After I finished registration I thought I will be able to post my inquiry…but I wasn’t.Which led to disappointment.

  3. yeah,I made mistake.I thought to register first for a free service (to test it) and then premium.I mixed it while I was typing (because of all frustration I previously had).

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(this quote option seems to not work properly,hm?
And I can’t edit my previous post,I just posted)

When I clicked on the link inside verification email it opened in a new tab,with some,as I remember,login page.I closed that tab (I thought I verified email and that I was already logged in,so no need to login again) and refreshed the tab I was already previously using (InfinityFree website).Then I was still in the same situation (so,I used tab on which you put your email for verification and then after refreshing after 5 minutes I was still on that page - to put my email for verification).
I can’t remember how I managed to get “out of it” (it was 15 minutes later,after sending one more verification link to my email).

Yeah,that would be a good idea,in my opinion.You would spare new user one not-so-necessary step (I mean,that step - choosing username - could be done while registering).

Now,when I think again,sure the advantage of forum is that you have it all sorted - problems with this go in this section,problems with that go in another section,and so forth.
However,maybe you could suggest to the people “in the line above you” to have some input form,for general inquires.So,“contact us” page and form with “your name,email and question” (with Captcha for bots).I think it’s standard option,good for potential new users.

And I really think it leads to better experience to new users,when things go smooth.
Again,I know it’s easier for support to have it like this - in the form of forum (because everything is more-less sorted).But I’m talking from the angle of new user.

I made mistake,now I see it,I mixed things.

Now,my general inquiry…

Can I transfer/move/migrate my website to your hosting?
Will I get cPanel,with Softaculous?
Is it on Linux or…?

These are some metrics of my website:
1 website in Wordpress with Softaculous,no sub-domains (there is 1 - “blog”,but is not developed and will stay like that)
Public html 283 MB
Softaculous backups 930 MB
Files in hidden subdirectories 112 MB
Tmp 57 MB
MySQL (1 base) 14 MB
Emails (4 accounts) 1.7 GB
Total: ~3.03 GB
Bandwidth: less than 500 MB/month

Can it fit in what you offer for a free option?
Most of those metrics will stay more-less the same,except the email inbox (it’s growing).

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Yup! it exists on cpanel (not client area)

Yes, it is

It is unlimited btw. But they’ll go inside htdoces. but i’m not sure that are your files are less than 30019 files.

All available.

Yes. It is unlimited btw

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Wow,such a big files.
It’s unlimited for space hosting,but there is a limit for file size:
https://infinityfree.net/support/what-is-the-fileupload-size-limit/
Correct me if I wrong.

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I checked the code, and it looks like I was wrong in my previous statement.

You need to be logged in to verify your email address. The user you are logged in as must be the one you’re trying to verify the email address for. If you were somehow logged out between your registration attempt and the moment you clicked the email verification link (or opened them in different browsers/devices), then you would need to login again to verify your email address.

It has been added now! You may not see it if you check it yourself though, because it’s setup as an A/B test to see how it affects registrations.

Do you mean this as a literal contact form? Because if so, where would these messages go and who would answer them?

The issue with contact forms is that it’s really easy to ask questions through them, but they don’t help people to ask questions which we can actually answer. I’ve offered free form contact forms in the past, and in my experience they just invite an avalanche of messages like “my site not working plz fix”. With no indication which site that is (sometimes their email address has multiple accounts with multiple domains, good luck finding out which site they mean - sometimes the email address doesn’t even exist), or what the exact issue is.

I’m happy to help people who need it. I’m not so happy to play Twenty Questions with people who can’t be asked to follow simple steps and provide basic information.

I fully agree that having a smooth service is better for everyone. But I don’t think allowing people to dump whatever messages they want somewhere is a good way to provide effective support.

Absolutely:

https://infinityfree.net/support/how-to-migrate-your-website/

Emails are going to be a bit of a problem. The email service we provide with free hosting is extremely basic, both in features and in storage space. Migrating emails in or out of free hosting is not practical (you can only use our webmail client, no external software), and you only get 20 MB of storage space per account. Seeing how you seem to be using a lot of email, you may want to get a separate email service (like Zoho) with this.

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@anon19508339: thanks for a quick reply,man.

[quote=“Admin, post:8, topic:22022, full:true”]Do you mean this as a literal contact form? Because if so, where would these messages go and who would answer them?

The issue with contact forms is that it’s really easy to ask questions through them, but they don’t help people to ask questions which we can actually answer. I’ve offered free form contact forms in the past, and in my experience they just invite an avalanche of messages like “my site not working plz fix”. With no indication which site that is (sometimes their email address has multiple accounts with multiple domains, good luck finding out which site they mean - sometimes the email address doesn’t even exist), or what the exact issue is.

I’m happy to help people who need it. I’m not so happy to play Twenty Questions with people who can’t be asked to follow simple steps and provide basic information.[/quote]
I see your pain,man…

How about making it absolutely clear why contact form IS for and why it ISN’T for?Something in bold red letters,before/above contact form?Like,“This is for general inquires,for technical problems visit our friendly forum”.

OK,I know there still will be couple of idiots who won’t read (or care).And for them,after receiving contact form email,just send some generic email,like “Hello,you have asked us question that is related to technical issues you’re having with … [whatever] and for that purpose we have our forum,where you will get answers you need.Be sure to read the guidelines how to use it [in other words,what to include from information that is needed]”.And then link where they can find the forum and some short instructions/steps they need to do in order to register/ask a question (if they’re unfamiliar with how forum works).Hit them some generic email like that,don’t bother to waste time if they don’t provide enough information that you can work with.

…or something like that?

In my case…just to kinda explain myself.

I was looking around for a offer that could suit me and…I was in a hurry,so to say.I expected to finish what I have to do in shortest time possible (before I even started to look for offers).So:

  1. I came here (InfinityFree website) and see there’s no contact form or email…disappointment.But there is a forum - OK…at least something.
  2. then the problem with registration/verifying email…all that waiting…the temperature inside of me me is rising.
  3. when I finalized registration,I was like “OK,I ask this and I move further with my tasks”.And then,when I realized there were some more steps to be done…the level of frustration was approaching.
  4. …which was reached with the welcome message (I know,small thing,but that was the drop in the overly full glass).

All those things separately aren’t big deal,I know.
But when you’re set to finish some task as soon as possible and then some unexpected elements show up (out of your control)…that can set you astray.

Sorry guys to put thread like this,but at that moment I needed to vent out…and this was the result.

Thank you all for the info provided,that was what I needed.
I see there might be a problem with emails…hm…

The only unclear thing that is left is what adisp007 said - about maximum file size.I’m not an expert for that (someone else build the website for me,I’m just an admin),so,if possible,just an instruction where I can check how big my individual files are?

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You should be able to see file sizes in any FTP client, like FileZilla. They have a column named “Filesize”, “Size”, or similar.

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We used to have something like that. Including contact instructions and a clear warning stating that support requests would not be answered. It looked like this: http://web.archive.org/web/20190622113549/https://infinityfree.net/contact/ And yes, there is also a very fast and easy to access canned reply system on the ticket box behind this email address.

But let me tell you, the “couple” of idiots is an understatement. Vague support requests would be the majority of messages coming in.

I’m sorry for what you had to go through. The signup flow should be fast and easy, and definitely wasn’t in your case. I’ll try to use your feedback to improve things.

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