Moin reported a confusing user experience during sign-up when an invite code is missing. The system displays a generic error stating “Something went wrong, perhaps this email is already registered,” which misleads users even when the email is valid. Moin suggested adding a specific validation error under the invite code field and an asterisk to indicate it is required, similar to other mandatory fields. Despite recent changes to the sign-up dialog, Moin confirmed the issue persists. lindsey acknowledged the problem and opened a request with the team to improve the error message, though no timeline was provided. RGJ argued that the fix should simply change the message to “You did not enter the invite code,” noting that this specific flow only triggers when the code is missing. Moin clarified that while the generic email error might be appropriate in some contexts, the network response confirms the root cause is the missing invite_code parameter. Moin concluded that the error message should be improved to reflect the actual validation failure, ideally with frontend validation to match the behavior of other form fields.
I tested this again as there have been a lot of changes to the sign-up dialog in the past months. The error message shown when the invite code is missing is still the same.
I think an error message, “Please enter invite code,” below the invite code field, similar to the ones shown below the email, username, password, and custom user fields, would be helpful.
Thanks @Moin, you’re right that this error could be improved. I’ve opened a request with our team to fix this up. At this point, I don’t have an estimate for when this work might be complete based on the team’s other priorities.
I think the only thing needed as a fix is to change the error message into “You did not enter the invite code” .
After all, when I look at the source, the only flow where this message will be shown is when the invite code is set, and not submitted. All other account registration errors return a custom error message.
When an email address is already registered, no message will be shown at all, and an email will be sent to that email address.
I don’t think that is true if the Hide email address taken site setting is disabled. But I think you are correct that the error that the email may already be registered is not shown in this case. I wonder why. In this case, it seems to be the correct message.
So maybe the error shown can be improved in a similar way. Though a validation of the field in the frontend, as all the other fields have, would be nice too.
