I have a discussion site where Admin approval of new users is a necessity. However, I would like to ensure email activation has occurred before the approval is requested. And, when the new user has activated their email address, to receive some sort of notification that a new user is ready for approval. I am not sure I can accomplish this.
The use case is
New user registers, automatically receives activation email, clicks the activation link. However, user does still not have access to content - Admin approval still needed
I don’t think that automatically ensures the email address is verified before Admin approval is requested.
As admin I must (i) manually force email verification for each user, or (ii) check and approve the user.
In my case (ii) is a bit of work (checking a non-disclosure agreement is in place for that user) and I would like to avoid it if the email isn’t genuine.
Practically, (ii) is a bit slicker from the new-user perspective, because s/he doesn’t have two wait periods (one before email activation is forced, then before approval is granted).
I remember discussing this early on – what’s more important?
a) determining if the user’s email is valid?
b) deciding if the user is allowed to join?
If a user goes to the trouble of validating their email, then is rejected by staff… that’s a pretty bad experience. Until you’ve decided whether they are allowed, email validity does not matter.
The issue here is when people use the email to identify someone. If I see someone sign up as jeff@discourse.org on my forum, I could click “approve”, and then they could swap out the email address with something else.