[neikos]

Two ways why I think E-Mails are useful at signup:

- Password Recovery (this can be optional though, for my sites it usually is)

- 'Legit Users', sending an email and having them confirmed through a code in them gives a bit more confidence in the user

[camiller]

'legit users'

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't get an email intended for someone else, often including personal information, due to a mistyped email address. Whoever decided that email verification was a poor user experience needs to be hit in the head with a shovel after he digs the appropriate sized hole.

If you know Catherin (PA) let her know her round trip to vegas is confirmed

Carolyn's (NYC) open table reservation was canceled by the restaurant.

Different Carolyn (CA) needs to correct email address with the walnut creak school district.

Possible the same Catherine (PA), your financial advisor needs a distribution form filled out.

Clint (OH), your repair at Kay jewelers in Akron is done.

Ann (FL), Thank you for scheduling an online appointment with Conley Subaru

sigh, you get the idea

Edit: Oh, and I'm going to start canceling Open Table reservations that show up in my inbox.

[Declanomous]

What's even more annoying is that some sites ask for verification, but then proceed to email you stuff even if you don't click verify. Someone in Australia created an Apple ID using my email. I ignored the verification, but then I got a bunch of purchase receipts from them later.

What I really wish for is a link in emails that say "I am not the intended recipient of this letter." Normal mail works like that. You can ask the United States Postal Service to only deliver mail that has your name on it, and if you send back mail with someone else's name they will add that person's name to a database that says the mail is undeliverable.

I don't want to mark these organizations as spam, but that's basically what they are to me. I've started using the password reset to log in and change the email preferences so I don't get these emails anymore.

[paulmd]

As someone with an unusual name (used for my public-facing email address) and who uses a fairly unusual email for personal stuff... that's pretty different from my experiences. I've never ended up with someone else's mail at all.

That's a solid argument for business cards with vCard QR codes as I see it. Or a pack of stickers with QR codes that you could slap on whatever documents you needed.

It's too bad QR code adoption is so horrible. I'm just as guilty of it as anyone else, I assume that any QR code is probably just some marketing thing.

But vCards seem like one of the very legit use-cases. Now that I am imagining using stickers and never filling out my contact info on a form again, I realize that's definitely a world I want to live in.

[zeveb]

> Whoever decided that email verification was a poor user experience needs to be hit in the head with a shovel after he digs the appropriate sized hole.

That's why you get send the verification email first, when creating the application user, and don't do anything until the email is verified.

The flow should be:

User: Please give me an account; my email address is [e-mail]

Server: I have sent an email to [e-mail]

Server → [e-mail]: Please go to https://server.invalid/register?token=KDU6dG9rZW4xOWppbUBleG...

User: visits URL, completes registration

[Sean1708]

How generic is your email address? This has literally never happened to me (to my recollection).

[nerdponx]

This has never happened to me with any email address. Is yours really generic or easily typed by mistake?

[mholmes680]

same here. apropos xkcd:

https://xkcd.com/1279/

My most entertaining email yet was a group thread that kept track of a young missionary's progress as he traveled through South America. He's home now, so I don't get weekly updates anymore :( I almost miss it.

[vlunkr]

I've always assumed it was for password recovery. People forget those all the time, email is a quick way to verify identity. Since everyone can have an email address for free. If you have a better way, do tell. Also, when your email is your username, that's one less thing to remember.