Ask HN: What is an acceptable Registered users to Attempted registration ratio?

[bitto1]

Hello, I find registered users/attempted registration on my site is ~ 4/5. On the first day itself 45 users attempted registration. Only 36 completed it. The trend seems to continue for past 1 month.

Registration process: 1.Enter username, password, email and complete recaptcha. 2. They will be taken to a page which says 'confirm the email id by clicking on the confirmation email sent to your email [email protected]' 3.Click the 'confirm email' link sent to the registered mail.

Type of site: Community. (Think Stack Exchange)

Is this ratio high/low? Google search provided no clues. My assumption is that this is high. Any suggestions?

[golem14]

The ratio seems pretty good to me. A lot of people just don't want to give out their email address.

1. Many will try again later with a throwaway email account they created just for their new account. You could check by setting a cookie when they try to sign up and correlate with subsequent attempts.

2. You might not be upfront enough about needing to verify email address. Many people assume you will just use the email for marketing and give a bogus email.

[through]

Good advice @golem14. Similar thoughts. I wouldn’t have espoused techniques for passive identity mining though. But that said, the more dark patterns discussed, the better precautions people can take. Whatever of the technical possibilities, clearly and truthfully declaring why a service requires certain authorization steps is generally best practice IMHO - ethics before profit.

[bitto1]

Yes. I do not explicitly state that email have to be verified. Noted.

[phillipseamore]

Please explain this better.

Is this: a) the ratio that complete the form and don't confirm email b) those that view the signup page but don't submit the signup form?

[bitto1]

Those that do not confirm their email

[grawprog]

Seems like a reasonable amount. What do the email addresses look like from the attempted but not completed ones? Are they maybe emails that are fake or incorrect? How many of them are possibly repeat attempts using different email addresses? Maybe a few are people who used the wrong email or made a mistake. There could also be people who don't realize they need to activate it. How many became active at some later date?