Husband and wife have a single email account

[Atrus]

I recently started a new SMF forum (V 2.0.14) for volunteers for our Sheriff's Office. Volunteers must register an account to gain access to the volunteer area.

I just received a text message from a volunteer that she is trying to register, but her husband had already registered and used the one email account that they share.

I've been using SMF Forums elsewhere, for other purposes, for almost 10 years, and never ran into this before. I remembered this issue being brought up somewhere on these support forums, so I searched, and located this thread.  I never realized that one could log in with their Username OR their email address! For that reason, I fully understand your reasoning for not allowing multiple accounts with the same email address. I'm guessing that this situation is not all that common, but it does occur from time to time.

This married couple shares the same email address, and it seems to me that if they really wanted separate email addresses, they would have done so a long time ago. I find it difficult to tell them that in order for them to use my forum, THEY must create another email address. I'm trying to make joining my forum as simple and painless as possible. Many of our volunteers are retired, which is why they have the time to volunteer in the first place. Ages run from early 60's to early 90's. I'm in my early 70's myself. People of our age are typically not that computer savvy, and if they have to jump through hoops just to join my forums, they'll just say, "Thanks, but no thanks."

I see two possible solutions:  The wife either signs in with her husband's username and password (which is in violation of the Terms and Conditions they agreed to when they registered) or she creates a new gmail account and forwards everything that comes into it, to their shared account. End result is, they are, in reality, both still sharing the same email account, but spoofing SMF with an intermediate email address just to keep it happy.   

How about a more elegant and simple workaround? How about an Administrator option in the system setup to check or uncheck, which would allow or disallow using one's email address to login? If it is unchecked, several family members would use their individual, unique, username - password combination, and still share a common email address. They've been sharing the same email address for all this time, so who am I to demand that they create separate email addresses just so they can join my forum? How many people actually use their email address to log in? As I said earlier, in almost 10 years, I never used my email address to log in. I always use my username / password, as I would expect most people do. I just tried using my email address on my own forum, and I WAS able to log in! I never realized I could do that, but I'll still keep using my Username and password.

I was wondering if you guys would even entertain the possibility of a system setup OPTION that would allow admin to turn email login off for those cases of multiple users, who for reasons of their own, purposely share the same email account? It probably doesn't happen all that often, but it DOES happen...

Thanks for at least hearing me out...

[Looking]

Just on the top of my head, just register an account with a pseudo address (blackhole) although changing it to the same Email in the database is easy enough but not sure if there will be any small consequences for that.

[Atrus]

Just on the top of my head, just register an account with a pseudo address (blackhole) although changing it to the same Email in the database is easy enough but not sure if there will be any small consequences for that.

I have registration set for email notification, so if they register with a bogus email address, they'll never get the activation email to activate their account.

As the administrator of the forum, I'm not opposed to jumping through a hoop or two to make registration as easy and painless for my users. I really have a problem demanding that users jump through hoops just to register at my forums...

I'm trying to keep things simple...

[Illori]

do they have a gmail account? if so they can add a . in the email address to make it seem different to the forum. they would still receive the email for activation etc.

[Atrus]

do they have a gmail account? if so they can add a . in the email address to make it seem different to the forum. they would still receive the email for activation etc.

No, it's actually through hotmail.com. Do they have a way for two people to both use the same account? if so, do you know how?

[Illori]

looks like outlook.com has https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/31882/does-hotmail-or-outlook-com-have-a-feature-where-appending-a-plus-sign-or-a-dot but not sure if it applies to hotmail or not.

[Shambles]

Various search results suggest that you can add aliases to a hotmail account.

[Atrus]

Just sent a test email to them at their regular, [email protected] plus two more at [email protected] and [email protected].  I'll see if either of the alias emails get through, and if so, that will be a solution for them. I'll post back with results when I hear from them.

Thanks for the replies and suggestions...

I'd still like to see a system setup option to allow email login or not...

Update: the [email protected] just got kicked back as undeliverable, the one with the "+" didn't.  I just found a website that says the "+" is how you create aliases. Hopefully, that should work.

Thanks again...

[Shambles]

The recipients will have to access their hotmail/outlook account to create those aliases, from what I read.

[Atrus]

The recipients will have to access their hotmail/outlook account to create those aliases, from what I read.

I don't know if that's entirely true. They will have to create the rule to filter them, say, into unique folders, but from the way I read it, if they do nothing, the alias email address I used will be delivered into their main account. That's all we really need at this point. I hope so...

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Depending on how frequently this happens, admin can manually activate an account that registers with a bogus email address when emali activation is enabled.  There's no alert in admin's userinfo, you'd have to know to look for it.  The member would not be able to receive notification or newsletters.  There's a sub accounts mod that was updated to RC4, doesn't install cleanly in 2.0, but soon as I have time, will try to get it going for another forum.  It may do what you want, won't know until I get it running.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Ok, if you are using Curve theme, sub accounts mod installs in 2.0.14 using RC4 emulation.  It allows member to create sub accounts with a different username, both share the same account and email address, but can post as diferent members.  Both husband and wife must login with primary uername/password, they see a drop menu next to username, and can select which member they want to use.  If you're using a custom theme, some manual edit is required in index.template.php, haven't tried that yet.  Backup your forum before you install the mod.

[Atrus]

I've already heard back from her, and she says she doesn't want to fool with their email. She'll just log in as her husband. So, it's pretty much the "Thanks, but no thanks" syndrome.

I have a real problem demanding that someone create a new email address that they don't want to, or go to extra steps just to use my forum. As I said, in ten years of working with SMF, I've never run into this before, but judging from the other thread in my OP, it does happen from time to time. I still think a system setup option that Admin could check or uncheck to allow or disallow email address login would solve the problem so simply.

I sent her an email using an alias to her present hotmail account, and it didn't come back as undeliverable, so I assume she got it ok. I'll confirm with her that she DID get it, and that would be a very simple work around. She'd just register using the alias, and SMF would be happy.

We'll see where this goes.  Thanks for the ideas, and help...

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Ok, if you are using Curve theme, sub accounts mod installs in 2.0.14 using RC4 emulation.  It allows member to create sub accounts with a different username, both share the same account and email address, but can post as diferent members.  Both husband and wife must login with primary uername/password, they see a drop menu next to username, and can select which member they want to use.  If you're using a custom theme, some manual edit is required in index.template.php, haven't tried that yet.  Backup your forum before you install the mod.

Try this mod, works well and not difficult to install in custom theme.

[Atrus]

Ok, if you are using Curve theme, sub accounts mod installs in 2.0.14 using RC4 emulation.  It allows member to create sub accounts with a different username, both share the same account and email address, but can post as diferent members.  Both husband and wife must login with primary uername/password, they see a drop menu next to username, and can select which member they want to use.  If you're using a custom theme, some manual edit is required in index.template.php, haven't tried that yet.  Backup your forum before you install the mod.

Try this mod, works well and not difficult to install in custom theme.

Ok, just downloaded the mod.  I'll back everything up to my test forum and try it there. If it works there, I'll try it on my live forum.

Thanks for pointing me to the mod.