Double opt-in doesn't always work...

[kyle]

Hi Dean,
     Double opt-in usually works, but here's an example of when it doesn't.  I received this message from one of my users:

I would like to confirm my subscription

>From: "Kyle Yamnitz" <EDITED>
>To: "linda" <EDITED>
>Subject: Confirm Subscription to LessonPlansPage.com Newsletter
>Date: 13 Aug 2004 02:04:37 -0000
>
>You recently submitted a request to subscribe to the LessonPlansPage.com
>newsletter.  Please confirm your subscription to our mailing list by simply
>clicking the link below:
>
>http://newsletter.lessonplanspage.com/confirm.php?u=c625ceb
>
>Note, there is no cost for this subscription.  Once you click the link
>above, you will begin receiving the newsletter once per month.  As a
>reminder, this newsletter includes news and updates about
>LessonPlansPage.com, information about special features, featured links and
>lesson plans, seasonal lesson plans, and notifications of new lesson plans.
>  Thank you,
>        --Kyle Yamnitz
>          The Lesson Plans Page:
>                http://www.LessonPlansPage.com


Note that the link doesn't work, the date of the confirmation email was August 13th (less than 10 days ago), and the user's email is in my user database as unconfirmed.  Why can't I confirm the user by clicking on the URL?  Dean, I can give you the login info to my system if you need it.  Thanks in advance,
   --Kyle Yamnitz
     The Lesson Plans Page:
      http://www.LessonPlansPage.com

[DW]

Is this reported often?  This can be caused by someone hitting "Refresh" on the signup success page.  The 2nd user will overwrite the first and 2 confirmation emails with different IDs will be sent.  If the user chooses to delete the wrong one, they will not be able to confirm.

[kyle]

Well, I've seen it several times over the past year or so, so no, not often.  However, my users are the type to never report something.  If a few do, it's probably happening to a lot more.  I don't know why people would hit Refresh on the signup page, but maybe that's it.  Unless you think it's a possible bug or something, I'll just let it go as the refresh issue...

I'd asked you about this quite awhile back, and you said to let you know if I saw it happening more.  Only recently did I discover that I can look up unconfirmed email addresses to se more about what's going on.  This time clearly showed that something was weird (to me anyway) since I could see the user was unconfirmed, the link wouldn't work, and the date hadn't passed.  But, if you think it's just the refresh issue I'll accept it as that since it normally works fine.  Take care,
--Kyle

[DW]

To verify that the user is indeed in the database with the same ID as the confirmation link you would need to manually look up the value in the "uid" field of the database for the user on that particular list.

[kyle]

Okay, I'll check that next time this happens.  Thanks,
--Kyle

[kyle]

Well, I had this happen again, I checked, and the uid of the user in the database was different than that of the one in the confirmation email's confirmation link.  The user was still listed as unconfirmed.  

So, do you think this was an issue of the user hitting refresh, or is it possible the wrong uid was sent out in the email, or something else?

I asked the user some questions about her sign up process, and I'll let you know what I hear back.  Thanks,
--Kyle

[naturedoc]

Hi Kyle:

Did you eventually figure this one out? I run into the same issue more frequently than I would like to. It means that people who think they are signing up for my list are not actually being added.

Best,
kwc

[kyle]

No, it hasn't been resolved    I'm a little concerned by it, but I don't know what else to do...  It doesn't sound likely that my users would hit "refresh" on the signup success page this often, as Dean had suggested.  Hopefully Dean will be able to figure something out eventually?  If you ever do find any more information about it, please post back here - I'll do the same.  Take care,
--Kyle

[DW]

Please ask your clients if they received 2 confirmation emails to be sure they didn't sign up twice with one user/id overwriting the other.

[kyle]

I'll ask them that next time it happens, but it doesn't happen all that often and when it does my users don't usually respond to my emails...  I'll let you know what I hear.  Maybe naturedoc can ask his users the same question.  Take care,
--Kyle