# OT: Require e-mail during sign up process? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [May 5, 2006, 8:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ot-require-e-mail-during-sign-up-process/59729 "2006-05-05T20:56:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![parrfolio](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@parrfolio](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/parrfolio)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 8:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ot-require-e-mail-during-sign-up-process/59729/1 "2006-05-05T20:56:53Z")
Sorry that this thread is a little off topic, but I’m looking for some varying opinions on the subject and I think this group has a breadth of experience on this matter 🙂 A little background info… the registration process for a web application I am developing will be targeting those ages 13+ with the bulk of the users being in the 13-25 age range. We are in the process of developing the sign up/registration and we’re run into a kink on our team on whether or not to require an e-mail address during the process. An argument for not requiring e-mail during registration within our team (one I am arguing against) is that not everybody has an e-mail address, so we shouldn’t require it. But, being in the MySpace generation, I’d imagine that the majority of this demographic have at least one e-mail address they check on occasion. However, I don’t have any hard stats on Internet users who don’t have e-mail, but I’d imagine it to be very low, but this is only a guess. Now, I am curios on people’s thoughts on requiring or not requiring an e-mail address during the sign up process for a web application given the above demographic. I can see the pros for requiring one much more than the pros for not requiring one at all. I just see there being a nightmare if somebody forgets their password, their log in ID, or something else related to their account. Now, if we don’t require that e-mail address, they are in a tough spot since they have been locked out of their account. So, if they wanted back in, we don’t have a way to send them information to get information back. However, not requiring it… at least as far as I can tell only solves one thing, they don’t need an e-mail address. But, with e-mail being so ubiquitous now, is this even a problem? There are so many free e-mail hosts, Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, just to name a few, that I don’t really see this being a problem. Is requiring an e-mail address a barrier to an application’s adoption? Any thoughts, examples, facts, you can provide are greatly appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![parrfolio](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@parrfolio](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/parrfolio)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 9:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ot-require-e-mail-during-sign-up-process/59729/2 "2006-05-05T21:06:18Z")
Keep the e-mail – if they have Internet access, they have an e-mail address. ---
**Author:** ![parrfolio](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@parrfolio](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/parrfolio)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 10:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ot-require-e-mail-during-sign-up-process/59729/3 "2006-05-05T22:58:27Z")
How do you then deal with the situation where a parent doesn’t allow them to have an e-mail account? Keeping in mind that if this is a service that is provided by a class or something and they need to use it, can you get around not having an e-mail? ---
**Author:** ![parrfolio](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@parrfolio](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/parrfolio)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2006, 2:20am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ot-require-e-mail-during-sign-up-process/59729/4 "2006-05-06T02:20:28Z")
My nieces and nephews share an account with their families and I’m sure this is common practice for younger children. As for 13+ ? I’d wager that if pre-teens/teens can get their own phone lines, they can have their own email accounts. However, you could fork your registration process into two paths: ask if they have an e-mail address first. If yes, go to normal registration. If no, display a message indicating that, “this site requires an e-mail address… privacy issues … we won’t sell it …etc. If you’re under age, please ask your parent or guardian for assistance with the registration process.” If they don’t have an e-mail address or even access to “removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid” then they’re probably under supervision when they’re surfing the Net and Mom or Dad should be involved in the registration process anyways. If you want proof, go to [Disney.com](http://Disney.com), [treehouse.com](http://treehouse.com), etc. and sign-up for some online games or newsletters and see how they interact with their users – they probably spent a few million on Usability Architects and Lawyers getting theirs up and running – why not hop on the bandwagon and milk it for free? 🙂