Ooma Forums

Hello,

I'm a new ooma customer, and I've just registered on the forum. In order to register, I first had to provide my ooma phone number and password, and was then sent to the normal forum registration page (with some details already filled in from my ooma account). The registration also required me to fill in a captcha value, typically used to prove that I'm human (and prevent spam). Is that really necessary, considering I first had to activate my purchase, and then prove that activation before being provided the registration page?

Not a big deal (certainly, seeing it's a one time event) but just something I noticed.

They only want Ooma customers to be able to post here. Back in October of last year they allowed anyone to register and post and it created a bit of turmoil in the forums. While there were some legitimate potential customers who just wanted to ask questions about the product and service, there were quite a few who just registered to cause disruption including spam.

Yep, I understand that and it makes perfect sense to me. I wasn't questioning that, I was questioning the further use of the captcha, which seems to me to be an unnecessary inconvenience in the wake of having just proved something more important with my activated account credentials. (I suppose most people aren't inconvenienced by captchas... I recognize and support their purpose, but I find them to be a PIA because I often can't read the letters correctly.)

heilpern wrote:Yep, I understand that and it makes perfect sense to me. I wasn't questioning that, I was questioning the further use of the captcha, which seems to me to be an unnecessary inconvenience in the wake of having just proved something more important with my activated account credentials. (I suppose most people aren't inconvenienced by captchas... I recognize and support their purpose, but I find them to be a PIA because I often can't read the letters correctly.)

Captchas are a pain but should be less necessary if you need credentials to prove you are a customer.

Actually, they should go one step further and (gasp) eliminate the separate forum registration entirely since you have to be a customer to join the forum why make customers jump through hoops to manage TWO OOMA identities - one on the OOMA site for their phone(s) and another one here? Tie the forum sign-in to the existing OOMA user record no record - no access. This process goes under a number of names; single sign on or federated identity management for example and its not exactly new - I'm sure the OOMA IT guys know all about it. Who knows, the forum software might even support something like openid already.

coldsteel wrote:Actually, they should go one step further and (gasp) eliminate the separate forum registration entirely since you have to be a customer to join the forum why make customers jump through hoops to manage TWO OOMA identities - one on the OOMA site for their phone(s) and another one here? Tie the forum sign-in to the existing OOMA user record no record - no access. This process goes under a number of names; single sign on or federated identity management for example and its not exactly new - I'm sure the OOMA IT guys know all about it. Who knows, the forum software might even support something like openid already.

It could probably be done without too much difficulty, but may make the ultimate forum administrative tool, account banning, a bit more difficult - and any forum sheriff has to have at least that one bullet in the case of disruption.

Groundhound wrote:It could probably be done without too much difficulty, but may make the ultimate forum administrative tool, account banning, a bit more difficult - and any forum sheriff has to have at least that one bullet in the case of disruption.

Actually that would be even easier - the forum already has groups even if it doesn't use it too much - I (and probably you) are in the group "REGISTERED USERS" so to ban someone entirely "BOZOS" is a no brainer group to create maybe with an instant http 302 redirect on login to the MagicJack forum --- I'm just kidding guys - I still have and use my MagicJack on occasion

coldsteel wrote:Actually that would be even easier - the forum already has groups even if it doesn't use it too much - I (and probably you) are in the group "REGISTERED USERS" so to ban someone entirely "BOZOS" is a no brainer group to create maybe with an instant http 302 redirect on login to the MagicJack forum --- I'm just kidding guys - I still have and use my MagicJack on occasion

Good point. There may already be a "Bozos" group, since all groups may not be visible depending on forum software settings.