Proposal: Enhancements to help self-correct user's mistaken account registration

[PropGit]

For discussion with @zfi and @MatzElectronics.

Premise

Some current user mistakes in registering accounts may be self-correctable (without need for Parallax assistance) with a couple enhancements to the system.

Proposed

If we...

• update the Email confirm requested response page to show the email address that the confirmation is actually going to, and give tips about user-side issues that could prevent reception of confirmation email.

...and...

• update the system to treat any unconfirmed account as a special case that is still available to register.
  • This means that both the account email address and the screen name are not yet considered as officially taken.

Result

With the proposed updates, the following errors are self-correctable in the ways shown:

• [Error] >= age 13 account was registered with an incorrect user email address and with the desired screen name
  • [Effect] user doesn't receive the confirmation email
  • [Effect] user tries the Email not yet confirmed? link with the correct email address and sees that the system responds with "Unknown email"
  • [Self-Correction] user registers an account with the correct email address and the same desired screen name as before (which is currently not possible)
    • System verifies that the correct email address is not already registered & confirmed. [pass]
    • System notes that the desired screen name is already registered but not yet confirmed. [pass]
    • System invalidates (deletes) the unconfirmed account that has the same (but unconfirmed) screen name and also invalidates the confirmation token that was registered for it. *
    • System registers the new account with the correct email address and desired screen name and sends out a confirmation email
    • User receives email and confirms their account
• [Error] < age 13 account was registered with a correct user email address and with the desired screen name, but with an incorrect parent or instructor email address
  • [Effect] parent or instructor doesn't receive the confirmation email
  • [Effect] parent/instructor/user tries the Email not yet confirmed? link with the correct user email address and the system responds that it has emailed the confirmation but parent/instructor/user can see that it's to the incorrect parent/instructor address
  • [Self-Correction] parent/instructor/user re-registers the account with the correct user email address, the desired screen name, and the correct parent or instructor email address
    • System notes that the user email address is already registered but is not yet confirmed. [pass]
    • System notes that the desired screen name is already registered but not yet confirmed. [pass]
    • System invalidates (deletes) the unconfirmed account that has the same (but unconfirmed) user email address also invalidates the confirmation token that was registered for it. *
    • System invalidates (deletes) the unconfirmed account that has the same (but unconfirmed) screen name and also invalidates the confirmation token that was registered for it. *
    • System registers the new account with the given user email address, the desired screen name, and the correct parent or instructor email address and sends out the confirmation email
    • Parent or instructor receives email and confirms the account

*This is also new behavior that would be added.

The above assumes that account registrations and account confirmations are transactional processes (atomic in nature) so that no simultaneous overlapping actions could cause invalid database states.

Note that the current behavior of deleting any accounts that remain unconfirmed beyond 7 days should still be employed.