Sharon,
When people sign into the website for the first time, they have to set
up a password. There is no message that tells them that.
That's because setting a password is optional.
One can operate perfectly well using the "Email me a link to log in" button when needed, and never use a password.
You can click on forget password but it¡¯s confusing because people
don¡¯t have one.
I think rewording that is a good idea. Perhaps something like:
"Forgot your password, or want to set one?"
("I prefer "forgot", "forget" sounds too much like it could be a command telling the site to forget one's password.)
I encourage you to post that in beta.
If they enter a password and confirm it from an email, it isn¡¯t ¡°set¡±.
I'm not sure what this means. Did they use the "Sign Up" link on the site and enter an email address and password there? That would certainly set their password, but they'd still have to confirm their email address by responding to the email Groups.io sends to them.
It¡¯s a different process to set the email on their account page. That
drop down is in the upper right corner, not in the left menu.
Again I'm confused about the context. Different than what? I don't think there's anything on the left menu that lets you change your email address, only the Account page.
Unless they follow that separate process, they have to sign in each
time they go to the website.
That's never true, unless you log out or you clear your browser cookies (and some people do use security settings which clear cookies after each session). Otherwise a log-in lasts for 30 days before you must log in again.
Are they doing something wrong? Missing something?
I think so. The Sign Up and Log In flows at Groups.io were honed aggressively during the early years to make them as simple as practical.
The only aspect I can think of that is unusual or may seem magical is that certain of the emails sent by Groups.io in those flows contain links which, when followed, will log them into the site. While logged in that way they can set a password, if desired, or just use the site.
If these people can outline exactly what they did, and what the site presented to them, then perhaps we can figure out where they went wrong, or where the site can be improved.
Key fact: if the upper right corner is showing your name, then you're logged in. Hover there to see the email address for the account (the email address you are logged in with). If the upper right corner shows your email address instead then you haven't yet set a display name for your account.
Shal
Shal Farley