One of the problems here on Paint is that people can be verified without the email. An admin will come along and do it for them, which then only says that people are likely using false emails or just not even checking for a verification. Which now allows perma’banned users to return without anyone being the wiser.
What I propose is that this site is like any other: use email, and only email, to verify an account. This way, perma’banned users wouldn’t be able to return.
That leads to another thing. It’s going more in depth to another HD of mine about the emails used to accounts. We should be able to reuse an email address for accounts. What drives me a little crazy is how I try to change my current email on this account (the one I have isn’t mine; I had to change it to a nonexistent address in order to get verified), but I can’t do that because it’ll tell me the email isn’t available. The previous emails I used were for other accounts and I can’t use them anymore, even though those accounts have been terminated. That needs to be fixed.
In addition, if a perma’banned user were to try and use the same email as the one in their terminated account, registration wouldn’t be allowed because of that email being read as an unwelcome one.
There should be a 12 hour period to verify an account. When the 12 hours goes unverified, that account is automatically terminated. This will definitely keep out perma’banned users. Plus it would take some weight off the admins’ shoulders, not having to verify accounts.
Yes, that kind of verification should be ridden of entirely, since now there is no way to tell who the new users are now.
Linking ?id=12194 and ?id=12000 since they have other interesting takes on the verification process as well.
I'm posting this since I remembered something when I was first registering on this account. If I'm not mistaken, I had to register for an account on Hullbreach Studios, which seems... excessive. I understand that it might be for future integration or consolidation, but I feel as though this site is large enough by itself to just manage account registration without "third-party" sites.
The reason why banjo brings it up is precisely because it isn't reCAPCHA. It's just a simple spoofed image test, and we could do that if we put in the effort. And I'm sure you could support images on all of those devices, yes?
And whoever is fiddling with the priority, please quit with that. It's resetting the priority every time that happens.
I personally feel like this might curb trolls, but persistent people (you-know-who) would still just create a throwaway email address if this were the case. And, as @GuiedGui stated, the whole reason we have manual verification is because email verification is (or was at the time) impossible/broken.
Also, I don't know how good the bots that plague us are, but I imagine email verification replacing manual verification (assuming no new system, e. captcha) would make it so much easier for the dozens of bot signups to make it through. I'm not an expert by any means on that topic, though.
I was saying that feature might be implemented first. That'd be a problem if emails don't go through at all. Not to mention that the emails cannot be resent with the current method.
I can agree that this is a security flaw, especially with the questionable coding this site relies upon. I am unsure of whether this should be set on equal footing with those site-breaking bugs, though.
Unless proven incorrect, I think the email server is nonfunctional, at least with the last account I created. This means admin verification is the only method for verifying accounts.
That's an issue, I know, but that might be what's driving this to begin with.
I already mentioned on the other Helpdesk post that there are some considerations for the multiple accounts, one email thing. And the permaban thing is kind of a no-brainer.
I heavily disagree with the 12-hour thing. I feel like legitimate users would be shut out of this site if they were unfortunate, which is far from what we want.
...and are the admins supposed to instantly know who everybody who joins this site is? Seems like quite the tall request. Curb your gatekeeping They do have a great slew of tools at their disposal, so they're trying their best right now.
By 
By 