getting "invalid e-mail address" error

[stsp]

I can use SSO login to log into launchpad,
but when trying to log to ubuntuforums, I
am getting the following:
---
The following errors occurred during your registration:
Invalid email address.
---

And the form is presented, filled with my
perfectly valid e-mail address and the buttons
"Complete Registration", "Reset Fields".
Pressing "Complete Registration" leads to
the same form.

[Coffeecat (coffeecat)]

Writing as a forum admin who has been notified about this bug report along with all forum staff.

There is no bug. The email domain you used is in our blacklist because of abuse by spammers. If you are unable to use an alternative email address in your SSO account, or if you need any further help with registering to the forum, please send an email to the Forum Council mailing list whose email address can be found on this page:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ForumCouncil

One of the forum admins will then be able to help you. This is not the place to resolve this issue.

[stsp (stsp-0)]

Of course it is a bug, and considering
how simple it is, I am surprised you refuse
to fix it, as fixing will probably require
fewer time than writing the above explanation. :)
All you had to do is to direct the user to
the right form, instead of the wrong in this
case "invalid email address" one.
Of course it is a bug when the user is
presented with the form to re-type the
properly typed e-mail addr. And by fixing it
(which would likely require to just fix one
URL that currently leads to the wrong form)
you could save yourself from repeating the
above explanation over and over again for
every user that got trapped to it.
IMHO marking the valid bugs as invalid is
counter-productive, but its of course up
to you to decide.

[cariboo (cariboo)]

To para-phrase yourself "I am surprised you refuse
to fix it, as fixing will probably require
fewer time than writing the above explanation."

Wouldn't be just as simple to change your email address to something like gmail or yahoo, instead of being ranked with the thousands of spammers we get every year?

[QIII (qiii)]

This was marked as invalid because it is not a bug. There is nothing to fix.

coffeecat told you why you are getting the message. Your email domain is blacklisted.

You have now been answered by three Ubuntu Forums Admins here -- which is not the place to voice your concern. Please follow the link coffeecat provided.

[stsp (stsp-0)]

Guys, please, the bug here is that the user
is presented with the wrong web form that
asks him to re-type his properly typed
e-mail infinitely.
The fix is to present the proper web form
to the user, that will tell him that his
address is blacklisted, and suggest to
contact someone.

> Wouldn't be just as simple to change your email address

I don't need ubuntu forum, I just would
like people to accept their bugs. :)
Presenting user with the wrong form that
asks him to re-type e-mail indefinitely,
is the bug. Presenting the user with the
form that would say something meaningful
to allow him to continue - is not a bug.

[stsp (stsp-0)]

- The fix is to present the user with the
right web form that will tell him that his
address is blacklisted, and suggest what
to do next.
- The bug is to present the wrong/irrelevant
web form that just asks to re-type the valid
e-mail infinitely, not allowing to make any
progress.

(just repeated the main sentences in case
the long messages are not being read through)

[Richard Voogd (Lisati) (lisati)]

Thank you for bringing the apparent bug to our attention. The forum
staff have very little control over the SSO sign in process.

Three forum admins have already given advice that should help you create
a forum account. The domain for the email address associated with your
Launchpad account IS blacklisted, so it will be infinitely easier for
you to associate an email address with another provider, such as Yahoo
or Gmail, with your SSO credentials. If you are still experiencing
difficulties, the contact the admin team using the details at the
previously given link.

"Lisati"
Forum staff.

On 15/08/18 23:19, stsp wrote:
> - The fix is to present the user with the
> right web form that will tell him that his
> address is blacklisted, and suggest what
> to do next.
> - The bug is to present the wrong/irrelevant
> web form that just asks to re-type the valid
> e-mail infinitely, not allowing to make any
> progress.
>
>
> (just repeated the main sentences in case
> the long messages are not being read through)
>

[stsp (stsp-0)]

> Three forum admins have already given advice that should help you create
> a forum account.

Yes, indeed. Thanks to everyone for the advice.
Since this bug tracker is not for discussing the
admin's advices but only for bugs, I am trying
to focus this discussion on the bug. It is a bit
annoying for me seeing it closed as invalid, but
of course I can live with that. :)

> staff have very little control over the SSO sign in process.

Let me know if I need to open this report for
some other component. I thought "Ubuntu Forums"
component is the match.

[stsp (stsp-0)]

> Thank you for bringing the apparent bug to our attention. The forum
> staff have very little control over the SSO sign in process.

While this looked like the first sign that the
bug is at least acknowledged, now I am pretty
sure you do not need any control over the SSO sign-in
process to just fix the web form on the forum.
So it was just another attempt to distract the
discussion from the actual bug... Nice try.
Such persistence in denying the obvious bugs is
upsetting.

[cariboo (cariboo)]

On 2018-08-20 03:38 PM, stsp wrote:
>> Thank you for bringing the apparent bug to our attention. The forum
>> staff have very little control over the SSO sign in process.
> While this looked like the first sign that the
> bug is at least acknowledged, now I am pretty
> sure you do not need any control over the SSO sign-in
> process to just fix the web form on the forum.
> So it was just another attempt to distract the
> discussion from the actual bug... Nice try.
> Such persistence in denying the obvious bugs is
> upsetting.
>
I'm not sure if english is your native language, but you don't seem to
understand what we have been telling you. The email domain you are using
is blocked because of the overwhelming number of spammers originating
for that email service. There is no form to change. We have no intention
of unblocking, which is done in the vBulletin configuration file, that
particular email service.

Regards

cariboo

--
Ubuntu Forums Council Chair

[stsp (stsp-0)]

English doesn't matter.
The bug is that when address is spam-blocked,
the wrong form is presented, that says that
the address is invalid, and asks to re-type it.
This is a bug!
Why not to bring up the right form that will
say that the address is blacklisted? This is
all what is needed to fix the bug!

[stsp (stsp-0)]

But I don't think the messages are even
being read. :( It seems no matter how many
times I repeat that the wrong form is displayed,
the only answer I will get is that there is
no bug. :( Care to explain why the wrong form
is not a bug?

[stsp (stsp-0)]

I wonder if there is a technical person
here in this thread that can understand
that displaying the wrong form is a bug.
If the form asks to re-type the valid
e-mail infinitely instead of saying it is
spam-blocked, then it is a bug.
Is this really too difficult to understand
for everyone in this thread? But it can't
be so... I really don't know how this can
be explained simpler than I already did...

[Coffeecat (coffeecat)]

@stsp, having given you all the information you needed in my first post in this bug report thread, I had promised myself to ignore anything further from you, but I cannot help but respond to the profound irony of you repeatedly asking if what you had said was too difficult to understand, when you yourself seem to have difficulty understanding the very simple sentence, “This is not the place to resolve this issue.”

This is Launchpad, where bugs in Ubuntu are reported. The user issue you have described is absolutely nothing to do with Ubuntu. It is a shortcoming – and I agree that it is a shortcoming – in the commercial vBulletin software that ubuntuforums runs on. Whether or not it is a bug, or a defect in the user interface, is a matter for debate, and really of little importance, but it is an issue in vBulletin, not in Ubuntu. Therefore you will get absolutely nowhere venting about it here.

Hence - this is not the place to resolve this issue. Is that really too difficult to understand?

I have already given you a link which tells you how to contact the Forum Council, which is the appropriate place to air your concerns and to get help with registering on ubuntuforums. If, indeed, that is what you want, rather than simply blowing hot air.

I will add a personal comment here. I and the other five forum admins are unpaid volunteers, who are happy to help make the forums run in the spare time that we give up freely. I have come to the conclusion that I have better things to do with my life than waste time trying to help people who are obtuse to the point of compromising their own best interests. That is why, if you do choose to contact the Forum Council at their mailing list, I will not be the one responding to you. What the other admins choose to do is, of course, entirely up to them. :)

[stsp (stsp-0)]

> This is Launchpad, where bugs in Ubuntu are reported.
> The user issue you have described is absolutely nothing to do with Ubuntu.

But the bug is filled against the component "Ubuntu Forums".
Since launchpad allows to fill in bugs against "Ubuntu Forums",
I conclude it is the right place to discuss the ubuntu forums
bug...

> an issue in vBulletin, not in Ubuntu. Therefore you will get
> absolutely nowhere venting about it here.

OK, thanks for the first adequate response in this
entire thread! I'll see about filling the defect report to
vBulletin too (which I suppose you could do, but whatever).
I wonder what's the purpose of having the "Ubuntu Forums"
component in the bug tracker, if the end result of filling
such a bugs is "its a commercial software that we can't change".
But at least its an adequate answer to my postings. :)

> Hence - this is not the place to resolve this issue. Is that really too difficult to understand?

Given that the bug-component is called "Ubuntu Forums"
and the bug is about the forum - yes, I'd say its quite
difficult to understand, but I'll take it as granted and
will no longer post any bug reports about the ubuntu forums
(which would be a waste of time anyway as you can't change
vBulletin).

> with registering on ubuntuforums. If, indeed, that is what you want,
> rather than simply blowing hot air.

What I wanted, is clearly written 10+ times: a proper
web form rather than the wrong one. Since you can't do
that because of vBulletin - fine, you could tell me the
same 10 mails ago, but thanks for doing this at least now.

> things to do with my life than waste time trying to help people
> who are obtuse to the point of compromising their own best interests.

I don't know why you do such conclusions, but its
entirely up to you. I'll better google for this
vBulletin problem and see if it was already reported
to the right palace or not, which is actually your
duty, but whatever. What I wanted is to get the simple
bug fixed, or at least explained why not (which is what
you finally did - thanks)

[stsp (stsp-0)]

<off-topic>
Ironically, there is a strong similarity between
the bug in question and this thread. Web form was
infinitely and uselessly asking me to re-type the
e-mail not hearing me telling its valid, and this
thread did the same thing.
In that context, the last sensible message from
Coffeecat, that fixed the problem of this thread,
may only mean that the vBulleting will also be
fixed soon. :)
</off-topic>