Registrations should require a valid email address and temporary/disposable (e.g. temp-mail.org ) email services should be rejected.
Note this should not be implemented as a whitelist; “obscure” email services such as Protonmail, Tutanota and personal email servers should be allowed.
Pros:
- Cuts down on the number of trolls attempting to register, reducing load on mods and admins.
- Improves our standing with other instances.
- Ensures users have the ability to reset their password.
Cons:
- Has privacy concerns - people may not want to associate their email address with everything.
- Users may not (and perhaps should not have to) trust the admins of this instance with their email.
- May not be supported well by Lemmy, and/or require a blacklist that needs updating.
Aye and nay in the comments, please.
Nay
Anonymity, as a general rule, is something we should work to get back. Email is just one small hurtle to overcome in a registration process, sure, for both good and bad actors. It’s not a way of screening bad actors (human or bot alike).
A captcha, combined with an application with a list of manually reviewed questions if needed, would be best if bots and bastards become a problem. I wonder if there would be a good way of delegating the review process to volunteers.
Perhaps provisional approval, followed by posting in a welcome/introduction thread? Anyone failing to post or who gets their post downvoted is purged?