Sign-up and Sign-in Help Page

What does this page cover?

This is about features of Informed Consent related to creating your profile - things like joining the site and verifying your email address, and some solutions to problems with signing-in.

How do I sign-up?

The Join IC page has a form which allows you to join Informed Consent by choosing an IC Name and password, and giving your email address. The IC Name must be at least 6 characters, consist only of letters, numbers and underscores ("_"), and not be in use already by another profile. The password must be at least 6 characters. If you supply values that violate the above rules, the system will ask you to try again. When giving your email address, only put the email address itself: that is aaaa@bbbb.cccc with no spaces, real name etc. (So not "AAAA" <aaaa@bbbb.cccc> if you're familiar with that extended form.) Be very careful to get these details right at this stage. In particular, if you give the wrong email address, you won't be able to get the confirmation mail and activate your profile.

What about verifying my email address?

To stop people giving false email addresses or signing-up other people as a joke or maliciously, we automatically send you a confirmation email when you sign-up. Keep a copy of this email. This contains a unique, random Activation Code which you must re-enter into Informed Consent to activate your profile so you can start using it. The email is sent immediately, and unless your email server is slow (Yahoo!) or unreliable (Hotmail!), you should get it within minutes. The email contains instructions about how to use the code: just try to sign-in using the link at the top left of any page using your IC Name and password, and the system will then ask for your activation code. If you don't use the code within 7 days of signing-up, the pending profile is deleted and you (or anyone else) can start the sign-up process with that IC Name.
IC won't sell your email address to other organisations, or spam you with our own adverts.

How do I sign-in?

To sign-in, just use the link at the top left of any page. You enter your IC Name and the password you chose into the form, and then you can use your IC profile, with all the additional options that gives.

How can I tell if I've signed-in ok?

When you are signed-in successfully, your IC Name will appear on the top left of every page.

What if I get sent to the main page, but no "You are ..." message?

This can happen if you've given the correct IC Name and password but your web browser is not giving Informed Consent the "cookies" we use for authentication: when you sign-in, your browser gets a cookie containing a code proving it's really you, which it gives back to Informed Consent when you look at other pages. This allows us to show you extra options, such as submitting event details or adding posts to your weblog. You need to make sure your browser is not blocking cookies.
For recent versions of Internet Explorer (IE), see Microsoft's Internet Explorer 5 and Internet Explorer 6 instructions on cookies. In brief, check that you've not set IE to block all cookies. (It should work ok even if you set the Privacy setting to High.) If this still doesn't help, even after restarting IE and trying to sign-in again, you can clear your browser's cache of cookies by going to Tools > Internet Options > General > Delete Cookies.
For recent versions of Netscape, Mozilla etc, make sure that Edit > Preferences > Privacy & Security > Cookies > is set to "Enable Cookies" or "Enable Cookies for the originating website only." The "Manage Stored Cookies" button on that tab also has an option to remove cookies if you still have problems.
Clearing out your cookies and restarting your browser, as described above, seems to fix a lot of "no obvious problem" situations.

I've forgotten my password!

You can use the password reminder page to get a reminder of your password emailed to you.

Can I or my partner sign-up with multiple profiles?

There's no technical reason why you can't do this: signing-in with one removes the previous sign-in with the other, and you can switch back by just signing-in with the first again.
We don't mind multiple people who share the same computers from signing-up with different profiles, or people maintaining an additional profile for their business or event. However, you must acknowledge the profiles you own at the top of your profile descriptions.

How do I sign out?

When you're signed-in, there is a sign-out link near the top right of every page. Signing-out stops anyone else from using your profile from that computer by overwriting the authentication code cookie in your browser.

Can I do that automatically?

When you sign-in, you have the option of choosing how long to stay signed-in for. If you tick "Remember me on this computer" you will stay signed-in until you sign-out or sign-in from another computer. With that choice, exiting your web browser or even rebooting your computer makes no difference: you'll still be signed in.

Can I be signed-in twice at the same time?

If you are signed-in on one computer but then sign-in again with another (or with a different browser on the same computer), the first authentication code stored in the browser stops being valid. (ie it gets overwritten inside the Informed Consent system by the new code.) This means you cannot be signed-in on two computers at the same time. One use of this, is that if you use Informed Consent from someone else's computer or in an internet cafe, as soon as you sign-in somewhere else, the previous sign-in doesn't work any more. (This is extremely useful if you forget to sign-out on a public machine!)

How do I get a picture on my profile?

The first step is to upload a picture using the Manage Pictures page in Your Settings. Once the picture has been approved, find it again via Manage Pictures and look at the full size version of it, on it's own page (keep clicking on the picture to get to that page.) If you're signed-in, there will be a button in the blue box next to the picture to make it your main profile picture. If you change your mind, either make another picture your profile picture, or go back to the picture's own page and use the button there to turn it off.