simplifying registration page

[mel]

How can i simplify the registration page.

A lot of my potential members were turned off by the long of registration page, eventhough most of them are optional.

How do i hide the forum options from the registration page. The members could change their options later on their respective profile page.

I just want to make registration page less intimidating to new users.

I was thinking of putting form type="hidden" on every form in the options page, yet i don't know what would be the effect, it might ruin the database or something.

anyone else has any suggestion?

[Wayne Luke]

Select the default you want out of the yes and no or other options. Make them hidden fields. Delete their corresponding text rows in the HTML.

[Wayne Luke]

I forgot to add that you can look at the registration page at Sitepointforums.com for an example.

[mel]

thanks, wayne.

I guess what u mean by making hidden fields is changing the type from "radio" for instance to "hidden" right? (i'm not that good at html obviously)

BTW, your site registration has quite a bit clutter than what I need. I intend to make all the options diappear and customizable only later from the profile/option menu.

Yet, I notice you have that cool black border on the fill-in boxes, instead of the regular 3D look. How did u do that?

Plus, about your integrated newsletter registration, what is that program that u can use and integrate with mysql/php/vbulletin?

[Wayne Luke]

The black borders are done in CSS.

Our newsletters are hosted on a Lyris listserver owned by Moreover.com which is one of our strategic partners. The newsletter integrations simply sends off a subscription email to the listserver in the users name. So if they are checked they get subscribed, if not they don't.

The reason that there are some options left is that our demographics expects the options that are still there. The others effect the basic functioning of the board and I felt were necessary to a smooth operation for the end user.

[ldydvr]

Quick Q ...

Re: Your "Demographics" area ... When you add additional fields to the Reg area like that (ie. Annual Income) do you have to make any additional Database changes?

I would like to change some of mine like "Interest" since my site is an Specific Interest type site but I would also like to ADD some others.

Thanks in advance