There are so many important requests in this thread regarding the members area, I have a few to add of my own. I would not have signed up for this service had I known of the many limitations to this feature before becoming mired in its problems.
As many have pointed out, not only is there no way to "approve" members as they sign up, but the various Profile types SquareSpace currently creates for the different ways a visitor interacts with your site cannot be manually managed or merged— though a visitor accessing these different site functions runs into ample opportunity to put themselves on the wrong path.
For example:
I have a Members Area that is gated with a subscription price. If you click Join through this Members Area portal you will create a Member Account (along with a member profile and subscriber profile.) However, if a visitor clicks Sign In, below the Join button that following credentials window includes a footer that invites someone to "Create an Account". Despite the fact this visitor arrived here through the Members Portal, they will not create a Member or Subscriber account/profile, if they click this"Create an Account" link . They will instead create a Customer account. Which does not give them any access to the member/subscriber content, and site operators cannot edit on their behalf.
These paths are further complicated by putting a LogIn button in your primary Nav. One would want to do this to give already subscribed members a way to log in without going through the Sign Up page. (saving a click.) One would also want to do this if you have selected the option for Members Only Navigation Links to appear in the Members Panel— why? Because "Account" is what the Log In button changes to upon login and the members panel only appears when someone clicks "Account" from the main nav. While you can remove this login option from the main nav, that means having to opt for members area navigation options that either replace the public nav, or do not appear at all. Obviously this is an issue for anyone who needs their public nav to be permanently available to visitors whether or not they are logged in members.
Some simple solves for this that should be implemented ASAP:
1) Just allow site operators to edit user profiles. If we can set customer accounts to member/subscriber accounts as well, problem solved. We can correct user errors made because of complicated UXD on the back end.
2) Divorce the option to create a Customer Account from the path to creating a Member/Subscriber account. The user does not know or care the difference. Keeping these separate removes the opportunity for user error.
3) Create another Member Area Navigation display option that is not dependant on having turned on the Account Login in navigation option such as appending the current Public Navigation with additional Member Navigation links rather than replacing it so that users do not have to rely on the Login/ Account link in nav to access Members Area content through the Members Panel— this option would eliminate theLoginIn link from the nav to avoid further user errors with account creation.
4) Ensure the Members Area Sign In page is far more editable / customizable than it currently is would also provide users with some options for working around these constraints.
Further to these issues, current documentation leaves it very unclear as to how Subscriber/Member profiles differ.
Until at least one of these is implemented the Members Area features are costing me an excess of time. In the mean time I can only hope user: tuanphan finds this post and offers to take a look at some of my currently clumsy CSS workarounds.
TSanto got a reaction from lindz5223 in Edit/Add Digital Product Images on Members Account Panel
