San Diego Math Circle

Troubleshooting

The following lists error messages generated during the data-entry phase of registration, together with possible remedies:

Username is invalid (too long, too short, or contains invalid characters). Hint- Usernames must contain only alphanumeric characters (no spaces)

THE FIX - Usernames must be 4 - 20 alphanumeric characters without spaces or punctuation.

Password is invalid (passwords must be between 6 and 20 characters in length)

THE FIX - Passwords are case-sensitive and must consist of 6-20 alphanumeric characters without spaces or punctuation.

We recommend against weak passwords consisting of a word or brief phrase. We do recommend strong passwords that combine upper and lower case characters with numerals in non-linguistic patterns.

Improper email address formatting

This means that one or more of the email addresses entered into the registration form is not in a functional format. This is often the result of a period or "dot" being mistyped as a comma, for example, or a space slipping in unnoticed.

THE FIX - Correct the typing error, or if you do not see an error, try clearing the whole field and retyping the address with extra care.

Field __________ must be filled in.

This means that the required input field was left blank. Required fields are highlighted in blue and marked with an asterisk (*)

THE FIX - Locate the specified field and supply the required information.

The following provides more information about the required fields:

There are two sets of information that are required to be filled before the electronic registration will be accepted:

The first set of required information pertains to the user name, password, and primary email to be associated with the student being registered. The user name and password are for the convenience, privacy, and security of the user and may be chosen as desired, though we recommend strong passwords. The primary email is used for authentication and is the default email for notices relating to the user. Owing to the fact that virtually all registered users are minors and some are below the age of 13, the primary email must be a "live" address actively used by one of the parents or guardians whose names appears on the registration, not a student email address.

Owing to the importance of these items of information in the function and security of the website and student information, none of these user fields is optional.

The second set of required information pertains to more real-world information having much the same purpose in providing identification and contact information for the student and the students parents or guardians in a form that can be used by SDMC administration. This information includes age, grade, school, and gender, as these are used by SDMC in multiple aspects of tracking student participation.

We have attempted to anticipate and avoid possible registration difficulties by leaving certain fields non-required; e.g., by not requiring a complete set of cell phone numbers or personal emails from both parents. We ask, however, that these non-required fields be completed as thoroughly as is consistent with your needs for privacy, as it is helpful for us to have this information.

If yours is a single-parent family, entering a simple notation of "none" or "n/a" in the appropriate parent name box will satisfy the information requirement in a manner that will be understood.

The text from the image was not entered correctly.

"The image" is the graphic of jumbled alphanumeric characters immediately preceding the "submit" button. This is a security feature designed to defeat automated "bots" that troll the web attempting to hack websites. It functions much like the security code on the backs of most credit cards in that it requires that a human being read the randomly generated security code imbedded in the graphic and insert it to validate that a real person is in control of the submission process.

If you misread the graphic or simply input the wrong code, there is no disaster. Your submission will be aborted and you will receive the error message at the top of the form, but the information you have entered remains present in the form permitting review, and a new image is generated for a second try. Simply enter the new security code in the new image.

 

The following addresses some known issues that can arise during the validation phase of registration, together with possible remedies:

My registration appeared to be accepted when I hit the "submit" button, but I never received the validation email.

We are aware of two ways this can happen: Mail filtering and a faulty email address.

Mail filtering. It is possible that the validation email was sent, but triggered spam filters. If this happens at the end-user level, the validation email may be diverted to a junk mail folder and may be recoverable from there. The greater difficulty can occur if the validation email is filtered out by a user's Internet Service Provider (ISP). The validation email may not be recoverable in this case.

THE FIX - At the user level, junk mail settings can be changed to identify SDMC as a "safe sender". The best way to do this is to declare safe the entire domain "sdmathcircle.org" or next best, the specific email address admin@sdmathcircle.org. If the filtering is occurring at the ISP, one may be able to make the above filtering changes using user controls under the account settings at ISP, or seek help from the ISP in making these setting changes.

Faulty email address. A user may recall incorrectly which address was entered as the "primary" email address. This should have been an active email address for one of a student's parents; however, if a family uses multiple addresses, it is possible that the validation email went to a different address than was anticipated.

THE FIX - Check all family email addresses and their junk mail folders.

An email address can be correctly formatted and thus be accepted by our registration tool but still be an incorrect address, for example, by being misspelled. Unfortunately, this is difficult for the user to check independently since the registration has been submitted but not yet validated.

THE FIX - There is little that can be done about this without the manual intervention of SDMC administration to review the validity of the primary email address. Contact SDMC. 

 

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