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I've been having problems creating a login on the Science Fiction & Fantasy stack.

I click on Sign up, then enter my details. I get an email with a link to click to complete sign up. I click on the link, and get a page with the following message:

Wrong Link

You have clicked on an invalid link. Please make sure that you have typed the link correctly. If are copying this link from a mail reader please ensure that you have copied all the lines in the link.

I've had similar problems trying to register for Google or Facebook.

I've been posting using cookies, but my reputation keeps resetting.

After my latest reset, my reputation is currently zero. I don't have the add comments privilege.

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  • "I know this is off topic for science fiction questions, but I can't ask anywhere else" I think you can safely ask on the network-wide Meta Stack Exchange; browse a bit before doing so though, make sure your issue wasn't already reported and solved.
    – Jenayah
    Oct 29, 2020 at 18:40
  • Jenayah, my post has been edited. I described how you can't ask a question on Meta unless you are already registered. Not sure why someone felt the need to remove that part.
    – Pete
    Oct 30, 2020 at 23:38

1 Answer 1

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This is the HTML based email you got:

Meta, you're almost done, button Complete your registration, footer: Stack Overflow, 110 Willamstreet, 28th floor, New York, NY 10038, <3

When you click that blue button you're actually navigating to an url that looks like this https://sg-links.stackoverflow.email/ls/click?upn=[many many chars]. If there is something wrong with the [many many chars] (for example you missed one) you end up with the error message:

Wrong Link

You have clicked on an invalid link. Please make sure that you have typed the link correctly. If are copying this link from a mail reader please ensure that you have copied all the lines in the link.

There is no styling with this message, it is plain and boring.

If you get that error message do check the email is complete (notice it has a footer with the address in it), check that the browser you use is able to handle long urls and verify no user scripts, anti virus, firewalls interfere with that url. Most email clients should allow you to right-click on the blue button and copy the link. Try that link in a different browser and/or on a different network to rule out local issues.

The email also does come with a text/plain variant. You might need a decent mail client, like Thunderbird, to be able to switch to that view.

In that plain/text view you'll find an url that looks like https://meta.stackexchange.com/users/signup-finish?email=[your email and many many charaters]. If there is something wrong with the [many many characters] (for example one went missing) you'll get the message:

The complete signup link you just used is incomplete.

Please try signing up again. If you're still having trouble, contact support.

And that message is shown with styling from the SE site:

shows SE site, left navigation bar with Home, questions, tags, unanswered, top bar with search and help, main content with the error message The complete signup link you just used is incomplete.

If you get that error, double check the email is complete. After the url you'll find the text "Stack Overflow, 110 William Street, 28th floor, New York, NY 10038 <3" so if that is missing or garbled you know something is off. If the link seems complete then try a different browser and/or network and check your antivirus/firewalls or other local software that could interfere with receiving email or sending urls.

Conclusion

There is most likely something wrong on your end, either your internet service provider or mail client doesn't correctly process the received email, causing the link and its security measures to be incomplete. It is not something Stack Exchange can fix for you.

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  • Okay, that actually helped. When I copied the link and pasted it into the address bar, it worked. My account is now registered. I've got several old accounts which I've requested to be merged. Still waiting for that. As for the problem being on my end, maybe it is, but could it be that the message sent out has a bug, and doesn't work on some browsers? Something you might want to look into.
    – Pete
    Oct 30, 2020 at 22:07
  • @Pete well, it might be true that it doesn't work on some browsers but you're the first to report and you didn't include which e-mail client (brand and version), browser (brand and version), Anti-virus (brand and version), Firewall (brand and version), Operating System (brand and version), Internet Service Provider, type of access, rough location in the world so that makes investigating a bit of a guess as you can assume that the software bits are tested against what is supported. Are you using gmail?
    – rene
    Oct 31, 2020 at 7:17
  • Also if copying the link did work then there is nothing wrong with the message that got sent. It proves it is complete. Something goes wrong on your end when you click the link and when the browser handles that link. And I nor anyone else except you has access to your local machine so I'm afraid you need to do the detective work.
    – rene
    Oct 31, 2020 at 7:20

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