Extension:Email required to sign up

This describes a hack for wiki 1.5.6 by Tbsmith that requires an email address to sign up.

It is important to note that this will only require something to be specified in the email field. It does not actually check to see if that email address is valid or if the user actually owns the email address. Combine this method with Extension:Email_authentication_before_editing (in 1.5) or the $wgEmailConfirmToEdit variable (in 1.6) for greater effect.

In 1.5, change the first line and add the second to languages/Language.php at about line 600. In 1.6, you have to change languages/Messages.php instead of Language.php around line 380.

'youremail'    => 'Email', 'noemailonsignup'      => 'An email address is required to sign up.',

Alternatively you can browse to MediaWiki:Youremail and MediaWiki:Noemailonsignup on your website, and edit it there. This means you won't need to continue doing this each time you upgrade.

In recent versions (at least 1.8.2), a line below the sign up box appears: "* E-mail (optional): Enables others to contact you through your user or user_talk page without needing to reveal your identity." To remove this, go to MediaWiki:Prefs-help-email and delete or change the text to your liking.

Add to includes/SpecialUserlogin.php (around line 220):

if ( !$this->mEmail ) { $this->mainLoginForm( wfMsg( 'noemailonsignup' ) ); return false; }

Put it just above this block:

if ( 0 != strcmp( $this->mPassword, $this->mRetype ) ) { $this->mainLoginForm( wfMsg( 'badretype' ) ); return false; }