I am trying to register my son on my.scouting.org and have run into a series of problems. His Member ID is 135817060 and when I go to create the account, it is able to find him in the database.
But when I try to create an account with a username composed of his first name and last name concatenated together, it says the username already exists. Since it is extremely unlikely there is another scout with the same first name and last name, I try to do a forgot password request on that same username. But I never receive an e-mail for a password reset request. So I tried the Forgot Username request and it says “No accounts were found matching the information provided”. Ok, so his unique username exists in the system but there is no account matching his information. Bizarre, but whatever.
Ok, so next I try to create a new account for him with a slightly different username (a period in between his first name and last name). It doesn’t complain about that username and I can proceed through to setting up his Scouting America Credentials. This is where I run into a problem I keep having with system developers who assume every e-mail arrives instantly (I used to build such systems which is why this mistake drives me crazy). The system sends a validation code by e-mail with a 60-second expiration timeout. And when the e-mail finally arrives 5-10 minutes later, it is of course completely invalid by that time. Whoever designs a system with a 60-second expiration for an e-mailed code should be sent back to remedial system design training, it is one of the most naive and amateurish mistakes out there.
E-mail messages often go through many hops through the Internet to get to their eventual destination and you have no control over how quickly the messages are handed off from server to server. If there is a lot of e-mail traffic on certain servers, it’s common for e-mails to take 15-30 minutes or more to be delivered. Any expiration timeout on an e-mailed code of less than 5-10 minutes, or preferably 30-60 minutes, is ludicrous.
So how can I register my son on my.scouting.org given this improperly designed e-mail validation system?
@RandallSevery- if your scout has a member id..did the registration laps? What are you ultimately trying to do.
Beyond that the my.scouting.org team is not on these forums. You may need to work with your local council
@Stephen_Hornak, thank you for the prompt response. No, his registration didn’t lapse and he shows up under my account with a renewal date in the spring. I was trying to set him up with his own account to access Scoutbook independently from my parent/adult leader account.
So the only way to reach the my.scouting.org team is through the local council? I was looking for some kind of technical support contact, since this kind of systems issue doesn’t appear to be something the local council can resolve. I’m not doing anything wrong, the system is simply broken.
@RandallSevery - here is what the contact us at my.scouting says:
I gather you were following this:
@Stephen_Hornak, yes that was the process I was following. Ok, I’ll check with the local council, maybe know of an escalation procedure they can follow. Thanks.
@RandallSevery - yes they should as the my.scouting team only takes member care tickets from council staff. It could even be that the local council can get you past your issue.
it does almost seem like that is not the correct member ID
I am confused what you are trying - when I enter a username and try to reset password it gives 24 hour reset
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@DonovanMcNeil, I’m trying the “Create Account” function on my.scouting.org and then I’m selecting “Scouting America Credentials” for the login method. After clicking on “Create Account”, I get the dialog “Email validation is required to create an account”, and when I click on the “Send Code” button, I get a set of code input boxes and a countdown button for “Send Code Again” that counts down from 60 seconds to 0 that looks like the following:
Once the countdown gets to 0 the code input boxes disappear and the button changes back to “Send Code”. When the e-mail with the code finally arrives 10-15 minutes later, I can’t do anything with it as the option to enter the code has long since disappeared. As I mentioned before, whoever designed that interface assumed that all e-mail everywhere would always arrive in less then 60 seconds. And you know what they say about those who assume….
Ha. I just looked closer at the actual e-mail that is sent with the Email Validation Code, and the e-mail itself says “This code will expire in 1 hour”. Except that the input form to enter the code disappears in 60 seconds. Oops.
@RandallSevery- that is a talk to council for them to enter a member care ticket
