SnipSnap register without email

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article is also [posted on
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### I don't want your email address...

[SnipSnap](http://snipsnap.org/), which <strike>runs</strike> used to run this
site, lets visitors register so that they can log in, comment on existing pages,
and create their own pages. The default registration page asks you for a
username, a a password, and optionally, an email address. It's not obvious that
the email is optional, though, and many people have learned not to give their
email address to random web sites.

[My site](/) is small and personal, so I don't need email addresses. On the
contrary, I don't want anything to discourage my friends from registering. So, I
decided to remove the email box on the registration page altogether.

### ...so don't give it to me!

I could do this by
[editing the JSP files](http://www.snipsnap.org/comments/CodingQuestions), but
that was a little too invasive for my tastes. (I really should do this
eventually, though...anyone want to post a tutorial on editing the SnipSnap
JSPs?) Instead, I used CSS, and simply added this to
`misc.css` in my [SnipSnap theme](snarfed_org_snipsnap_theme):

    /* don't ask people for their email address */
    input#email { display: none; }

The CSS only explicitly targets the input field, but it hides both the input
field and the label. I believe that's because the label's _for_ attribute points
to the input field, like so:

    <label for="email">Email address:</label>

In any case, it works, so I won't argue!

### In the old days, we walked, uphill, both ways!

Earlier versions of SnipSnap didn't provide an id for the email input. So, I
originally did this with Javascript, DOM, and CSS. Here's how. Save this as
noemail.js in your application's directory:

    /* Hide the email address input box on
        /exec/register.jsp .
     */

    emailbox = document.getElementById('email');
    if (emailbox) {
      emailbox.style.display = 'none';
    }

    label = document.getElementsByTagName('label')[1];
    if (label &&
        label.innerHTML == 'Email address:') {
      label.style.display = 'none';
    }

Then, add a link to noemail.js:

    <script type="text/javascript" src="/snarfed.js" />

Again, you could edit the JSPs to put this in the <meta> section, but I'm intent
on avoiding the JSPs, so I just wrote a [macro](snipsnap_macros) to
insert this tag.

Hope this helps!