Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Online forms
Raised as a usability problem by 12 people on Hacker News over 16 years (2011–2026), in 12 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Sign-ups reject valid emails with dashes or self-hosted domainsUnreviewed
20112026- Valid new email addresses are rejected by third-party validation, blocking account registration2025-12-17
- Sites reject a valid custom domain email, so users are locked out after repeated login failures2022-06-02
- Sign-ups reject valid email addresses containing a dash or from self-hosted domains2019-03-22
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 12 complaints
- Signup requires many back-and-forth steps switching between email, SMS and browser2026-09-06
- Cancel hides a section, but its data is still submitted later by mistake2026-07-29
- Submit stays disabled with no visible reason; checkbox must be unlocked by clicking the terms link2026-06-10
- Valid new email addresses are rejected by third-party validation, blocking account registration2025-12-17
- Mandatory address and phone fields block people without permanent ones from completing forms2025-02-22
- Sites reject a valid custom domain email, so users are locked out after repeated login failures2022-06-02
- Sign-ups reject valid email addresses containing a dash or from self-hosted domains2019-03-22
- Accented name rejected with an error saying the name is not valid2016-03-25
- Sites reject valid email addresses containing plus signs or multiple dots2015-08-04
- Long multi-page forms hide requirements until late and repeat requests for email and password2011-10-27
- Password must be retyped whenever an unrelated form field has an error2011-04-13
- Forced unique usernames keep rejecting common names with 'name already in use' errors2011-04-03