Solved : The 'Username does not exist' conundrum

1/11/2018 14:30 hrs

Yours truly had heard about this exciting platform ages ago, and yet had never come around to getting on-board. Finally, I remind myself to take a peek today and take the plunge. I open up Steemit, browse through multiple sections and articles, fall in love with the variety of topics being discussed out here in the community, and sign-up. As my fingers tingle in anticipation of writing my first piece, I hit a roadblock. The message on the screen tells me that while I've been registered, I'll have to wait for approval before I'm an 'official' member of the community. Darn it!

1/11/2018 23:00 hrs

An email pops up delivering the happy news that my registration has been approved, and I can now login to partake in all the festivities. So I rush to my browser, open up Steemit, and log in with my username and what I assumed was my password. A message in an ominous shade of red pops up telling me that the username does not exist... heartbreak.

But... but... this was my username, the very (unflattering) name I had keyed in while registering. I try all variations of the password and username, and go to bed defeated.

1/12/2018 16:00 hrs

I go back to Steemit like a man with a mission and type out all possible username and password combinations, to no avail. Then I do what half-educated person would have done in the first place - Google the problem. I find the same problem having been narrated by dozens of users on Steemit and other platforms, to no avail. Having half given up, I open up my confirmation email to see if there is anything I can do. I click on the login link, and Voila! There is the solution. How could I have been so dumb?!

THE SOLUTION

Once a user has his/her account registered, trying to login directly on the Steemit website using the username wouldn't work - yep, it's not a glitch, rather the process. They'll have to click on the link in the approval email which says "To login, click the link below", which lands on an Account Creation page where the password needs to be generated, and only then is the account well and truly created. Only now, the username exists.

I'm sure a whole lot of folks - like me - get deflated after trying to login using the username and password to login as soon as they receive the email. Too bad that a great community with good process flows and an intuitive UI places such a conundrum right before account activation.

1/13/18 01:50 hrs

TEAM STEEMIT, can you do optimize the above mentioned process and make on-boarding smoother?!