Chapter 3. User Accounts

Without people, your community doesn't exist!

For any community site to be considered successful, it must first have a group of dedicated users. The larger the community's population, the more successful it is considered to be. It would make sense then that we create a way for users to come to our site, create an account, and become a part of our community.

In this chapter, we will discuss many of the common features that are related to user accounts. This will include handling registration, authentication, permissions, and password security. We will also go over some basic tools such as password reminders, account administration, and CAPTCHA. This chapter will provide the foundation for our users upon which we will be able to build all of our other features.