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Trouble registering, logging in, changing password
Contents
- 1 Trouble registering, logging in, changing password or email address, remembering name, changing name
- 2 The login button
- 3 To change password
- 4 To change email address
- 5 Lost both password AND email address
- 6 Usual reason for trouble
- 7 Login name
- 8 Confirm your email address
- 9 Pick a permanent password
- 10 Now you can use the OEIS!
- 11 Lost submissions
- 12 Error message: An unexpected error happened while authenticating
- 13 Sending email to an author or editor
- 14 Do not use your email address to log in!
Trouble registering, logging in, changing password or email address, remembering name, changing name
This page describes how to fix some common problems that users encounter with the OEIS.
Suggestions for further topics should be sent to njasloane@gmail.com.
Important: Emails from admin@oeis.org are sometimes classified as spam! Check your spam folder!
The login button
The main login button is on the main lookup page https://oeis.org at the top right.
For troubleshooting login issues, the detailed list of steps in
is the starting point.
The wiki requires a separate login (see below).
To change password
If you have forgotten your password, go to
fill in your registered username, and click "E-mail new password".
After you get a temporary password, go to http://oeis.org/wiki/Special:UserLogin and log in using the temporary password. You will be required to pick a real password.
To change email address
Go to the OEIS wiki, https://oeis.org/wiki/
Log in; then follow the "My Preferences" link at the top of any wiki page.
The direct URL is https://oeis.org/wiki/Special:Preferences
Lost both password AND email address
In this case you are in big trouble.
The best thing is start over and create a new registration using a slightly different version of your name, and then ask an OEIS Bureaucrat to merge the old and new usernames.
In an emergency, a Bureaucrat can change your email address for it, but it is not an easy thing to do.
Usual reason for trouble
Most of the troubles are caused by people forgetting the following important fact.
The OEIS now has two parts!!
- The main OEIS page is https://oeis.org. Use this page to look up a sequence, search the database, contribute a new sequence, send a correction to a sequence, etc. Before you use this page, you should log in — see the link in the top right corner!. And before you can log in, you must register!
- The OEIS wiki is https://oeis.org/wiki. Use this page to register: https://oeis.org/wiki/Special:RequestAccount or to change your password: https://oeis.org/wiki/Special:ChangePassword.
Another frequent cause of trouble is forgetting your login name. Your login name must be spelled perfectly, including punctuation. Check the list of Registered Users to get the exact spelling.
Login name
- When you register, at Register, you must enter your real name (use John M. Smith, NOT john smith, NOT johnny33)
- Give a real biography. Examples: GOOD: Professor of Mathematics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA. GOOD: Orchestra conductor, Lima, Peru, lover of combinatorics. BAD: "Here are five words".
- The link to your user page on the OEIS wiki may use underscores, but use spaces, not underscores, when logging in. The OEIS wiki may allow you to log in with either version, but the main page won't.
- Forgotten your login name? Go to the Registered Users page on the OEIS Wiki and look for it.
- When logging in to the OEIS or the OEIS Wiki, you must type your name EXACTLY as you registered it.
- To change your login name, register again under the new name, then ask one of the bureaucrats to merge the two logins
- A common source of problems is not knowing what your login name is. This is the name you used when you registered, and usually has the format Firstname Inits. Lastname. See the list of Registered Users on the OEIS Wiki to get the exact spelling and punctuation. (Your login name is not your email address.)
- Sometimes unicode characters in your name cause trouble, but not always. If you have a unicode character in your name and the system is not letting you register, perhaps try replacing the character with a "Latin" equivalent.
Confirm your email address
- When you register, you will immediately be sent an automatic email message from admin@oeis.org, asking you to confirm your email address.
- You must open the link in that email to confirm your email address! Since the email is used to send you your temporary password, we need confirmation that you can successfully receive email from admin@oeis.org.
- The message may look like spam, so if you don't see it in a few minutes, look in your spam folder.
- The account is not created (and your temporary password sent to you) until an administrator has reviewed your request. Sometimes there may be a delay of a day or two.
- To change email address or password: log into the OEIS wiki, then click on the link to "my preferences" at the top of the wiki page.
- If you never received the automatic email message from admin@oeis.org, try a second time to register. But now you will need to use a slightly different name or you will be told that that name is already taken. So make up a fake middle initial or middle name - X. is a popular choice - and add a note saying please delete the X, and we will delete it when approving your request.
Pick a permanent password
- After you get a temporary password, go to http://oeis.org/wiki/Special:UserLogin and log in using the temporary password. You will be required to pick a real password.
Now you can use the OEIS!
- Go to the main OEIS page, http://oeis.org and log in — see the link in the top right corner!.
Lost submissions
- A common mistake is to forget to click the button that says "These changes are ready for review by an OEIS editor".
- Until you click that button, your sequence or comment is in limbo.
- To see the stack of submitted sequences and comments waiting to be edited, use http://oeis.org/draft
- To see the stack of sequences or comments that are in limbo, use http://oeis.org/draft?editing=1
Error message: An unexpected error happened while authenticating
If you see the above error message, please read the following page:
Error message: An unexpected error happened while authenticating
Sending email to an author or editor
- Provided the person has an OEIS user page, first go to the OEIS Wiki (https://oeis.org/wiki), and login in the upper right corner.
- Then go to the user's page (enter, for example, User:John Doe, in the Wiki search box).
- Then there should be a link in the Toolbox on the left saying "E-mail this user".
- Of course, there are many possible reasons why a contributor, even one with a user page, may not have a current email address.
Do not use your email address to log in!
- Use your name to login (the name you registered with, spelt EXACTLY the way you registered).
- Do NOT use your email address to login. It may or may not work, but it will cause you a lot of trouble.