# Joining and signing in

> How visitors create an account in a community, confirm their email, answer join questions, wait for approval or buy access, and sign in again.

Source: https://support.estage.com/community-joining
Part of the ESTAGE Support help center (https://support.estage.com). Full knowledge base: https://support.estage.com/llms-full.txt

---

This page walks through a community's front door as a visitor sees it: creating an account,
getting in, and signing in again later. Use it to know what your members will meet, or to help
someone who's stuck at sign-up. What a visitor meets depends on the community's **Visibility**
and approval settings — admins set those in
[General settings](https://support.estage.com/community-general-settings#access--membership).

Open the community's address in a browser. A visitor who isn't signed in sees **Join Group** and
**Login** in the top bar (on a phone, one **Join / Login** button).

## Creating an account

1. Select **Join Group**. **Create your account** opens.
2. Enter **First Name**, **Last Name**, **Email**, **Password** and **Please Confirm Password**. If
   the community asks for a phone number, **Phone Number** appears too — required or optional, in
   international format with the country code.
3. Select **Create New Account**. Doing so accepts the community's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy,
   linked under the button.
4. **We sent you a code** — enter the code from the email in **Verification Code** and select
   **Verify**. No email? Check the spam folder, then select **Resend code** under *"Didn't get the
   email?"*.

> **Tip**
>
> Typed the wrong address? On **We sent you a code**, select **Use a different email** to go back
> and correct it.

If the email already has an account in this community, the form says *"This email address is
already registered. Please try logging in, or reset your password if needed."* — select **Login**
instead, or [reset the password](#forgot-your-password).

Once the email is confirmed, what happens next depends on the community.

## Getting in

| Community | What the new member sees |
| --- | --- |
| **Public** | They're in straight away. |
| **Private**, with approval | The join questions, if the community has them, then **Request Sent!** — *"Your request is under review."* They get an email when they're approved. |
| **Private**, auto-approved | They're in straight away. |
| **Paid** | A checkout for the product that gives access: the **Payment Summary**, payment details and **Buy**. Once the payment goes through, they're in. |

> **Note**
>
> While a request is waiting, the community's info panel shows **Pending Approval** instead of a join
> button — there's nothing more the visitor needs to do until an admin decides.

**Join questions** open as *"Please answer questions to join this group"* — a text answer or one
choice per question. The answers go to the admins with the request.

Someone who is signed in but isn't a member yet sees **Join Group** — *"To engage, like, post, and
comment in this community!"* — and selects **JOIN GROUP**, or, in a Paid community, the checkout.
The same approval rules apply.

Approving and declining requests is covered in [Members & join requests](https://support.estage.com/community-members).

## Finishing your profile

Once a new member is in and has no profile photo, **Let's Finish Your Profile Now!** opens: a photo
(upload one, or **Take a photo** with the camera), the first name and a short bio. Select
**Complete**, or **Skip for now**.

The photo is optional. After **Skip for now**, the window doesn't open by itself again for a week;
until a photo is added, a dot on the avatar and **Add profile photo** in the avatar menu bring it
back. Everything here can be changed later in
[Profile Settings](https://support.estage.com/community-your-account#your-profile-in-this-community).

## Signing in

1. Select **Login**. **Welcome back** opens.
2. Enter your **Email** and **Password**, and select **Login**.

If the community uses two-factor authentication, you're then asked for a code — see
[Your account in a community](https://support.estage.com/community-your-account). If you're asked to set a new password
(*"Your Password is Expired"*), enter a **New Password** and select **Update Password**.

### Forgot your password

1. On **Welcome back**, select **Forgot Password?**.
2. Enter the email you use in this community and select **Reset Password**.
3. Open the link in the email and set a new password. The link works for 60 minutes.

If your password isn't accepted, keep in mind that a community may have its own password, different
from your ESTAGE account's. **Reset it** under the error message starts the same reset.

## Things worth knowing

- **Your profile is per community.** Joining a second community gives you a separate profile
  there — see [Your account in a community](https://support.estage.com/community-your-account).
- **After several wrong attempts you have to wait** before trying again, or reset your password.

Related: [Community general settings](https://support.estage.com/community-general-settings)