Registration and user accounts

Registering for an event creates a WordPress user account when the email address is not already known to the site. This page explains why, what it means, and how to manage it.

What happens on registration

1. The visitor submits the form with a name and an email address.
2. If that email already belongs to a user, that user is used.
3. If it does not, a new user is created, with the email address as both the login and the email, and the submitted name stored on the account.
4. The registration is stored on the event, linked to that user.

Why it works this way

The user account is the identity behind an attendee. It is what makes the following possible:

• One registration per email per event. A second attempt is refused with a clear message.
• A readable attendee list, showing the person's name rather than a raw email address.
• Recognising returning attendees across events, because the same address maps to the same user.

What this means in practice

Your user list grows with every event. A public event with three hundred registrations adds up to three hundred user accounts.

Consequences to plan for:

• the Users screen becomes long;
• these accounts exist as ordinary site users;
• deleting a registration from an event does not delete the user account;
• an attendee who registers for five events is one user, listed on five events.

Registrations are not passwords

Attendees are not asked to choose a password and are not signed in by registering. From their perspective they filled in a form.

Do not describe registration as "creating an account" in your public copy — it is not what the visitor thinks they are doing, and it invites questions you will have to answer.

Do, however, mention it in your privacy clause, because it is what actually happens. See Privacy and consent copy.

Housekeeping

Decide a policy before a large event:

• Do accounts created by registration stay? Usually yes; they are how repeat attendees are recognized.
• Who reviews them? Someone should look at Users periodically.
• What roles do they have? They are ordinary site users; confirm the default role under Settings → General is appropriate for people who only registered for an event.

That last point is worth checking once, before publishing your first event.

Deleting attendee data

Two separate deletions:

For a data-deletion request you will normally need both. Note that deleting a user removes them from the site entirely, including any other events they registered for.

Existing users

If someone registers with the address of an existing site user — a customer, a subscriber, an editor — that existing account is used. Nothing is created and nothing about the account is changed except the recorded registration.

That is correct behavior, and it is another reason the email address is the key.

Verify

1. Register with an email that is not a user, from a private window.
2. Open Users and confirm the account was created with that address as the login.
3. Confirm the attendee panel shows the person's name.
4. Register again with the same address for the same event and confirm it is refused.
5. Register with the same address for a different event and confirm it is accepted, with no second user created.