Missing submissions and email confirmation of submissions

One person in our contest says they submitted photo(s) but does not see them in the voting. I don't know what to tell this person. I have had others ask me how they know that there photos have been submitted. There is no confirmation email I can set so submitters would be notified that their submission was received. If there was a confirmation email sent, I could tell submitters to look for that email and if they don't receive it, to check with the PollUnit admin.

So, for now, is there anything I can do for this person that claims they made a submission? Is there any way to check this? Will you implement a confirmation email in the future to avoid this problem?

Here’s how photo submissions in PollUnit currently work:

• If an error occurs during upload or submission, the user is shown an error message on screen. In this case, the submission is not stored in the system.
• In rare cases (for example loss of internet connection, browser crash, or closing the page during upload), it may not be possible to display an error message. These submissions are also not saved.
• If no error occurs, the user is redirected to a thank-you page, which confirms that the submission was successful.
• Only successfully completed submissions are persisted and therefore visible in the voting.

Because of this, we unfortunately cannot verify failed submission attempts. If a participant encountered an error message, there is no data stored on our side that could be checked afterwards. You can only verify whether a submission exists by checking if the photo appears in the photo contest.

What you can do right now

You already have the option to enable »Request confirmation email (double opt-in)« for submissions.

When this option is active:

• Submitters receive an email after uploading their photo
• They must confirm their submission via the email
• You see when the submission is confirmed
• This serves as a clear confirmation for both you and the participant that the submission was received successfully

This is currently the best way to avoid uncertainty and gives you a clear reference point when participants ask whether their submission went through. Please note that confirmation emails depend on external email systems and cannot be guaranteed in all cases (e.g. spam filtering or inbox availability).

It's too late to make any changes to address this now as submissions have ended. According to your tooltip: "If email confirmation is required, participants are asked to enter their email address. Subsequently, PollUnit sends an email with a confirmation link. Participation is only possible after confirmation." So this is intended only to validate their email address. If participation is only possible after confirmation, this will not confirm submissions (participation) which happen after confirmation, correct?

I did not enable the thank-you page, but that sounds like it would provide confirmation of submissions, and I can edit the text on that page so it says the submission(s) were successful. Then I would also need to tell submitters to look for that. However it would be preferable to send an email confirmation of their submissions, because that is not temporary like the display of the thank-you page would be, and I would not have to add more to the instructions for submitters to explain this.

Yes, the email confirmation validates the submitter’s email address and shows the submitted data for review. As a generic tool, we cannot distinguish all fine-grained use-case nuances. That said, while this may not fully match what you are looking for, it could still be helpful.

Now I'm confused. Is the email confirmation sent before or after submissions are made? If after, your tooltip text needs to be clarified or corrected. Also, when you sign up for an account, your email is verified. So if submitters were required to have a PollUnit account, would they be asked to confirm their email again when submitting?

How it works:

1. The user submits an entry that is initially unconfirmed.
2. We send an email with confirmation instructions.
3. The user confirms the submission via the email.

Our Thank You page shows the following content after a successful upload/submission:

Thank you!
Photo successfully added.
You should receive an email from PollUnit to confirm your details.