Invite system

ChrisGwynne

Hey

Just wondered if anybody was working on an invite system like Gmail, it's been discussed in the past but not sure if it fell on death ears.

Minisweeper

I doubt it'l have fallen on deaf ears entirely. It's what marks previous forums have lived on. Whether he'll be making an extension for this i'm not sure..

ChrisGwynne

please do mark.

LoOkOuT

That would be a really good extension, I think. Wish I could help you lot out and write something. Sorry : ( I'm useless. Anyone capable out there fancy it?

Mark

Aside from requiring some new tables, it would be pretty easy to accomplish with the new extension system.

I think the next thing on my list is finishing off bugs and then getting an extension manager up for the community. After that, maybe...

Anthony

That is quite an interesting idea. I would love to run a forum that only allows invites.

ithcy

i was working on one for 0.9.2 but never finished it. i could start it up again for 0.9.3...

Ben

That would be fantastic, I'd volunteer if I had any idea how to do it.

Anthony

Yeah, that would be great. I'm very picky with who I allow in my forums because of the type of dicussions I want.

chris

yay!

timberford

an invite only system would very cool.

3stripe

Coolio. They should have a different name though methinks...

drazin

i like this idea!

naaja

Here are some suggestions http://i1.tinypic.com/oarn5y.jpg /thanks to. http://www.visualthesaurus.com

Bergamot

Just call them "Golden Tickets"

naaja

Or "E Tickets" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_ticket /probably not...the mouse will come after ya!

3stripe

Call them licks. "Gae us a lick, pal, eh!" (Only works in a Scottish accent though) Mmmm tastes like Vanilla.

naaja

As a side note...I didn't like the work involved in approval but wanted to be certain that the email adress was valid. So, I wrote a confirmation "extension" (halfway between membership application and wide-open). User fills out the application and recieves an email with the page link plus hash. They then use the link to "verify" the email adress. The page automatically kicks them over to Member. Required a change to People.Class.UserManager.php, creation of a landing page and the addtion of one field (for the hash) in LUM_User. Seems to work but hasn't been abused yet.

Bergamot

Ugh, I hate email confirmation.

lech

Bergamot, many do, but I think it's a good thing in many cases if you're running a huge board and don't want a flood of idiocy.

Anthony

So can this be done, or no?

Minisweeper

well if naaja can create it as a normal extension i'm sure many people would be greatful...

lech

All you need are 3-5 form variables to create the invite: First/Last name, Email address, and temporary password (twice of course) all created by the person doing the invite. Then have a voting area with yes/no style invites where say 60% of the vote (60% of total users from when the person was invited) for that person has to be a yes in order for the system to send out the invite. Let the vote last until either 60% have voted yes or 30 days (whichever comes first) and if it fails, flush it out of the system.

Minisweeper

Well thats more complex than i was imaginging, and infact when i said he could create an extension i was talking about the email verification he's built in. But hey.
When i was thinking invite i was going for the uber simple o8/gmail style 'come join the fun, if people hate you i guess it's my ass on the line'

naaja

This would be really simple extension if you didn't keep track of how many invites a person has out, or what to do when an invite has been used. You could time limit it by encoding the time in the hash...but then it's easier to hack. Best solution ofcourse, involves another SQL table. Any changes that involve altering database stucture are not minor and can't be called simple "extensions". I set things up as "extensions" because when Mark makes big changes I can still figure out how to integreate what I got into new versions (usually), although a "one comment per thread" hack I did (used for voting) has gone completely haywire with the 0.9.3 version.

Minisweeper

Arent extensions utilizing sql meant to be easier in 0.9.3? I aint looked at the code in some time but i remember mark mentioning it in passing. Maybe i missed the point.

timberford

i know my users would love something simple where anyone can send out a standard invite and on your profile page it would display who invited you and the members that have joined as a result of your invitations. no need for community voting or anything like that.

lech

well, whatever works, I guess it would be fair to also limit the ammount of invitations as well. So adding into the invite system an admin feature which gives each user X ammount of invites might be a wise thing if you want to keep a leash on growth. Either automatically give X per month or just randomly hand out any given number.

LoOkOuT

I agree with something simple, but then I would because I am simple. Each user has an amount of invites determined by admin, which are deducted when distributed, and then the profile page is adjusted in the way timberford suggests. I suppose I'm not adding anything substantial to the thread other than my support for the idea (I have no skills, just-mostly crap-ideas!). Ermmm, maybe also that the invite extension will work even when a forum is open to the public; where the invite system is then merely a way of soliciting for new members... yeah, why not? And call them subpoenas ; )

zis

Hi, I'm new here. i currently have an invite only board running on punbb.. i want to migrate it to vanilla.. I actually wrote the invite only plugin for punbb.. i don't quite know the vanilla extension system. but for punbb, what i did is a new db table with the following fields: user id (the one who invited) email (of the per invited) key (a unique key generate for the invite.. each invite has a unique key) used (yes or no... if the invite was used or not :p) date sent.. date used.. And i didn't touch any other table.. the registration form got an extra field called key.. and there was an invite friend form with the following fields: email custom msg.. hope it helps..

Toivo

anyone? it could be really simple that says "cool new plcae. created account for you & password is "huulio"". think of closed forums & blogs. just for your friends and relatives.....