The discussion revolves around inviting users to secure topics, specifically private forums only available to specific groups. erlend_sh points out that inviting a user to a private forum thread doesn’t work, and suggests either making it possible or preventing such invites.
Sam and riking mention the complexity of implementing this feature, including handling multiple groups and ensuring the inviter has permission to add users to a group.
As an alternative, erlend_sh proposes a bulk invite feature, allowing admins to add multiple users to a forum and groups simultaneously. codinghorror and eviltrout think this is a feasible solution, with eviltrout estimating it wouldn’t be too difficult to implement.
manojdojo expresses interest in bulk adding users and is directed by Sam to a meta topic that supports inviting users to groups. However, manojdojo notes that the UI doesn’t support bulk invites with multiple emails at once. erlend_sh also inquires about bulk invites, and Sam confirms that this is supported in the bulk invite system.
If I invite a user to a private forum only available to a specific group, the invitee will not have access to the thread, even when following the invitation link.
Either this use case should be made possible, or it should not be possible to invite users to threads inside private forums.
I would love to support this, but it is far from trivial in some cases. What if the topic is viewable by 2 groups, which group do you add the new user to?
We would have to amend the upfront process.
You would also have to make sure that the inviter is allowed to add the user to the group. Perhaps this is a case for group-scoped permissions, but I wouldn’t go down that path yet.
I’m gonna continue discussing this feature, but for the record, wouldn’t mind at all if you left this out for later.
Perhaps the easiest way around this would be an alternative invite feature, more akin to that of Google Groups when you “add user directly”. A simple interface to allow admins to bulk-add users to the forum, as well as to any groups of their choice.
Many mailing lists and newsletters have this feature (I’ve found Mailchimp to be an excellent example with its duplicates checks and smart format reader) and I don’t see why it shouldn’t be part of a forum as well. As long as you have users’ permission (as you are required to by law), it is a highly effective way to kickstart your new community.
This makes sense, like a larger scale invite system. That seems supportable, how much work do you think it would be @eviltrout to adapt? Just a scoping question, not asking for us to do it right now.
It probably wouldn’t be too tough to bulk add users in a “stupidest way possible”. If we’re going to allow choosing groups before importing and stuff that’s going to be a little more work obviously, but the 90% useful case is not tough.
hey - I’ve been desperately looking for a way to bulk add users! Based on this discussion, it doesnt seem to exist. Is there a way to edit any files outside of the UI to make this possible based on email address or usernames? Thanks…
We support this now:
thanks, Sam! you’re pretty stellar at responding fast. much appreciated.
It doesn’t seem like the UI supports “multiple emails” at the same time, or bulk inviting. is that correct?
I’m also curious to know more about bulk invites.
This is also supported in the bulk invite system 