With our large(ish) must_approve_users sites, this remains a right pain whenever we hold a physical event.
The issue is that we can’t just give folk a lovely QR code, invite, or link to jump straight onto our instance. At least not without a bit of an ugly workaround.
The workaround and its issues
Turning off must_approve_users and making the site invite_only isn’t really satisfactory as:
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Many folk seem to stuff up any invite process and try to come in through the (now locked) ‘front door’
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The buzz created by the event generally spills over to non-invitees too - but they can’t apply to join either
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There is still a bug where staged users lose their custom user field inputs when they sign up
- this stuffs up alternative pathways in (unless a completely external email address is used)