Event hosts can now allow anonymous users to join livestream webinars via the Discourse Events plugin — letting you open your community’s events to anyone with the link, no account required. This makes it easier to reach prospective members and use your events as a growth channel without forcing people to register just to attend.
Setting up a livestream for anonymous viewing
When creating a livestream event, if you navigate to the Advanced settings, you’ll see the Enable anonymous visitors to watch this livestream setting. Enable it to allow anonymous viewing.
When anonymous viewing is enabled, visitors can click the Join Zoom without being prompted to log in. Before they enter the webinar, they’ll see a prompt letting them know that registering is required to participate in chat. Visitors can then decide whether to register at that point or skip registration and proceed to the livestream.
What anonymous attendees see in the chat panel once inside depends on how your chat channels are configured:
- If your chat channel allows anonymous viewers: they’ll see the chat in read-only mode. They can read chat but they can’t participate.
- If your chat channel doesn’t allow anonymous viewers: they’ll see an empty panel with an invitation to register. They can neither read nor participate in chat.
Note: If you want anonymous attendees to see chat during the livestream, you must first update the chat allowed groups setting to include
anonymous_users.
