# Invite-only Forum - Can non staff members invite others? **URL:** \ **Category:** Support\ **Tags:** invites\ **Created:** [2016年十一月1日 05:34 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/invite-only-forum-can-non-staff-members-invite-others/52287 "2016-11-01T05:34:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rebel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/848f3c/32.png) [@rebel](https://meta.discourse.org/u/rebel)\ **Post date:** [2016年十一月1日 05:34 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/invite-only-forum-can-non-staff-members-invite-others/52287/1 "2016-11-01T05:34:25Z")
Hi everyone, I have an invite only forum thusly: ![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/7/1/712bbd1fb119b05dd317ae7d088b7a3534a6b1cc.png) Is it possible for the invited members to be allowed to invite others by email? I don’t mind if I have to approve them etc as it is a small membership. Thanks for your help! ---
**Author:** ![ggstuart](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/ggstuart/32/148705_2.png) [@ggstuart](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ggstuart)\ **Post date:** [2016年十一月8日 11:59 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/invite-only-forum-can-non-staff-members-invite-others/52287/2 "2016-11-08T11:59:28Z")
I have a similar question. Who gets to invite people to the forum? My new site is invite only and we have a small community of novice users, all invited by myself and all given trust level 2 by default. When my users want to invite more users I tell them to look for the invites page in their settings but they can’t see it. Presumably because of a setting or because of their novice status in the system. Do I need to increase their trust level or make them moderators/admins? ---
**Author:** ![rebel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/848f3c/32.png) [@rebel](https://meta.discourse.org/u/rebel)\ **Post date:** [2016年十一月8日 22:52 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/invite-only-forum-can-non-staff-members-invite-others/52287/3 "2016-11-08T22:52:04Z")
> [@ggstuart](#): > > Who gets to invite people to the forum? Well admin and mods can I think. I have upgraded some of the users to level 3 but can’t see that they can invite others… ---
**Author:** ![ggstuart](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/ggstuart/32/148705_2.png) [@ggstuart](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ggstuart)\ **Post date:** [2016年十一月8日 23:58 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/invite-only-forum-can-non-staff-members-invite-others/52287/4 "2016-11-08T23:58:10Z")
I’ve done some basic searches but I can’t find the answer. Perhaps @codinghorror can give us a steer? Is there a way to give users a quota of invitations? My users are not moderators but I’d like to enable them to invite a few people each to get some suitable people into my invite-only forum. ---
**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)\ **Post date:** [2016年十一月9日 00:57 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/invite-only-forum-can-non-staff-members-invite-others/52287/5 "2016-11-09T00:57:17Z")
TL2 users get invites. ---
**Author:** ![ggstuart](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/ggstuart/32/148705_2.png) [@ggstuart](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ggstuart)\ **Post date:** [2016年十一月9日 09:29 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/invite-only-forum-can-non-staff-members-invite-others/52287/6 "2016-11-09T09:29:56Z")
Thanks, I might be confused but when I impersonate one of my users at TL2 I cannot see the **invites** ‘tab’ on their preferences. Is there another way to create an invite? Am I missing something? ---
**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)\ **Post date:** [2016年十一月9日 09:35 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/invite-only-forum-can-non-staff-members-invite-others/52287/7 "2016-11-09T09:35:35Z")
Do you see the Invite button at the bottom of _topics?_ Same process, basically: ![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/9/9/99ff545d1c48a3ca1c8365b61321433fd77b42de.png) That same invite functionality is available from user page as well. It’s documented in the trust level #faq topic. Do you have SSO enabled? That will prevent invites as auth is handled by the parent site in that case. When SSO is enabled, invites would bypass parent site authentication, so that’s impossible.. invites must be sent out by the parent website.. ---
**Author:** ![ggstuart](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/ggstuart/32/148705_2.png) [@ggstuart](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ggstuart)\ **Post date:** [2016年十一月9日 12:24 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/invite-only-forum-can-non-staff-members-invite-others/52287/8 "2016-11-09T12:24:03Z")
No SSO is not enabled. My TL2 users see this in their preferences page: ![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/optimized/3X/a/d/ad7a6d49d1051184c6f456691dcef7f7067106d2_2_690x75.png) Whereas I see the invites menu item where I can review and manage my invites: ![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/optimized/3X/3/8/38b5dc640043f9c994dadb7345f3b850aaa43eec_2_690x49.png) So my users can only invite new members when dealing directly with a single topic. Is this the intended behaviour? ---
**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)\ **Post date:** [2016年十一月9日 20:49 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/invite-only-forum-can-non-staff-members-invite-others/52287/9 "2016-11-09T20:49:27Z")
I can’t explain it, @techapj can you quickly verify that TL2 users can still send invites or any other possible cause of this? ---
**Author:** ![techAPJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/techapj/32/342990_2.png) [@techAPJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/techAPJ)\ **Post date:** [2016年十一月10日 09:02 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/invite-only-forum-can-non-staff-members-invite-others/52287/10 "2016-11-10T09:02:26Z")
@rebel looking at the screenshot, I see that you have enabled “_must approve users_” site setting. You need to disable that to allow users greater than TL2 to send invites. > [@ggstuart](#): > > when I impersonate one of my users at TL2 I cannot see the invites ‘tab’ on their preferences. Make sure that “_max invites per day_” setting is greater than zero and “_must approve users_” setting is disabled. ---
**Author:** ![rebel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/848f3c/32.png) [@rebel](https://meta.discourse.org/u/rebel)\ **Post date:** [2016年十一月11日 00:06 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/invite-only-forum-can-non-staff-members-invite-others/52287/11 "2016-11-11T00:06:16Z")
> [@techAPJ](#): > > @rebel looking at the screenshot, I see that you have enabled “must approve users” site setting. You need to disable that to allow users greater than TL2 to send invites. Ah that makes sense!! I will change that setting. Many thanks for your help. ---
**Author:** ![ggstuart](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/ggstuart/32/148705_2.png) [@ggstuart](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ggstuart)\ **Post date:** [2016年十一月11日 13:34 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/invite-only-forum-can-non-staff-members-invite-others/52287/12 "2016-11-11T13:34:45Z")
Same here, I didn’t really get it but of course, an invite is an explicit approval and users can only be approved by admins/mods. Is there a case for invitations to be approved? Thus allowing untrusted users to propose invites? Or is this a feature too far? Perhaps a warning message on the “must approve users” option to be clear that this will prevent the use of invites by members? ---
**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)\ **Post date:** [2016年十一月11日 19:02 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/invite-only-forum-can-non-staff-members-invite-others/52287/13 "2016-11-11T19:02:00Z")
It is implicit, and kind of obvious, if the staff are manually approving all new users, why would individual users be able to completely bypass that by inviting people directly on? ---
**Author:** ![ggstuart](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/ggstuart/32/148705_2.png) [@ggstuart](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ggstuart)\ **Post date:** [2016年十一月11日 20:25 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/invite-only-forum-can-non-staff-members-invite-others/52287/14 "2016-11-11T20:25:50Z")
It wasn’t obvious to me. But I may have not been paying attention. I didn’t expect invites to be anything more than an email with a link to a sign up form. I was expecting the standard process to take over at that point. i.e. I would have to approve any invited users if they signed up. It turns out invites are creating a wormhole directly to approved accounts. This was not obvious to me. (😖) Hence my suggestion that invitations could be pre-approved by admins before they are sent out. Though I was expecting the approval to happen after the invitee signed up. I’m not sure if this is a sensible addition. Its just what came to mind when my mental model was shattered by reality. I thought I would raise it. ---
**Author:** ![rebel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/848f3c/32.png) [@rebel](https://meta.discourse.org/u/rebel)\ **Post date:** [2017年十一月26日 11:13 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/invite-only-forum-can-non-staff-members-invite-others/52287/15 "2017-11-26T11:13:42Z")
Yes I would agree that for my usecase, I would love to have the option of ANY user inviting anyone but having the admin ultimately approve after they have signed up. I am using discourse for a private - invite only forum obviously. I think most people are using it as a public forum where anyone can sign up. regards ---
**Author:** ![system](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/system/32/443519_2.png) [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [2020年一月21日 15:20 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/invite-only-forum-can-non-staff-members-invite-others/52287/16 "2020-01-21T15:20:50Z")
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**Author:** ![system](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/system/32/443519_2.png) [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [2023年十二月2日 22:50 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/invite-only-forum-can-non-staff-members-invite-others/52287/17 "2023-12-02T22:50:27Z")
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**Author:** ![JammyDodger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/jammydodger/32/254611_2.png) [@JammyDodger](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JammyDodger)\ **Post date:** [2024年一月11日 12:00 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/invite-only-forum-can-non-staff-members-invite-others/52287/18 "2024-01-11T12:00:55Z")