Multiple Use Invite Links

[techAPJ (Arpit Jalan)]

We have improved the core invite system in Discourse 2.5 to add a new feature – Invite Links.

Invite Links can be used multiple times and is not tied to an email. Only staff users (admins and moderators) can create multiple use invite links.

Creating Invite Link

Invite links can be created from /my/invited page by clicking on + Send Invite button → “Multiple Users” tab.

The default upper limit for “maximum redemptions allowed” is 5000. It can be adjusted via site setting invite_link_max_redemptions_limit.

Invite Link Listing

Existing invite links can be viewed at /my/invited/links page.

Redeeming Invite Link

Invite link can be redeemed by multiple users and at the time of redeeming invite the user provides email address and username. User also has the option to set Name and Password.

Once the user accepts the invite they’ll have to click the account activation link sent on their email address.

Tracking Redemptions

Invite link redemptions can be tracked on /my/invited/redeemed page.

Future Improvements:

Currently only staff users can send invite links. We want to extend this feature to group managers as well.

Any feedback here is greatly appreciated!

[nathankershaw]

I so love this feature - it is super useful and we’ll be utilising it a lot over the next two years.

I’ve noticed a problem for my users: if a user who is already signed in to Discourse on that browser attempts to use the link, they get this message:

This means that my group owner (who has been sending the link about) has to instead add them to the group using the Group page. No biggy, but it means unnecessary confusion and emails flying about just when we are trying to make a good 1st impression.

What I suggest is that if an existing user attempts to use the link, then they are automatically added to any groups specified in the invite and counted as a successful invite.

[codinghorror (Jeff Atwood)]

That’s not in scope for the feature? The idea is to invite new users.

I agree the copy here is not great though and could be improved considerably.

[nathankershaw]

@codinghorror

That’s not in scope for the feature? The idea is to invite new users.

Fair enough; it is consistent with the way single invites behave as well.

How would you feel about a simple workflow to cover this situation then? I suspect that it will crop up a bit as people use this. So: IF an existing user clicks a multi-user invite link which includes a group allocation (AND the user is not already a member of any of these groups) THEN:

1. a composer is automatically launched for a PM between the user and the link author containing this text (or similar), such as with the Request to join group feature.
   • (username) has attempted to use your invitation link which included group allocation to (groups in invitation), but this could not be actioned as they are already a user of (sitename). Please consider adding them to directly to these groups.

[sam (Sam Saffron)]

I think we wait on this for a bit longer and see how repeated this request here. At a minimum we improve cope.

There is prior art, when you are invited to a whatsapp group you are not expected to be a brand new user on the whatsapp platform, you are just plonked into the group, same goes for facebook.

That said this feature is all about getting users not on the Discourse platform, onto the platform. The group stuff is an added bonus, not the main menu item.

[cogdog (Alan Levine)]

This has been working great for our new community; it streamlines the account creation to skip the moderation step, and the flexibility of the link means we can use it in custom emails, messaging, even sharing in project meetings.

We did an online conference presentation about our community (by screen sharing a topic thread), and we were able to have people in the audience quickly create acounts and join the conversation.

@techAPJ

Invite link redemptions can be tracked on /my/invited/redeemed page.

I like this a lot to track invites. If requests were possible, it might be nice to filter by the link requests, and even to see which links were used (I have 3 different ones in play).

[cogdog (Alan Levine)]

I could use this feature. Our community is starting basic and we are adding new areas as we go. We have two areas that have been added that are limited access by group, and so adding users who may have joined earlier or the general join button is a lot of manual labor.

So in our community it would be useful to have a link that could serve to bring in new members and add to a group that could also add existing users to same group.

Can we have a pony too

Thanks for this feature.