Permanent referral link for user invitations

(DaveK) #1

Currently developing a referral plugin that pays for sign-ups. We’ve noticed that there is no option for members to generate a permanent referral (signup) link. The only way is to do it individually via adding an email. I was thinking, why have such a cumbersome invite process? Why not provide an (example) example.org/ref?=93181 link which a member can share across the web over and over again? Not having the ability to do so, restricts the possibilities of having blogs/sites write about your site/service/forum, providing that the webmaster of the discourse instance is providing incentives for signups (tons of sites do this).

Is there a chance of permanent invite links? Or am I missing something obvious and the feature is implemented already?

(Mittineague) #2

Looking for this?

(DaveK) #3

If I am understanding this correctly, the plugin still requires an individual URL to be created for each invite, which isn’t what I meant.

Prepare Invitation Links from Invite Token

The Invitation URL will be like:

http://discourse.example.com/invite-token/redeem/TOKEN?username=USERNAME&email=EMAIL&name=NAME&topic=TOPICID

Replace following fields:

    • discourse.example.com with the URL of your Discourse instance.
    • TOKEN with one of the 200 Invite tokens you just generated.
    • EMAIL with the email of user you want to invite
  • USERNAME with the desired username of invited user
  • NAME with the first name of invited user
  • TOPIC with the id of the topic to direct the user to after joining

(*) these fields are required!

My idea was to have a set unique URL for each member that he can share to invite. The URL doesn’t change, doesn’t have a limited amount of tokens, and doesn’t require editing for each invite. Having such an URL gives discourse site owners a tool to promote their sites better (if they’re offering incentives for signups).

(Mittineague) #4

Would simply using a link like this work for you?

yourforum.com/signup

(DaveK) #5

Does that track who referred the person who signed up to the site?

(Mittineague) #6

To be clear that I understand you, you’re looking for something like

https://meta.discourse.org/signup?u=mittineague

so that my account would be associated with any that used that link to join?

Currently, because I have established some trust here, it can be inferred that I can be trusted to invite those that I feel can be trusted enough to not need to go through the initial New member limitations and they can start off with Trust Level 1 abilities. i.e. I’m vouching for them.

A “generic” invite link would open the possibility that anyone could use the link, regardless of whether or not they should indeed be trusted.

How might you propose that risk be prevented?

(DaveK) #7

To be clear that I understand you, you’re looking for something like

https://meta.discourse.org/signup?u=mittineague

so that my account would be associated with any that used that link to join?

Yes, that would be it.

Why not have both? Don’t you think it would be great to give sites incentives to promote your forum? A generic link would allow webmasters to place links in their articles, so you can track and reward signups accordingly. At least, that’s my plan. I was hoping that this generic link would be available, but it looks like I have to hire someone to get it done.

How might you propose that risk be prevented?

Not all forums are set up in the same way. My instance has a phone verification system for all new signups (can’t join until you confirm your phone number via TXT pin and email), which cuts down on 90% of problems associated with spam and whatnot. So to me, that risk is irrelevant. But I do see your point of view and see how it may be a problem for some. I guess people invited with the generic link start at TL0 while custom invites start off higher? That would be a solution, no?

Thanks for replying.

(Mittineague) #8

Yes, I think that could work. Unfortunately at the moment it would require a plugin which as of yet does not exist.

(Rafael dos Santos Silva) #9

What you really want here is more of a traditional referral link system than what we call invite here in Discourse. I suggest renaming it so you don’t clash with the existing feature.

A plugin that saves a cookie from anons that visits a URL (forum.example.com/?referral=falco), and that checks for the cookie value on user creation and gives a point for the referral value is certainly doable.

(DaveK) #10

Good to hear! Will forward this to my dev then :slight_smile: