EricGT
28 juli 2026 om 11:53
1
For the past two days, the OpenAI Discourse forum has been in staff-only mode .
Only staff members and users with higher permissions can interact with the site; everyone else has read-only access.
Users visiting the site for the first time are greeted with:
They may also see this message at the top of the page:
And this notification may appear at the end of a topic:
When a site is placed in staff-only mode , it would be helpful if these options were hidden from users who cannot use them. Leaving them visible is likely frustrating, particularly because users have no way to report the problem or ask for help through the forum.
6 likes
I agree with this.
Are you able to log in? I’m asking since I am logged in there. If no one is able to log in or sign up, maybe that should be stated clearly on the banner too, that it’s currently not possible to log in/sign up?
I know the banner says “no further action needed from the users”, but in my experience not all users read everything or maybe not even understand it, because of the language barriers and the consequences could be changing passwords and maybe unnecessary contact to OpenAI Support regarding sign up and log in issues?
2 likes
EricGT
28 juli 2026 om 13:28
3
LarisaHaster:
Are you able to log in?
No.
I click Log In and am taken to:
I then enter my email address:
Next, I click Skip the password; email me a login link , after which I am presented with:
Since this is most likely a temporary issue, I do not plan to spend any more time trying to log in to the site.
4 likes
Ah okay, I see.
I was able to log in with the link yesterday, but that was before the staff only mode .
2 likes
Thank you @EricGT for your feedbacks CTA they can’t do.
This will be fixed by
main ← hide-signup-in-read-only-mode
merged 06:05PM - 28 Jul 26 UTC
Previously, a site in read only or staff only mode still offered
anonymous visit… ors every way in: the header "Sign Up" button, the signup
call to action at the end of a topic, the create account link on the
login page, and the server-rendered header — including the one on the
read only error page itself. Account creation is blocked in both modes,
so all of them were dead ends. The banner made it worse by describing
what members lose (replying, likes) rather than what an anonymous
visitor is actually unable to do.
This change gates the JS `canSignUp` getter and its Ruby twin
`can_sign_up?` on read only state, which covers every signup entry point
at once. `canSignUp` had to drop its `@computed` decorator to do so:
with no dependent keys it cached permanently, so the new term would have
been evaluated once at boot and then frozen — leaving the button visible
if read only mode started later, and hidden long after it ended.
The "Log In" button deliberately stays, because staff can still log in
during staff only mode. Anonymous visitors now get banner copy naming
signup and login instead, a refused login says only staff can log in
rather than claiming login is disabled outright, and the email and code
login forms show that inline instead of a generic "an error occurred"
dialog.
It also fixes a pre-existing blank page. Both `/login` and `/signup`
aborted the transition when read only, which on a direct URL load left
the application template unrendered — and with it the dialog holder, so
the explanation never appeared either. They now redirect home when there
is no route to stay on, and keep aborting when there is.
Meta ref: /t/408703
6 likes
EricGT
28 juli 2026 om 23:45
8
Update is active on OpenAI site.
Fixed in ~12 hours
4 likes
I agree we should do our best not to frustrate anonymous users with CTA they can’t do.
