# Tracking signups from shared content
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-signups-from-shared-content/56911
**Category:** Feature
**Tags:** pr-welcome
**Created:** [February 4, 2017, 5:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-signups-from-shared-content/56911 "2017-02-04T17:11:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Wil](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Wil)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2017, 5:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-signups-from-shared-content/56911/1 "2017-02-04T17:11:36Z")
Hello
Following my question [here](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-signups-from-referrals/56521) I’m suggesting this feature.
[https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-signups-from-referrals/56521/8?u=wil](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-signups-from-referrals/56521/8)
I think **shared content leading to a signup should count as an invitation**
I believe users are more likely to share interesting content than send email invitations.
Each time a user lands on Discourse through a ?u=username link and then signs up, this should be counted as an invitation by @username
This could appear like this on the user profile (screen from /users/username/invited/redeemed in french )
**Pros**
- Able to track influencers based on actual signups not only traffic
- Removing steps to invite people (literally 2 clicks away on any URL)
**Cons**
- Risk of fake signups (but no incremental risk compared to email invitations)
Who else is interested in this?
Any comments or ideas?
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2017, 3:01pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-signups-from-shared-content/56911/2 "2017-02-06T15:01:27Z")
I like this idea, and I don’t think its too hard to implement.
I think if you share a link on twitter that somehow leads to someone signing up you had some influence on the account creation and this should be tracked.
I am putting a #pr-welcome on this for now, but we can revise later and see if we add it to a release.
---
### Author:  [@nbianca](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nbianca)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2017, 5:52pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-signups-from-shared-content/56911/3 "2017-03-12T17:52:40Z")
What exactly is expected here?
From a developer’s point of view:
- include a schema change (to add a `referred_by` field to table `users`)
- look for the parameter that says who is the referral and store it in a session
- change sign up mechanism to save the referral field from sessions into the `referred_by` field
From an administrator’s view of point:
- dashboard with statistics that show the user that brought the most users
- and the user who brought most visitors (did not register an account)
From a user’s view of point:
- can he specify the name of the user that referred him even though he did not do that by giving him a link
- should the part that is used for link sharing to be modified to also include the referral parameter
---
### Author:  [@erlend\_sh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/erlend_sh)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2017, 7:26pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-signups-from-shared-content/56911/4 "2017-03-12T19:26:23Z")
> [@nbianca](#):
>
> can he specify the name of the user that referred him even though he did not do that by giving him a link
Sure, but this is stretch-goal territory.
> [@nbianca](#):
>
> should the part that is used for link sharing to be modified to also include the referral parameter
Same as above I think, but I’m also not entirely clear on what you’re proposing here. Could you please rephrase, with a bit more detail?
---
### Author:  [@nbianca](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nbianca)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2017, 7:38pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-signups-from-shared-content/56911/5 "2017-03-12T19:38:24Z")
> [@erlend\_sh](#):
>
> Same as above I think, but I’m also not entirely clear on what you’re proposing here. Could you please rephrase, with a bit more detail?
Nevermind. I did not notice that `?u=` part in the links that are shared and thought that this is a requirement as well.
---
### Author:  [@bholst](https://meta.discourse.org/u/bholst)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2017, 5:23pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-signups-from-shared-content/56911/6 "2017-03-22T17:23:27Z")
I’d love to see this feature also! This would be extremely useful. Any updates on this?
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### Author:  [@erlend\_sh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/erlend_sh)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2017, 6:31pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-signups-from-shared-content/56911/7 "2017-03-22T18:31:01Z")
This will likely be part of this year’s GSoC. Stay tuned 😉
---
### Author:  [@bholst](https://meta.discourse.org/u/bholst)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2017, 6:44pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-signups-from-shared-content/56911/8 "2017-09-12T18:44:23Z")
Just checking in to see if there are any updates on this?
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### Author:  [@erlend\_sh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/erlend_sh)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2017, 8:02am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-signups-from-shared-content/56911/9 "2017-09-13T08:02:52Z")
It did not get picked up for GSoC, but if @nbianca or anyone else wants to take this on we’d be happy to sponsor the work.
---
### Author:  [@Cozdabuch](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Cozdabuch)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2017, 9:25am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-signups-from-shared-content/56911/10 "2017-09-13T09:25:45Z")
Not looking to go off the topic, but my question here seems not far off from this one
> [@Request: add user group to "admin/users" page data](https://meta.discourse.org/t/request-add-user-group-to-admin-users-page-data/69906):
>
> Ok, we are looking to add a custom field column (primary group) in the admin panel/ users tab, users list. (It makes no difference in column order, I just stuck it there in the example where I stitched the pics together I had room) If not under all user tabs, at least under new users tab. This would be what I’m talking about: Any idea how to add this?
---
### Author:  [@vikaskedia](https://meta.discourse.org/u/vikaskedia)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2017, 12:29am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-signups-from-shared-content/56911/13 "2017-09-26T00:29:01Z")
> [@erlend\_sh](#):
>
> It did not get picked up for GSoC, but if @nbianca or anyone else wants to take this on we’d be happy to sponsor the work.
I want to do this.
How does the sponsorship work?
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### Author:  [@erlend\_sh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/erlend_sh)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2017, 6:45am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-signups-from-shared-content/56911/14 "2017-09-26T06:45:27Z")
I’ll send you a pm about it.
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### Author:  [@DiscourseMetrics](https://meta.discourse.org/u/DiscourseMetrics)
#### Post date: [November 25, 2020, 1:28pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-signups-from-shared-content/56911/16 "2020-11-25T13:28:54Z")
Did this feature ever make it into production? 🙂 I’m also very interested in it.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2020, 2:51am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-signups-from-shared-content/56911/17 "2020-11-28T02:51:40Z")
We certainly reworked invites heavily recently @sam, did you want to triage this one?
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2020, 12:06am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-signups-from-shared-content/56911/18 "2020-12-02T00:06:16Z")
> [@Wil](#):
>
> I think **shared content leading to a signup should count as an invitation**
The OP is still not something that we do, the concept it is trying to get to is:
1. I share: [https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-signups-from-referral/56911?u=sam](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-signups-from-referral/56911)
2. We store something in the session saying “Sam got this person on the site”
3. Later this user creates an account
4. Account is attributed to “Sam”
Technically it is not too hard to build this @codinghorror probably looking at 1 week of work to get all of the nits and UI going and consistent. Let me know if/when you want to slot this.
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2020, 3:08am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-signups-from-shared-content/56911/19 "2020-12-02T03:08:07Z")
Oh yes thanks for the clarification, that is a bit beyond what we had in mind. I view sharing a post as an _implicit_ invitation, not an _explicit_ one.
Mostly I want to make sure _explicit_ invitations are tracked if the person accepts the invitation.