User Invitation/Poking a user to a topic is now live!

:warning: As of March 2022, the ability to notify a user from the share button on a topic has been removed. See Notify Feature can be easily abused for more details.

The Invite feature has just been improved so that you can invite existing users to a topic.

I still think this is kind of a weird use case, since if I want @techapj to look at something I would just mention him in the post and explain what’s going on.

But! It makes the Invite button more useful and applicable in more cases beyond inviting new users via email, so overall, I am for it. (Note that invites are a trust level 2 ability, you’ll need TL2 to have the invite button at all.)

Here’s how it works:

  • If you invite an email address to the topic, they get an email invite that lets them join as a new user and reply to the topic immediately.

  • If you invite a username to a topic, they get a notification from you with a link to the topic.

Note that you can only invite someone to a topic once per day. So if 50 people suddenly try to invite me to this topic, only the first one will succeed. :wink:

Anyway, thanks to @techapj for implementing this. Try it out and see what you think.

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@techAPJ I just poked myself, lets get that fixed, you should not be able to select your user name.

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Makes me feel important

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We mailed out an invitation to fantasticfears. We’ll notify you when the invitation is redeemed. Check the invitations tab on your user page to keep track of your invites.

The notification text doesn’t make sense when you invite a username

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Still no love for SSO users?

Yes, for SSO users it is safe to enable just the username invite ability @techapj.

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First thing that needs fixing is invite/add into message for sso, I hit this issue quite frequently

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The pop-up takes up about 1.5x of my screen’s width on an S3 with custom dpi. Not sure if usual resolutions have this issue too.

Also, 0 padding on the sides.

Looks Ok on the mobile simulator, so not sure why you would be seeing that.

It’s not supposed to have borders on the side, those just eat up valuable space…

Not sure, changed Chrome’s DPI to 280 and the text was bigger, but the pop-up was still one-line only.


Edit:

Just looked myself at Chrome’s device simulator and I can halfway replicate it. On the simulator I can’t move the bar all the way to the right, on the phone I can do so.

I’m not tl2 yet. Can you show me the button position?

https://a.pomf.se/zhpsny.mp4

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I get this formatting bug too. Android 5, chrome.

Loving the improved feature. Nice work!

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How is this different from an @ mention?
Wouldn’t it be more useful if inviting a username would generate an email?

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Yes, this.

An invitation needs to draw people on to the site, because the assumption is they’re not going to see the topic in question otherwise.

Both modes need an email notification, or at minimum a user preference to get an email when someone invites the user to join a topic.

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They will get an email, if they haven’t visited the site.

Send me an email when someone quotes me, replies to my post, mentions my @username, or invites me to a topic

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But that doesn’t tell how it differs from mentions… is there a difference?

I share your opinions. If I want someone to comment on a topic or issue I mention that publicly, it does not have to be private.

For inviting someone new to the site I see this as useful, else not so much.

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I love this feature, and here is how I will use it.

People frequently ask questions in support tickets which have been answered or discussed in the forum. This “poke” feature can encourage them to participate in a thread if they choose, and know it’s there in any case. It also feels nicer than just pasting a link in the ticket.

I’ve frequently wished I could do this, and am glad I can now.

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Couldn’t you have done that with mentioning? Or are you actually referring to the invite by email option (as the person isn’t a member of the forum yet)?

Don’t get me wrong, I see great value in the invite by email, I see little to zero value in the invite an existing user.

1 Like