# User invite process improvements
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-invite-process-improvements/19560
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [September 2, 2014, 10:42pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-invite-process-improvements/19560 "2014-09-02T22:42:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@fysics](https://meta.discourse.org/u/fysics)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2014, 10:42pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-invite-process-improvements/19560/1 "2014-09-02T22:42:49Z")
Continuing the discussion from [“There was a problem sending another activation email” …](https://meta.discourse.org/t/there-was-a-problem-sending-another-activation-email-and-a-pair-of-questions/19539/2):
> [@riking](#):
>
> For invited users, the email is their key to getting in. They can send a password reset, which brings them to a screen asking them to **set** a password (it recognizes that they don’t have one yet).
Are there any plans to alter this process? It seems a bit dysfunctional. (The nature of my community is invite-only, so I’m using this feature a bit more and probably nitpicking more than typical.)
For example: if username changes are disabled (`username_change_period` = 0), there is no opportunity for the inviter or the invitee to set a username at all. An admin must wait for the user to accept the invitation, then must manually set a username for them. (The workaround I’ve used is to allow users to change their usernames at will — not ideal.)
Passwords are likewise, except that a user always has the option to set or reset their password.
Here’s a simple mockup:
Additionally, it would be nice to be able to create invite links with no email attached at all. (i.e. retrieve the invite link in plaintext). This would be useful for sending invites to users by means other than email… such as IRC, facebook, etc.
It may be necessary in these cases to force the user to specify an email address once they accept / click the link. Another mockup:
* * *
Edit / additional thoughts.
I definitely like the idea of invites being painless / one click, but in my case, it would be very nice to force users through a subset of the normal registration process when they accept an invite.
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### Author:  [@riking](https://meta.discourse.org/u/riking)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2014, 11:16pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-invite-process-improvements/19560/2 "2014-09-02T23:16:16Z")
> [@fysics](#):
>
> Additionally, it would be nice to be able to create invite links with no email attached at all. (i.e. retrieve the invite link in plaintext). This would be useful for sending invites to users by means other than email… such as IRC, facebook, etc.
I know that this is possible, for that exact usecase (sending over a different channel). @techapj, can you answer some of this?
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2014, 1:14am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-invite-process-improvements/19560/3 "2014-09-03T01:14:45Z")
I am quite opposed to assigning passwords, as it means the user has to change their password later anyway. Ideally users log in with a shared credential (Google, Facebook, Yahoo) that provides a validated email and that is their “password”.
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### Author:  [@fysics](https://meta.discourse.org/u/fysics)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2014, 1:26am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-invite-process-improvements/19560/4 "2014-09-03T01:26:44Z")
I at least feel like users should be prompted with a reduced version of the default registration form when they “redeem” an invite. The current system of throwing new invitees into the forum with no guidance (other than the welcome message in their inbox with some instructions) is jarring.
I’ve had several questions about usernames, passwords, and the like.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2015, 11:29am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-invite-process-improvements/19560/5 "2015-08-04T11:29:02Z")
Generate a copyable invite link is something I think we should do, by next release, @techapj
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### Author:  [@cogdog](https://meta.discourse.org/u/cogdog)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2015, 9:28pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-invite-process-improvements/19560/6 "2015-08-18T21:28:21Z")
I will second or third this (as if I have a say).
Email is turning into a nightmare for our project, partly our own design, we had people submit their emails into a google form because they had to enter two other addresses they would be grouped with.
We have malformed emails, emails with typos etc, but once we cleaned all those, well it seems like 60% of our recipients are having the emails flagged as spam (and if you work with general non techie folks, maybe 10% might know where to look).
It would help us a lot to message people an invite link, even ok to add a shorter expiry time stamp.
Thanks discoursers!
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### Author:  [@techAPJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/techAPJ)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2015, 2:52pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-invite-process-improvements/19560/7 "2015-08-28T14:52:29Z")
We have this feature now! 🎁
> [@Copy Invite Link link](https://meta.discourse.org/t/copy-invite-link-link/32648):
>
> We [just improved](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/4ad07b8c09068dad64ae0221b8e888e047b17bc6) the Invite feature, now you can copy invite link and send a personalized invitation email to your users! To generate copyable invite link go to your invites page, click on “Send an Invite” button, enter the email of the user you want to invite, now click on “Copy Invite Link” button: That’s it, now you will see copyable invite link: Copy and paste away! link scissors pencil email
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### Author:  [@watchmanmonitor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/watchmanmonitor)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2015, 3:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-invite-process-improvements/19560/8 "2015-08-29T15:40:10Z")
WOW! Thank you @techAPJ and Team!!
This is fantastic. Updating now.
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### Author:  [@watchmanmonitor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/watchmanmonitor)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2015, 4:44pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-invite-process-improvements/19560/9 "2015-08-29T16:44:27Z")
I invite all people to a topic that is a _Guide to the best of this forum._
Would it be easy enough to expand this to the invite to a specific article feature?
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2015, 8:18pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-invite-process-improvements/19560/10 "2015-08-29T20:18:49Z")
Sure I agree with that, @techapj can you cover this case as well? Same UI buttons.
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### Author:  [@watchmanmonitor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/watchmanmonitor)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2015, 10:43pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-invite-process-improvements/19560/11 "2015-08-29T22:43:35Z")
Great feature request here in this topic @fysics, I’ll use this every day.
* * *
* * *
> [@fysics](#):
>
> Additionally, it would be nice to be able to create invite links with no email attached at all. (i.e. retrieve the invite link in plaintext). This would be useful for sending invites to users by means other than email… such as IRC, facebook, etc.
This can be done as such: [Generating lots of Invite Tokens](https://meta.discourse.org/t/generating-disposable-invite-tokens/17563)
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### Author:  [@techAPJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/techAPJ)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2015, 3:46pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-invite-process-improvements/19560/12 "2015-08-31T15:46:54Z")
Ok, done! 🎊
[https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/eb96016043fa646b486f04790ff31eed60234a06](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/eb96016043fa646b486f04790ff31eed60234a06)
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### Author:  [@watchmanmonitor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/watchmanmonitor)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2015, 7:59pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-invite-process-improvements/19560/13 "2015-08-31T19:59:04Z")
This is really fantastic. 🎊 👯 💥
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### Author:  [@watchmanmonitor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/watchmanmonitor)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2015, 8:27pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-invite-process-improvements/19560/14 "2015-08-31T20:27:00Z")
Not only is the link that we get more inviting when I send it to a new person, but it’s also a way to easily tell if the person is already a member without shooting them an email if they weren’t.
This provides me so much more control & less questions in the entire invite process, and takes my use to just the right spot in one fell swoop.
What a great add on to Discourse!
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### Author:  [@edanto](https://meta.discourse.org/u/edanto)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2016, 8:44pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-invite-process-improvements/19560/15 "2016-12-11T20:44:59Z")
This is an old thread; but it’s the best match I’ve found to the query I have. Much like Zane who made the first post; I have an invite-only community and would like to either set the username for each invited user (preferred) or else allow them to set it with their password when they click on the invite link.
Is there an option to do that; I haven’t found any options in the invite process. Any good workarounds?
The change username setting doesn’t really help in this case; if I set it to non-zero they can’t edit it as soon as they join and if I set it to zero they can’t edit it all; if I understand that setting correctly.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2016, 10:00pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-invite-process-improvements/19560/16 "2016-12-11T22:00:39Z")
Let’s confirm with @techapj but I believe this is possible.
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### Author:  [@techAPJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/techAPJ)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2016, 4:16am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-invite-process-improvements/19560/17 "2016-12-12T04:16:41Z")
> [@edanto](#):
>
> I have an invite-only community and would like to either set the username for each invited user (preferred)
If you want to pre-stage username while inviting, there is only one option and that is generating invite links via [Discourse API gem](https://github.com/discourse/discourse_api). Here is the howto:
> [@Generating lots of Invite Tokens](https://meta.discourse.org/t/generating-lots-of-invite-links/17563):
>
> warning This plugin is deprecated in favour of our core invite system. Summary: Generate multiple invite tokens link GitHub: [https://github.com/discourse/discourse-invite-tokens](https://github.com/discourse/discourse-invite-tokens)arrow_right Install: Follow the [plugin installation guide](https://meta.discourse.org/t/install-a-plugin/19157). Configuration Enable plugin After installing plugin enable site setting invite tokens enabled. Clone Discourse API Gem If you already have Git and Ruby installed on your system, you can install Discourse API by running following command from consol…
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### Author:  [@edanto](https://meta.discourse.org/u/edanto)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2016, 7:17am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-invite-process-improvements/19560/18 "2016-12-12T07:17:51Z")
Thanks. Unfortunately it’s too technical for me (at this stage). I don’t
know what Gem is or if we have it; and I’d be nervous to break it if I
tweaked it!
Still; will point our admin to it and check it out, and see where it lands
on the list.
Appreciate the link (and clarity that uploading a csv won’t help me).
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### Author:  [@nkr](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nkr)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2017, 4:57pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-invite-process-improvements/19560/19 "2017-09-17T16:57:56Z")
> [@fysics](#):
>
> Additionally, it would be nice to be able to create invite links with no email attached at all. (i.e. retrieve the invite link in plaintext). This would be useful for sending invites to users by means other than email… such as IRC, facebook, etc.
_(Sorry for reviving thread)_ Is this feature planned? Currently evaluating Discourse for building a new (invite-only) community, however one requirement would be the possibility of sending invite links over instant messaging without exchanging email addresses. (So basically generating invite links without entering an email address at all.)
I’d try to implement this myself but I’m not quite comfortable enough with my Ruby skills.
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### Author:  [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2017, 9:43pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-invite-process-improvements/19560/20 "2017-09-17T21:43:18Z")
Hi nkr, welcome to the forum
> [@nkr](#):
>
> generating invite links without entering an email address at all
It is possible to invite members to topics by username _or_ email address. You do not need to use email addresses.
[Next page](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-invite-process-improvements/19560.md?page=2)