In conversation with a few potential Forem Admins, I have received several requests around the concept of an "Apply to Join" option for Forems.
The underlying idea would be to introduce a "gate" that prevents people from completing registration of their account. Once they are registered, they can take part in the community as normal.
Forem Admin Experience
- Enable "Apply to Join" mode
- Prospective members hit an "Application Page" when trying to register
- The "Application Page" gathers information relevant to their application
- The Forem admin should be able to set fields on this page
- Pending applications appear somewhere in the Admin area as "Pending Applications"
- The Forem admin can "accept" or "reject" individual applications
Applying User Experience
- Visit community, start registration process
- Land on "Application Page" + supply info
- On-site + Email confirmation that application was submitted
- Email update when application is accepted / rejected
- If accepted, account is now fully registered as normal
Cover image via Unsplash
Top comments (3)
I think this is a very important feature. Being able to screen/seed early users before they have the power to interact with the community could prove beneficial. I know over at producthunt.com they did something similar with comment permissions in the beginning. This lead to high quality comments/discussions early on which I believe played a role in setting the tone for the community.
Some Facebook Groups also employ applications for access and they work similarly to the flow you've described.
Probably makes sense for the "acceptance" of a request to trigger the invitation flow, and that's how they come to create their full profile?
Yeah, I don't have any real insight into the proper technical implementation for this sort of feature. I wasn't sure if we'd want to create an account at the moment of application and keep them in a
pendingstate, or whether they shouldn't even be able to create an account until the "acceptance" is approved.