New users by member invitation

Hangin' Around Joined: Dec 04, 2005 Posts: 31

I have been thinking about requiring new users to my site to be invited by an existing member or at least having to provide the name of an existing member before they can join. Any ideas on the best means of implementing this.

My thought was to modify the new user registration form with an entry for invited by or friend of.

I thought I'd ask the experts first Smile

TIA

Sells PC To Pay For Divorce Joined: Posts: 5661

well nice idea but one problem....theres no way of verifying that.
Lets say i visit your site and type in a members name that i see online,of from someone that posted in a forum...just some thoughts...

but there are some modifications floating around on the forum here with added fields ,but not so easy as you might hope...

registered · Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 6:38 pm

You could potentially use the Approved Membership module from http://www.ulsoft.scarbridge.co.uk/. I use it on my personal family / friend web site where I collect additional information about the registrant so that I can verify they are who they say they are. You simply configure additional optional and/or required fields as a part of the new user registration process and one of those could be the "referrer" user name (full name maybe?). You could then look up the existing user and PM them with the pertinent information to see if they in fact referred them.

There may be other tools and better ways of doing this, but I am familiar with this tool. A better method may be to have the referrer set up the registrant and then let the registrant change their password after they log in. I do not know of any "referral" Your Account type replacement or hacks which do exactly what you want.

Other ideas out there?

registered · Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 8:33 pm

BriX wrote:

I have been thinking about requiring new users to my site to be invited by an existing member or at least having to provide the name of an existing member before they can join. Any ideas on the best means of implementing this...

Hrm...

Interesting concept! Sort of like Gmail, e.g. by invitation only...

I'll have to 'chew' on that one for a while. Wink

Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 11:29 pm

hitwalker wrote:

well nice idea but one problem....theres no way of verifying that...

I hadn't really intended this to be a security feature just more of a way to keep track of who knows who and perhaps start a reward system.

Thanks for the feedback. Keep it coming.

Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2006 12:54 am

To help me understand this situation, can you explain your need for such exclusivity? Providing a scenario might be helpful, as that's the way I tend to think...

Put another way, why do you want to keep track of 'who knows who' and start a 'reward system' based on same?

Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2006 2:23 am

My site started as hobby, support, friends only. Members who are experienced in mechanics answer Q's about other members' busted vehicles. Same goes for other occupations (law, computers, health, religion, trades people etc). Now friends want to invite their friends. To ensure that my site stays free of problematic users, members would vouch for invited members (stake your reputation on it idea). Then members who invite other respectable members can be rewarded or granted more invitations. In case of a problem the people who are best suited to help can be notified by someone they were invited by. Also more invitations can be granted to members with contacts in 'high demand' fields (ex. mechanics). Its not always what you know but who you know. Smile

If you would like more information VinDSL pls PM me.

Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2006 3:49 am

Gotcha! Thanks for the explanation!

Okay, let me consider this. In the meantime, maybe someone else will pop-in with an idea... Wink

Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2006 6:41 am

As a 'quickie' you could try setting the Your Account module to registered user only permissions. This should, in theory, stop anyone trying to sign-up and make it so user accounts would have to be manually created by an admin.

You could then use something like the Recommend Us module for your existing members to 'invite' people to join.

It isnt very elegant but it might work.
It doesn't solve your 'rewards' concept though.