Invitation only?

[Araya]

Sorry if I missed something. Will members be able to give referrals and can the admin make the board invitation only that way?

[Charles Stover]

I like this idea, even outside of invitation only. Keeping a log per account of people invited sounds too useful. Give data on it, like how many posts invited users have made.

User X invites User Y and User Z. The invite stats on User X's page would tell information like "5 invites sent, 2 invites accepted, 50 posts by invited users," etc.

[Araya]

Yes, it would be nice to see who was able to invite who and how many in their profiles. I personally think its a good way to network. I wished there was also a way to do something like that for affiliates so you know who is working and who isn't...

[Charles Stover]

There is a way to do that for affiliates. Maybe I'll make a new affiliate system for V5 when it comes out.

[Araya]

Apr 25, 2012 14:04:34 GMT -8 Charles Stover said:

There is a way to do that for affiliates. Maybe I'll make a new affiliate system for V5 when it comes out.

Why do you say that? I mean how is there no way for that to be done? I always tend to think 'where there's a will there's a way.' It would be an affiliate system like you said. If you make one as a code though, you've got my vote!

[VS Admin]

We would like to have a system where you can send invitations out, including where you can disable registrations but still send invites to people you want to be able to join.

[Araya]

Apr 25, 2012 14:14:21 GMT -8 VS Admin said:

We would like to have a system where you can send invitations out, including where you can disable registrations but still send invites to people you want to be able to join.

Yeah, that would be nice. Is it possible to do something similar for affiliates where admins can see where the members are coming from?

[VS Admin]

That would require cookies. However, due to more stringent cookie laws being put in place worldwide, we limit the number of cookies that we place on your machine and would not be able to provide that functionality.

[Charles Stover]

Why would that require cookies? Just check the HTTP_REFERER, or if she means which user, use something like /affiliate/username

[VS Admin]

You can track the initial pageview to your forum, but if you want to track actual user registrations you need some data to persist page to page.

[Charles Stover]

I imagine the initial pageview is much more meaningful than no data at all on the matter. Beyond that, you could store the user in a hash in the URL.

register.php?hash=asdjfklwtuoiasfjkls

Which would store their information, like referrer.

[snap2000]

An easier and more lightweight option would be the ol' referrer field upon registration, though of course that requires an amount of diligence.

Is there a substantial reason to know referral information, though? That stuff usually degenerates into faux-pyramid-scheme type deals, I think.

[Araya]

May 4, 2012 21:13:06 GMT -8 snap2000 said:

An easier and more lightweight option would be the ol' referrer field upon registration, though of course that requires an amount of diligence.

Is there a substantial reason to know referral information, though? That stuff usually degenerates into faux-pyramid-scheme type deals, I think.

I don't understand how that stuff would degenerate such a scheme? I've seen other popular forum hosts use this feature and that never degenerated...what you said. As for your question, I tried to answer that already in my post above and I don't know what else to add other than I think it'd be nice to know where our members are coming from.

[Charles Stover]

May 4, 2012 21:13:06 GMT -8 snap2000 said:

An easier and more lightweight option would be the ol' referrer field upon registration, though of course that requires an amount of diligence.

Is there a substantial reason to know referral information, though? That stuff usually degenerates into faux-pyramid-scheme type deals, I think.

A referral field tells you who got you the member, not where that member came from. Maybe he wants to know what websites they are coming from, so as to know where to target advertising in the future.

[Araya]

May 5, 2012 9:59:23 GMT -8 Charles Stover said:

May 4, 2012 21:13:06 GMT -8 snap2000 said:

An easier and more lightweight option would be the ol' referrer field upon registration, though of course that requires an amount of diligence.

Is there a substantial reason to know referral information, though? That stuff usually degenerates into faux-pyramid-scheme type deals, I think.

A referral field tells you who got you the member, not where that member came from. Maybe he wants to know what websites they are coming from, so as to know where to target advertising in the future.

Thanks for explaining it for me! If you're specifically talking about me though, I am a she not a he. :]