We need invite links

3 years ago by Tomat0 to c/lemmy

I'm seeing across various instances that registration is going through manual approval as an anti-bot measure. As someone whose also run Fedi instances, I know how bad the bot problem is.

I do think invite links can get around this though. If we allow existing users to simply send a referral/invite to their friends (and have a tracker on who is inviting who), that'll do a ton to both mitigate spam registration and allow people to join quickly.

The more obstacles we put in the way of registration, the more people will be dissuaded and go away. We've seen it with Mastodon (and now there's this whole reputation of it being too complicated). We have a window here to fix stuff if we're fast. People will eventually forget about the Reddit API and put up with it if we don't offer a compelling alternative when the iron is hot.

I'm considering making a GitHub issue, if anyone has any thoughts or plans to work on it, let me know. I have a decent amount of connections on the Fedi and if enough people are serious about getting this ASAP, I can help out with the logistics/coordination.

Acester47 17 points 3 years ago

I can say first hand I was confused on how to sign up. I tried joining lemmy.ml and wrote up an application which never got approved. After browsing for a few days I figured out I could sign up on any instance and found lemmy.ca, my people. lol. My application got approved very quickly there.

I doubt most people will be able to figure this out as it's not intuitive and perhaps give up and move on to somewhere else. :(

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WraithGear 9 points 3 years ago

Yea i tried to stick to the “main” lemmy instance. Still dusting out this federation stuff. But they are SWARMED with applicants, and after i learned beehaw was not a Midwestern beekeeping subreddit, i was able to get a home base.

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Echolot 2 points 3 years ago

Another problem is that you never actually receive a confirmation if your application was received and/or rejected, you are just sorta stuck in limbo after applying.

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poVoq 7 points 3 years ago

User created invites IMHO only make sense when there is a endorse chain that allows linking back who made the invite when there is abuse, but the simpler version that Akkoma/Pleroma has which allows site admins to create invite links that are valid for a certain number of new registrations would make sense as an option and is probably not too hard to implement.

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jakob 6 points 3 years ago

Pleroma has such Invites, and Manyverse/SSB Rooms too.

This a great thing.

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mobiuscoffee 5 points 3 years ago

I think at the very least having this be an option would help a lot!

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Krusty 5 points 3 years ago

Very clever move, thanks

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liaizon 5 points 3 years ago

@Tomat0 I would also like to see invites, has anyone checked the roadmap or issue tracker to see if its already in progress there or that the devs are aware there is such a desire for such?

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Tomat0 3 points 3 years ago

Devs stated it's not a priority but if someone else were to do the work and make a PR, they would not be opposed to including it.

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ch1cken 5 points 3 years ago

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Tomat0 13 points 3 years ago

Not invite-only, but invite as an option to bypass the usual manual approval process. Captchas from my experience aren't effective, as PeerTube hCaptchas have been bypassed.

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rxmd 3 points 3 years ago

Seems like a good idea to me!

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