Ability to opt-out of account creation community promo

[zarhooie]

Title:
Ability to opt-out of account creation community promo

Area:
communities, account creation

Summary:
I would like the ability to opt any community I maintain out of the community promo that displays when one has created a new account.

Description:
I've created several accounts (for various reasons) and thus have had occasion to notice that some communities I moderate are displaying on the community promo area when a new account has been created. The area says something like "check out these cool places on Dreamwidth!" and then lists a seemingly random assortment of communities one can join.

My suggestion is to allow community admins to opt their community out of being listed here. I am an admin of several communities that are private or otherwise inappropriate to put on such a list. Right now, they show up on that list and I am concerned that being unable to join certain communities may create an unwelcoming feel to Dreamwidth. By allowing community admins to opt out, it would help to prevent uncomfortable situations like the one I describe above.

If this is implemented, I would think setting it up as a console command would help to prevent clutter on other options pages. I think it'd work best as an opt out policy, as this would not change the existing behavior unless intended to do so.

Poll #1047 Ability to opt-out of account creation community promo

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 51

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
31 (60.8%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
16 (31.4%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
0 (0.0%)

(I have no opinion)
3 (5.9%)

(Other: please comment)
1 (2.0%)

Comments

[zarhooie]

I suggested this as a console command because I feel it'd be used infrequently enough that it'd make sense to do it this way. It needs to be set once in the lifetime of a community and doesn't require fiddling.

That being said, the console is intimidating and while *I* don't mind using it, Joe Admin might be terrified of the concept. I would not be opposed in the slightest to having this in the regular options area.

[yvi]

Ticky box on creation, admin console and FAQ with instructions to change later?

[cesy]

Do you have a link to this promo area? I don't remember seeing it.

[cesy]

Sounds sensible.

[yvi]

And, you know, I didn't even know that existed.

[zarhooie]

Yep, that'd work.

[zarhooie]

There's not a link, really. It just, um... shows up.

[ancientsavvy]

Yes, this

[turlough]

+1

[7rin]

Shows up where, on what page?

[ninetydegrees]

You see it when you create an account. It's on Step 2: http://www.dreamwidth.org/create/setup.bml

[cesy]

Interesting. I don't remember that when I created my account - is it new?

Looking at it, I'd also suggest that closed communities (such as some of the official ones) are listed as "Subscribe to" rather than "Join and subscribe to".

[melannen]

If it's the same as what happened back when I was creating accounts - I think it shows communities that the person you got your invite code from is a member of? Though I'm not sure what it does if you create a new paid account without a code; it may show denise's communities, it may show nothing.

So presumably, you're not getting a random assortment of communities - you're getting communities that someone you know is a member of. Though if you've got your code from someplace like twitter, it might as well be random.

I think, at the very least, locked communities and communities with "explicit adult content" set should be left off that list, since someone with no account yet can't see what's in those communities anyway, and it leaves an exclusionary feeling if they try and can't.

[ninetydegrees]

I don't think it is. When I created my account, a list of communities the person who invited me was part of was suggested. I can't remember if there were other communities based on my interests (but I may not have entered any then).

Good idea.

[melannen]

It's genererated as soon as you enter your username - before you put in any other profile info, including age or interests. I'm pretty sure it's based entirely on who you got your code from.

[sofiaviolet]

This. I've created accounts using my own codes, and it just culls the list from communities I'm a member of/subscribe to.

(It was convenient for me, since I wanted the accounts to join the community I set up. But not great for everyone.)

[sofiaviolet]

I am concerned that being unable to join certain communities may create an unwelcoming feel to Dreamwidth.

Do communities whose membership is closed show up on that list? They should probably not, due to the unwelcome factor.

[cesy]

Do communities whose membership is closed show up on that list?

Yes, they do, with a tickybox saying "Join and subscribe", even though you can't.

[pauamma]

I'd prefer a less intimidating UI than the admin console, personally. Console-only settings on LJ have been used to discourage average users from changing from the default option, and I'd rather not have DW follow that particular model.

[instantramen]

+1

[snakeling]

+1

[azurelunatic]

It is.

When you offer someone a code and it's got your name as a URL argument, the communities you maintain show up in that list.

So, properly, this would be a per-user setting, not a per-community setting: an auto-checked "offer these communities to people signing up from my invite code", because one maintainer of, say, beginningcocks may want to show it off, and another may not want to emphasize that portion of their maintainerships.

One could then micromanage this by checking/unchecking stuff before offering a code to someone in particular.

[triadruid]

If they're closed and do not allow applications for membership, yes, exclude them (I may not be up on the terminology for 'Closed' vs. Moderated). Otherwise, I think you should have to tick this option to exclude yourself from that list, especially since at present it's only going to list communities of interest to the user who gave you the invite code in the first place...

[triadruid]

Weird. I'd almost want to suggest that we move the suggestion to after interests and such to generate a more useful list for the user, but that's way off-topic for this particular idea. :)

[archangelbeth]

That seems reasonable to me.

[susanreads]

It sounds as though there's a lot of changes that could usefully be made to that feature. I agree with all the exclusions people have mentioned, and having a more user-friendly way of opting out.

[owl]

Me neither.