From within your dashboard, you can change your members' experience when signing up for the community and completing their profile.
Sign into your dashboard, select Settings from the main menu on the left, and select Sign-Up Settings.
Any changes to your community sign-up settings will be logged in the admin activity log so you can track all changes to this setting.
Sign-Up Mode
This is where you configure the settings for how a member would sign up for the community for the first time.
If you are using single sign on (SSO), these settings will not appear.
Open Community
With this setting, users can visit your community, sign up, and create an account themselves, without any barrier.
User experience: They will select Sign-In in the upper right corner of the homepage, and enter their email, which will prompt them to complete some profile information and agree to the terms and conditions. They will then receive a magic link in their inbox to sign into the community.
Block Specific Email Domains
With this setting, users can visit your community, sign up, and create an account themselves unless their domain is blocked. If you have competitors or domains that you want to block sign-ups from, you can add a blocklist domains list to your Open community from the Sign-Up Settings page in the dashboard.
Toggle the 'Block Specific Email Domains' on from the Sign-Up Options box.
You must also decide how to handle any users signing up with email addresses on this blocklist:
The users can be set to 'Pending Approval' and will need admin(s) to approve them to become members.
The users can be set to 'Limited Approval' and become members who can view content and events, but cannot interact with other members in the People tab, engage in video calls or chat in livestream events, or attend in person events or elements of hybrid events.
The users are blocked from signing up entirely, and will be shown an error page during the sign up flow.
User experience: They will select Sign-In in the upper right corner of the homepage, and enter their email:
If their email address' domain is no on the blocklist: Upon entering their email, they will be prompted to complete some profile information and agree to the terms and conditions. They will then receive a magic link in their inbox to sign into the community.
If their email address' domain is on the blocklist: Depending on the settings made by the admin, they will either follow the above flow, but be marked 'Limited Approval' and be limited in interaction and engagement in the community or the system will mark them as 'Pending Approval' or block them entirely, and they will be shown an error message.
Open to Specific Visitors
With this setting, users can visit your community but only sign up and create an account if they are using an email address from an approved email domain.
Sign-Up Options
As the admin, you can add or manage all domains on the allowlist in the dashboard from Settings —> Sign-Up Settings —> Sign-Up Options. You must also decide how to handle any users signing up with email addresses from non-approved domains:
The users can be set to 'Pending Approval' and will need admin(s) to approve them to become members.
The users can be set to 'Limited Approval' and become members who can view content and events, but cannot interact with other members in the People tab, engage in video calls or chat in livestream events, or attend in person events or elements of hybrid events.
The users are blocked from signing up entirely, and will be shown an error page during the sign up flow.
User experience: They will select Sign-In in the upper right corner of the homepage, and enter their email:
If their email address' domain is included on the allowlist: Upon entering their email, they will be prompted to complete some profile information and agree to the terms and conditions. They will then receive a magic link in their inbox to sign into the community.
If their email address' domain is not included on the allowlist: Depending on the settings made by the admin, they will either follow the above flow, but be marked 'Limited Approval' and be limited in interaction and engagement in the community or the system will mark them as 'Pending Approval' or block them entirely, and they will be shown an error message.
Via External Sign-Up or Application
With this setting, users can visit your community but must sign up via an external form or application. You must provide the URL where the form or application is hosted, and track the applications through the external URL form or service. These applicants will not populate on the Gradual member list, but you can manually invite them to the community through this process.
User experience: They will select Sign-In in the upper right corner of the homepage and enter their email, this will prompt a gate screen that encourages them to Apply to join. Selecting the 'Apply to join' button will direct them to the external URL you provided in the dashboard, where they will complete their application.
By Invitation Only
With this setting, users can visit your community but cannot sign up or create an account themselves. You, as the administrator must manually invite them to the community through this process.
User experience: They will select Sign-In in the upper right corner of the homepage and enter their email. This will prompt a gate screen that notes that the community is by invitation only, and will list the contact email for your community.
💡 Pro Tip: Set up an integration with LinkedIn so a LinkedIn login button appears on your community login page for easy sign-up for those members on LinkedIn. Learn how here.
Sign-Up Options
This is where you configure the settings for work email requirements and enable a welcome email.
Suggest Work Email
This is an option if you would like to suggest users use a work email when signing up, but do not require it. This will populate a prompt in the email address field that reads "Enter your work email address" to encourage users to use their work email when signing up.
The system will accept all email domains with this setting enabled.
Require Work Email
This is an option if you would like to require a work email when signing up. This will populate a prompt in the email address field that reads "Enter your work email address" and will not accept free email domains unless specified exceptions are added.
You may add up to ten free email domain exceptions by selecting from the full list. The system will accept only sign-ups from the free email domains that are on this exceptions list.
User experience: When entering an email address that is not accepted (from a free domain) they will receive a red error icon, with a pop up that reads 'A work email is required to sign up".
They will not be able to continue without providing an accepted email.
Enable Welcome Email
You can enable or disable the automatic welcome email from the community that is customized with your logo, and community name. If enabled, this email will be sent automatically within minutes of the user signing up for the community, and work to introduce them to your community and confirm their sign-up.
Some customers prefer to disable this email and send one of their own as the text cannot be customized or changed beyond using your community name and logo.
Here is an example of that email:
Permission for Members to Edit Basic Profile Info
These settings limit or allow members to edit their initial profile information like first name, last name, company, and job title.
Allow Editing in Gradual
This is an option if you'd like members to be able to edit their initial profile information within Gradual.
Allow Editing in External Webpage
This is an option if you'd like members to only edit their initial profile information in an external form. You must provide the URL where the form or application is hosted, and track the changes through the external URL form or service. Any changes requested by users to their profile will need to be made by the administrator.
Do Not Allow Editing
This is an option if you'd like to restrict members from editing their first name, last name, company, or job title after sign-up is complete.
Field Display Names
Gradual will automatically list Company as Company, and Job Title as Job Title in the initial sign-up questions and prompts. If you'd like to change the display names for these two fields you can do so here.
