Let people join with a link

An invitation needs each person's email address. When your people already share a group chat, one link does it instead: whoever opens it signs in and asks to join, and nobody gets in until one of the team's admins approves them. A link that travels further than you meant lets nobody in on its own.

Turn it on

1. Open your team's Members page. Under "Join link", press "Turn on the join link".
2. The link appears with how long it lasts and how much it has taken, as in "Works until Mon 2 Nov · 3 of 50 requests used." It works for 14 days and takes 50 requests.
3. Press "Copy link" and paste it in the group, or "Share" on a phone: the link goes with a line saying what to do, "open this link, sign in, and ask. An admin approves each person."

"Replace link" makes a new one and stops the one you shared at once, for a link that went somewhere it shouldn't; "Turn off" stops it. Requests already made stay to answer either way. After its 14 days or its 50 requests, the link takes no more, and the panel offers "Make a new link".

Approve or decline

Each request reaches every admin at once: an email, "Ravi Kumar asks to join Acme Studio", and a notification on a phone with the eKard app. On Members, "Requests to join" lists them, oldest first, with the name each person gave, the address they signed in with and when they asked.

• "Approve" makes them a member, with a team Kard in the name they gave, for them to fill in, at the team's address and their first name when it's free (ekard.app/acme/ravi). A link your team ever used, printed QR codes and all, is never handed to someone new. Each person approved takes one of the team's places: with all 25 taken, the page says "No place free to approve anyone" and how to free one.
• "Decline" anyone you don't know. The link can't bring them in again, even from a new account with the same address. If you want them after all, invite them by email.

Either way, they're emailed your answer, and the page confirms it: "You declined Neha Joshi's request. We've emailed …". If another admin answered first, it says who.

What the person asking sees

The link opens a page headed "Join Acme Studio". Signed out, it offers "Continue with Google" or "Sign in or sign up with email", and brings them back after. Signed in, it lists what they'd get, starting with "A team Kard with your name, for you to fill in and share", asks for "Your name, as it goes on your Kard", which the admins see with their email, and offers one button: "Ask to join Acme Studio". Then: "Request sent. Acme Studio's admins will approve or decline it; we'll email … either way."

Opening the link again says where they stand: "Your request is waiting", "Your request was declined", or, once approved, "You're already in Acme Studio". The approval email, "You're in Acme Studio on eKard", has "Fill in your Kard". An address that isn't verified yet, as with an account made with an email and a password, is checked first: the page says "Verify your email to ask", and "Email me the link" sends a link that brings them back to ask. A link past its date says "This join link has expired", and a full one "This join link is full", each asking them to get the new link from whoever shared it.

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