README

Approve new members before they get in. Sign-ups from addresses you trust activate as normal; everyone else waits in a queue until an admin approves or declines them.

Made for forums with an eligibility rule (a university, a club, a company, a private group), and just as useful against a wave of spam sign-ups.

How it works

Trusted addresses walk straight in. List the domains you trust, such as .edu, uni-freiburg.de or @staff.example.org. Those sign-ups get the normal activation email and carry on as usual.
Everyone else waits. They can sign up, but until an admin approves them they have exactly a visitor's permissions: they can read what a guest can, and post nothing. A notice at the top of the forum tells them why.
They hear about it. Applicants get an email saying their account is being reviewed, with any extra text you add, for example "reply with your student ID". Admins get a notification and an email with a link to the queue.
One click to decide. Approve sends the applicant their activation link and lets them in. Decline emails them, and they can't sign in. A declined applicant can still be approved later.
Refuse addresses outright. A second list turns addresses away at the sign-up form, before any account is made.
Reserve usernames. Keep admin, moderator and your brand's name for yourselves.

Patterns

One per line, in either list:

Pattern	Matches
`uni-freiburg.de`	that domain and its subdomains, never a look-alike such as `baduni-freiburg.de`
`@zv.uni-freiburg.de`	exactly that domain
`.edu`, `.ac.uk`	any domain ending that way
`*@example.com`	a wildcard over the whole address (`*` and `?`)
`/^staff\..+@example\.org$/i`	a regular expression between slashes

Lines starting with # are comments. Leave the first list empty to approve every new member by hand.

Reserved usernames

A third list keeps names for staff and your brand: admin, moderator, support, yourforum*. Nobody but an admin can sign up with one, or rename themselves to one later, so "dave" can't become "admin" next week. Names aren't case-sensitive, and * works as a wildcard (admin* also covers Administrator and admin2).

This list works on its own: you can reserve names without holding anybody for approval.

Good to know

Existing members are never affected, and nor are members an admin adds by hand. The check happens once, at sign-up; changing an email address later doesn't send anyone back to the queue.
The lock is the permissions, not the email. Flarum signs a new member in as soon as they register, and an activation link can be requested again from the forum. So while waiting or declined, a member's permissions are those of a visitor, whatever happens with their email.
No hint to strangers. Signing in as a waiting or declined member explains why only when the password is right. With a wrong password it's Flarum's usual "incorrect" message, so the form can't be used to find out who applied.
The activation link waits too. Applicants aren't sent the activation link at sign-up; it comes with the approval, so confirming the address and being let in happen together.
Email is best-effort. If the mail server is down, the applicant is still held; the failure is logged.

Installation

composer require ernestdefoe/gatehouse
php flarum migrate
php flarum cache:clear

Then enable Gatehouse, switch on Hold new sign-ups for approval and fill in the lists.

Updating

composer update ernestdefoe/gatehouse
php flarum migrate
php flarum cache:clear

Licence

MIT. See LICENSE.

ernestdefoe / gatehouse

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