Closing the door on a community is the easy part. The harder question is how people get in once it is closed. You can invite them, you can screen them, or you can ask them to wait. Each of those is a different promise to the person on the other side, and each needs different settings on your site.
This guide is about that entry flow. It covers registration modes, personal invitations, shareable links, join requests and what to do when demand is higher than your capacity. It does not try to settle whether your community should be private at all. For that decision, start with private vs public community. If you are building the whole network from scratch, the step-by-step is in our guide to building a private social network with WordPress and BuddyPress. Here we assume the answer is already “closed” and we focus on the door.
The settings below come from BuddyNext, our community engine, and Jetonomy, our forum plugin. Both are free to install from the Wbcom store, and I note where something needs a Pro plan.
Three ways in, and who makes the first move
Every closed community uses one of three entry patterns, or a mix of them.
| Pattern | Who makes the first move | What the newcomer feels | Best when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Invitation | You | Chosen | You already know who should be in |
| Approval | The applicant | Evaluated | You want to vet people you have not met |
| Waiting list | The applicant, then you much later | Interested but parked | Demand is higher than your capacity to onboard |
The first move matters because it sets expectations. An invitation says “we want you here”, so the first week should feel like a welcome. An approval request says “may I join”, so the reply should arrive quickly and say yes or no clearly. A waiting list says “we will get to you”, so you owe people honesty about how and when.
A common mistake is to run all three at once without telling anyone. A person who was invited, a person who applied and a person who joined a list all land in the same place, and none of them know why they were treated differently.
Start at the site level: the four registration modes
BuddyNext decides who can create an account at all with a single setting, found under Members, then Registration and Login. There are four modes.
| Mode | What happens at sign-up | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Open | Anyone can register and is signed in straight away | Public communities |
| Invite Only | A valid invitation is required, and sign-up is refused without one | Communities where you control the guest list |
| Admin Approval | Anyone can request an account, which is held until an administrator approves it | Communities that screen applicants |
| Closed | Nobody can create an account, invitation or not | Pausing sign-ups, for example during a migration |
Two details are easy to miss.
First, invitations and approvals are separate modes. Invite Only means no invitation, no account. Admin Approval means anyone can ask, and the account waits. Pick one as your default instead of expecting them to blend.
Second, WordPress has its own “Anyone can register” setting, and if it disagrees with your BuddyNext mode, sign-ups can fail without any visible error. BuddyNext watches for that mismatch and shows an admin notice with a one-click fix, but it is worth checking after any plugin change that touches registration.
Invitations: the strongest first impression
An invitation in BuddyNext is a personal link that opens the sign-up form with the invitee’s email already filled in. They choose a password and they are in. The link is tied to that email address, so it cannot be forwarded and used to register someone else. Invitations work in any registration mode, so you can use them to smooth the path even on an open site.
Sending them
You find invitations under Members, then Directory, then Invites. Only administrators can send them, since sending needs the manage options capability.
- One at a time. Enter an email address and, if you like, a first name. The first name personalises the email.
- In bulk. Upload a CSV where each line is
emailoremail,first_name. A single upload processes up to 500 rows. An address that already has a pending invitation is skipped, so uploading a longer list later never double-invites people already on it.
email,first_name
ana@example.com,Ana
ben@example.com,Ben
The bulk invite and single invite emails use BuddyNext’s own templates, which you can edit under the Notifications email templates. Do edit them. The default is functional, but an invitation that says who is inviting and why the person is on the list gets more acceptances than one that reads like a system message.
Tracking them
The Invites tab shows every invitation with a status:
| Status | Meaning | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Pending | Sent, not yet used | Wait, or send a reminder through your normal channel |
| Accepted | The person signed up | Make sure onboarding works for them |
| Expired | The link lapsed before use | Resend to start a fresh clock |
| Bounced | The email could not be delivered | Correct the address and resend |
By default, invitations expire after 7 days. Resending regenerates the link and resets that clock, and revoking a pending invitation stops its link working. A status filter lets you jump to the people who have not accepted yet, which is the list you actually want when you are chasing a launch.
One practical point: a 7 day expiry suits a small, personal rollout. If you are inviting a large group and expect people to take their time, plan to resend once rather than assuming the first email did its job.
Invitations and other sign-up steps
An invitation is a shortcut to the form, not a way around your rules. If you require email verification, an invited member still confirms their address, though an invitation that arrived at that address is itself a reasonable sign the inbox is theirs. An invited person can also finish with a social login, as long as the provider account uses the invited email.
Space-level doors: invitations and requests inside a closed community
Many communities are open at the front gate and closed in certain rooms. BuddyNext spaces handle that with three privacy types.
| Space type | Listed in the directory | How someone joins |
|---|---|---|
| Open | Yes | Joins instantly, or sends a request if you switch on Require approval to join |
| Private | Yes | Sends a join request that the owner or a moderator approves |
| Secret | No | Only by invitation, which the person must accept |
A private space shows non-members its About tab, with the name, description, house rules and moderator list, while the feed stays locked. That is useful for approvals, because an applicant can read the rules before they ask. A secret space does not appear anywhere for non-members, and an invited person still has to accept before they become an active member.
Personal space invitations
Owners and moderators can invite someone straight into a space. By default only they can send invites, and an owner can open that up to all members through the Who can invite setting. The person appears on the roster as invited until they accept. Do not confuse this with a request: an invitation is yours to send, and a request is theirs to make.
The shareable invite link
When you need to bring in many people at once, one personal invitation per head does not scale. Each BuddyNext space can have one shareable invite link instead. You create it from the space settings, under the Invite link tab, and you choose two limits:
- Expires: 1 day, 7 days (the default), 30 days or never.
- Max uses: 1, 10, 100 or unlimited (the default).
Anyone who opens the link while signed in sees the space with a Join button, even if it is private or secret, and joining is immediate with no approval step. A signed-out visitor is asked to sign in or sign up first and then returns to the space. A banned person is never let back in by a link, and an expired or reset link shows a plain “no longer valid” message without revealing what is inside.
Know what the link does not do. It does not skip site-level rules, so a new account still completes sign-up, verification and any welcome setup, and it does not waive a paid plan on a gated space. The link is also a bearer credential: whoever holds it can use it. Set Max uses and an expiry that match your plan, and use Reset link the moment it travels further than you intended. Members who joined by link are flagged “Joined via invite link” on the Members tab, visible only to you and your moderators, which helps when you need to see who came in through a particular campaign.
Approvals: how to say yes or no well
When you screen applicants, the process matters as much as the criteria.
Decide the criteria before the first application
Write down what makes someone a fit. “Works in this field”, “lives in this region”, “has bought this product” and “was referred by an existing member” are all legitimate. Write them in a form a second moderator could apply without asking you. If the rules live only in your head, decisions drift and applicants notice.
Collect what you need at sign-up
In Admin Approval mode the applicant’s account is created and held. BuddyNext lets you choose which profile fields appear on the sign-up form and which are required, so you can ask a qualifying question there. A required field such as “What do you hope to get from this community?” or “Which product do you use?” gives the reviewer something to judge besides an email address. Keep the form short. Each extra required field costs you sign-ups, and you are trying to screen out poor fits rather than people who got bored.
Review requests regularly
The same logic applies in spaces. In a private space, every Join click becomes a request in a pending queue. You approve, which makes the person a full member, or decline, which removes the request without adding them. The applicant can cancel their own request while it waits. BuddyNext’s own guidance is blunt: a request left pending is a person you have neither let in nor turned away.
Choose a review rhythm and keep it. The target is your own policy, not an industry rule. “We review requests on Mondays and Thursdays” is a perfectly good promise if you say it on the sign-up page and keep it.
Jetonomy join policies
Jetonomy handles the same idea with two independent controls on each space: visibility and join policy.
| Control | Options |
|---|---|
| Visibility | Public, Private, Hidden |
| Join policy | Open, Requires Approval, Invite Only |
Requires Approval sends a join request to the space moderators, and the person can include an optional message that the reviewer sees. Moderators approve or deny from the space’s Members page on the front end, without opening wp-admin, and the requester is notified of the decision. Invite Only shows no Join button at all. Members enter through an invite link that a space admin generates, with a usage limit and an optional expiry date. Jetonomy also keeps the combinations sensible: a Private space cannot be Open, so saving that pairing switches it to Requires Approval, and a Hidden space is always Invite Only.
One rule in Jetonomy is stricter than most people expect. Invite links are visible to space admins only, and moderators can approve join requests but cannot see or create links. That is deliberate, since a link is a credential into a space that may be hidden, so listing it would disclose it. Give the right people the admin role accordingly.
Waiting lists: what exists and what you have to build
Neither BuddyNext nor Jetonomy ships a dedicated waiting list feature. That is worth saying plainly, because it is easy to assume one exists. What you can do is build the effect from parts that are there.
Option one: use Admin Approval as the queue. Leave registration on Admin Approval, collect applications as held accounts, and approve in batches when you have the capacity. This keeps everything in one place. The cost is that applicants sit in a held state and cannot sign in, so tell them so on the sign-up page and in any confirmation message.
Option two: keep the list outside and invite from it. Collect interest with a form on a normal WordPress page, with whichever form plugin you already use, and keep your site on Invite Only. When a batch is ready, export the addresses to a CSV and upload it to the Invites tab. You control timing and batch size, and nothing sits half-created in your user table. The 500 row limit per upload fits the idea of onboarding in measured waves.
Whichever you choose, a waiting list works only if you manage expectations.
- Say what the list is for, for example “we onboard in small groups so each person gets a proper welcome”.
- Say how you choose people, whether first come, first served or by fit.
- Do not promise dates you cannot keep. If you do not know, say you will email before the next batch opens.
- Tell people when they are not getting in. A clear “not this round” is better than silence.
Putting the doors together
Most closed communities need a mix. These combinations cover the common cases.
| Goal | Site registration | Space setup | How members arrive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Members-only club with a known guest list | Invite Only | Open or Private spaces | Personal or CSV invitations |
| Professional network that screens applicants | Admin Approval | Private spaces for sub-groups | Reviewed accounts, then space requests |
| Cohort or class | Invite Only | One private or secret space per cohort | Space invite link with a use limit |
| Company or team community | Invite Only, with an email domain allow list | Secret spaces for departments | Invitations, then auto-join into default spaces |
| Public forum with a vetted back room | Open | Open spaces, plus one Requires Approval or Hidden space | Request or link for the back room only |
For internal communities, there is a separate walk-through in how to build a company intranet with BuddyPress and WordPress. If your closed group is a paid one, the entry gate also connects to billing, and BuddyNext Pro adds membership-gated spaces so joining requires a paid plan.
Keeping the door honest
A closed community stays closed only if the entry points are watched.
- Review every active link. Check which space links are live, how many uses they have left and who holds them. Reset anything you do not recognise.
- Use allow lists where they fit. If every legitimate member has a company or school email, an allowed domain list removes a whole class of problems.
- Remove and ban deliberately. Removing a member from a space lets them ask again later. Banning blocks them from rejoining. Choose based on what you want to happen next.
- Watch the pending queue. A growing backlog is a signal to add reviewers or to tighten the form.
- Look at who joined how. Link-joined, invited and approved members may behave differently, and knowing the route helps you tune onboarding.
After they are in
The entry flow ends when the member does something. Send invitees to an onboarding step that asks for a short introduction, point them at one space that matches their reason for joining, and make sure your guidelines are one click away. Our guide on launching a community and getting the first 100 members goes into what to do with that first group. The Reign theme sits underneath all of this and handles the layout, so your login, sign-up and space pages look like one product. You can see how the pieces fit on the Reign plugins page.
Frequently asked questions
Can I make my community invite-only but still let people see it exists?
Yes. Use Invite Only registration so nobody can create an account without an invitation, and keep some content public if you want visitors to understand what they are asking for. BuddyNext’s guest experience shows logged-out visitors whatever is public, with a join prompt, and you can turn that prompt off if you run your own landing page. If you want nothing visible without an account, the site-wide privacy option in the privacy settings does that.
What is the difference between an invitation and an approval?
An invitation is you choosing someone and sending them a link tied to their email. An approval is someone asking and you deciding. In BuddyNext they are separate registration modes, Invite Only and Admin Approval, and you should pick one as your default rather than mixing them on the same sign-up page.
How long do invitations last, and can I change that?
By default a BuddyNext invitation expires after 7 days. Resending issues a fresh link and restarts the clock. Space invite links have their own expiry choices of 1 day, 7 days, 30 days or never, plus a use limit.
Does BuddyNext have a waiting list?
Not as a named feature. You can build one by leaving registration on Admin Approval and approving in batches, or by collecting interest on a normal page and sending CSV invitations when you are ready. Either way, tell applicants what to expect.
Can a shared invite link be abused?
It can be passed around, because anyone holding the link can use it. Limit the damage by setting Max uses and an expiry, resetting the link if it spreads further than you intended, and remembering that a banned member cannot get back in through it. Signed-up accounts still go through your site’s other checks, such as email verification.
Do I need Pro for invitations and approvals?
No. Registration modes, invitations, CSV bulk invites, join requests, space invite links and Jetonomy’s join policies and invite links are all in the free plugins. Pro matters when you want to charge for entry, since gated spaces that require a paid plan come with BuddyNext Pro.