solved Decommissioning social sign in - what is the best way to do this, and what are the consequences?

A year or so ago I set up social sign in for my network.

Initially it looked like a good idea, but although many people joined using this method, almost none have been active. Social sign in bypasses the usual requirement to establish a visible public profile, so the result as a large number of blank member profiles with no activity and nothing interesting for other members to look it as a starting point for communication.

If I switch off a social sign in option (via Twitter for example), or decommission all of them, what are the consequences for members who used this method to join the network?

Will they lose access to their profiles?

Will they receive any automatic notification explaining the change?

Is it possible for me to maintain access for social sign in members who have been active in some way? How?


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PJ Matthews, Kyoto
Migrated from Ning 2.0. Now at Jamroom 6 beta and using Jamroom Hosting for The Research Cooperative (researchcooperative.org)
updated by @researchcooperative: 04/04/20 03:09:21PM

Basically there are no consequences for these members who joined via social media should you now turn that feature off. They will all still be able to login and still have their Jamroom user accounts and profile pages. They will not be notified though. If you want to do that you’ll have to do it specifically, maybe via a newsletter.
Hth


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

Thanks. That's good to know.


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PJ Matthews, Kyoto
Migrated from Ning 2.0. Now at Jamroom 6 beta and using Jamroom Hosting for The Research Cooperative (researchcooperative.org)

Hi. I am thinking why not leave the feature but just give site owners option to decide if they want it active or not ?

In this case, I am the site owner.

In general, it may be good for site owners to compare the actual participation by users who sign up directly to a site vs those who casually join because it is easy to, using social sign in.

A useful metaphor might be fishing nets with holes for different mesh sizes: to catch strong and active fish we need large holes that let all the small fish through (users have to do some work to actually get caught).

If we do not mind having all sorts of fish, then we can use small holes and catch a big bundle of small and big fish (any user who is mildly attracted to our network may get caught).

Of course, our visitors are free and smart enough to avoid the net altogether. I am not saying they are fish! But visitors may think a site owner is fishy if any person is able to join, without any real vetting process.


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PJ Matthews, Kyoto
Migrated from Ning 2.0. Now at Jamroom 6 beta and using Jamroom Hosting for The Research Cooperative (researchcooperative.org)