Letting people join your waiting list online

Allotmin can give you a web address that anybody can visit to put themselves on your waiting list. They fill in their details, they get an email with their reference number, and they appear at the bottom of your list.

Turning it on

Settings → Links → tick Public waiting list sign-up. You will get a link to copy.

The link contains a long random code, which is what stops anybody guessing it. If it ever ends up somewhere you would rather it did not, the same screen has a Regenerate button — that kills the old link instantly and gives you a new one.

Where to put it

Anywhere people look: your association's website, a Facebook group, a QR code on the noticeboard at the gate, the bottom of an email. If you use Allotmin's own website builder, the link is already on your page.

What happens when somebody signs up

They become a member straight away, but marked provisional. That means:

• they are hidden from your main member list unless you ask to see them
• they are left out of "Add all members" when you send an email
• they are on the waiting list proper, in position order

The provisional flag comes off by itself the moment you give them a plot. It is there so that somebody who filled in a form online is not counted as a plot holder before anybody has met them.

Checking their own position

There is a second public page where somebody can type in their reference number and see where they are in the queue. Send them that instead of answering the question yourself — it is on your website automatically, and the confirmation email they get includes their reference.

Stopping it being abused

The form is throttled, it ignores robots, and it will not send a confirmation email to an address that already has a place on your list. That last one matters: somebody who submits the form over and over gets the same answer as a first-timer and no further emails.