Right now, the wikidot system is a two step process for most new members.
1. A potential new member must either apply for membership at an individual wiki (who will email them a password) and then the wiki must wait for this potential member to create a wikidot account.
2. Or you have the membership option by application process.
These two step systems result in a very high number of applications not being completed because individuals are either too confused by the Wikidot account set-up, initial wiki password emails ending up in spam folders, wikidot acceptance emails (with completely different email addresses versus the individual wiki) going to spam, etc. Very few online communities have such a complex application process.
I know that you can set the system to "open" which is a one step process but this allow for tons of wiki spam, etc. as you have no clue who these members are.
It would be far easier and more effective if a potential new member applies online for a single account and then wiki manually approves or rejects the applicant online (thus only one final acceptance email versus two emails from different sites). It would be even more useful if the individual wiki could add extra elements to the application (i.e. a comment section for "how to do plan to help the wiki") in order to determine if the application should be accepted.
This would benefit Wikidot and the individual wikis as far more new accounts would be created. Currently, our site is lucky if we get 25% of the initial applicants (who have taken the first step and already applied for membership via email to our site) making it all the way to the end and creating an actual Wikidot account.
Will
Personally, I would make a widget where an applicant fills out the various required information in a single box (i.e. name, email address, country and why want to join wiki) and then he/she is manually approved or rejected by the individual wiki (via the admin panel) . An approval would result in a wikidot verification email being sent out.
Take a look at the simple (and easy to understand) wikihow sign up on their front page - http://www.wikihow.com/Main-Page
We want to make this as easy as possible in order to generate many more wikidot (and individual wiki) members.
Will
Black Belt Wiki - A Free Martial Arts Wiki
The membership process continues to be a serious pain point—especially for new communities that aren't already thriving. I've had to set all my site permissions to allow any Wikidot member the same privileges as a full member of my site. The extra monitoring for potential abuse is (for me) much better than losing the 75% of people who get stuck trying to sign up or dealing with complaints about people who "signed up" but don't realize they aren't members. A white label solution (not being exposed to Wikidot.com branding) in the sign up process could help eliminate some confusion particularly for custom domain sites.
Interesting idea about allowing any Wikidot member post versus only your specific wiki members (as we frequently get people thinking that they registered but in reality, they only went half way and registered with Wikidot & not with our wiki). Given the potential for spam from wikidot members… can you block/ban Wikidot members who do not belong to your wiki if they are spammers?
Of course, you can always +1 rate this request as it might help push Wikidot to improve the membership process. :)
Will
Black Belt Wiki - A Free Martial Arts Wiki