In your CS Communities do you admit:

EvaS

Brian O'Keeffe

Actual users only

Active users only. It gets too complicated if we include partners or prospects. In order to be an effective business tool for customers it is active users only.

Closed groups are invite only and have to be approved. I strongly suggest the following protocols: valid work email addresses only. No personal email addresses used for the user profile. (You need to identify customers clearly.) Email must match the entry you have for the customer contact that is used for business email. No aliases. User names must be first name_last name (and can be first initial of last name) and in my example it is created automatically. Users can edit it, to anything, but the requirement is first name_last name or last initial and no one ever broke the rule. 

It is a business tool with the same decorum expected of any other. Limiting access to current, active users limits discussions and activities that are relevant to your user base. Controlling email and user names assures that trolling and spamming is virtually impossible. It also assures that exchanges are kept professional. 

Amanda Watson

Actual users only

Thanks for the insight @Brian O'Keeffe. We are in the process of implementing our community and I was considering allowing prospects to join, but it complicates it all. We are planning to connect active users to our community via SSO. Adding a guest experience for prospects seems overwhelming to coordinate at community launch and I worry that it will diminish the user experience.

Brian O'Keeffe

Actual users only

Amanda Watson said:

Thanks for the insight @Brian O'Keeffe. We are in the process of implementing our community and I was considering allowing prospects to join, but it complicates it all. We are planning to connect active users to our community via SSO. Adding a guest experience for prospects seems overwhelming to coordinate at community launch and I worry that it will diminish the user experience.

I agree. You may have public areas that they can access, but not participate. That is my suggestion. 

Heather Wendt

Just to reaffirm Brian's input, GGR is built to be open to anyone to view, but an account has to be created and used to join in the conversations or download resources