Application Forms

An application form is a public page where people ask to join your programs. Instead of adding each collaborator yourself under Manage > Collaborators, you share the form’s link, or put the form on a page of your own site, and people apply. Each form names the programs it adds people to, and it can add distributors and collaborator groups too. It can also ask your own questions, so you have what you need to decide. You can publish as many forms as you like, such as one for affiliates and one for creators, each with its own link, programs, and questions.

Siren Cloud hosts the form page, so you don’t need a website to run one. On the WordPress plugin, the registration block and the Gravity Forms and Ninja Forms feeds do this job on your own site. A WordPress site connected to Siren Cloud keeps those forms, and they send their sign-ups to Siren Cloud, as Review Applications explains.

From application to collaborator

Someone opens your form, fills it in, and clicks “Submit”. Siren Cloud emails them a link to confirm their email address. Once they confirm, the form’s “Status for signups” decides what’s next. A new form starts on “Pending”. On a Pending form, the application waits for you on Manage > Applications, and your Admins get an email asking them to approve it. On an Active form, Siren Cloud approves the applicant as soon as they confirm.

When you approve someone, they become an active collaborator in the form’s programs, distributors, and groups, and they get an email with a link to set up their portal account. When you decline, they get an email saying they weren’t approved. Review Applications covers deciding, and Notifications and Email covers rewording or switching off these emails.

Admins and Platform Managers build forms under Create > Application forms. A program’s page also has an “Application forms” card, which lists the forms that add people to it and has “Add application form”. Every plan includes application forms. Adding distributors to a form needs Essentials or higher, and adding collaborator groups needs Plus or Pro.

Make your first form and share it

Form settings

To change a form later, click its name on the Application forms list, make your changes, and click “Update”. The “Form” card holds these settings:

• Name is required, up to 100 characters. Applicants see it under the heading.
• Address ending is the last part of the form’s link. Leave it blank and Siren makes one from the name, such as join-us for “Join us!”. Use lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens.
• Accept applications is on for a new form. While it’s off, the form says it isn’t taking applications.
• Programs are the programs applicants join. Choose at least one.
• Distributors are the distributors applicants join, on plans that include them.
• Status for signups is “Pending”, which waits for an Admin to approve each applicant, or “Active”, which approves them as soon as they confirm their email.
• Approve existing collaborators decides what happens when someone who’s already your collaborator applies. Ticked, they join this form’s programs, distributors, and groups right away. Unticked, your Admins are asked to approve it first.
• Submit message is what applicants see after they apply, up to 255 characters. It starts as “Thank you for your interest! We sent you a confirmation email. Check your inbox.”

The “Collaborator groups” card adds groups applicants join, on plans that include them.

Ask your own questions

Every form asks for a nickname, name, and email first. In the “Questions” card, “Add question” adds more, up to 20. Each question has a label, a type, an optional help text shown under it, and “Required”. The types are:

• Short text, one line up to 255 characters.
• Long text, a paragraph up to 5,000 characters.
• Web address, which must start with http:// or https://.
• Number.
• Single choice and Multiple choice, from up to 20 options you list one per line.
• Yes or no checkbox. When it’s required, applicants must tick it to apply.

Ask only what you need to decide, and never ask for passwords, payment details, or government ID numbers. Rewording a question keeps the answers people already gave. You see the answers when you review the application.

Share the form

Each form on the Application forms list, and on a program’s “Application forms” card, has “Copy link” and “Copy embed code”. When you open a saved form, its “Share this form” card shows the same two, with the form’s address, which ends in /apply/ followed by your organization’s and the form’s address endings. “Open” there opens the form while it’s on. “Copy embed code” copies a snippet that shows the form inside a page on your own site. Paste it where your site builder takes custom HTML, such as an HTML block. Changing the address ending changes the link, and the old link stops working.

If your organization had an apply page before application forms, its old link opens the form Siren made from it.

What applicants see

The page reads “Join” and your organization’s name, with the form’s name under it. Applicants fill in “Nickname”, “Name”, “Email”, and your questions, then click “Submit”. A note under the button tells them they’ll get an email to confirm their address. After they submit, they see “Application received” and your submit message. The page never shows which programs the form adds them to.

When the form is off or deleted, the page says “Applications are closed”. Too many tries from one connection get “Too many applications from this connection. Please try again later.” The form has no captcha, but a hidden field turns away simple bots.

What happens after someone applies

A new applicant gets an email titled “Action Required: Validate Your New … Account”, with your organization’s name in it and a “Confirm Signup” button that works for one day. Until they click it, they’re unconfirmed. They’re already in the form’s programs, distributors, and groups, but they earn nothing.

When they confirm:

• On a Pending form, the application waits for review, and your active Admins get “Action Required: New Collaborator for …”, with your organization’s name and an “Approve Collaborator” button. The applicant hears nothing more until you decide, unless you switch on the “We received your application” email.
• On an Active form, Siren approves them at once and sends them the approved email, while it’s switched on, with a link to set up their account.

Someone who’s already your collaborator gets a “Confirm Changes” email instead. Once they confirm, an Active collaborator either joins what the form adds right away or waits for an Admin, depending on “Approve existing collaborators”.

People can still confirm after you turn a form off or delete it.

Turn a form off or delete it

On the Application forms list, “Turn off” stops a form taking applications, and “Turn on” opens it again. Deleting a form is permanent: its link stops working, and people who already applied stay in your collaborators, with their applications marked “A form that was deleted”.