Members and community

No password.
A code by email.

A PixelGlass site has members from day one. A reader types an address, gets a six-digit code by email, and is signed in. The screens wear your theme's colours and fonts, and open over any page.

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Say it to your agent

Put Sign in and Account links in my site's footer menu.

  • get_navigation
  • set_navigation
  • list_theme_files
  • read_theme_file

Two ways to do it.

By hand

In the admin

  1. Open Settings › Audience and check that Let readers sign up and sign in is on. A new site starts with it on.
  2. Under Avatars, choose the face members wear: Pixel art, Personas, Adventurer or Initials. Save.
  3. Look at your site. Every bundled theme shows Sign in and Sign up to a visitor, and Account to a member.
  4. To place the doors yourself, open Settings › Design › Navigation, pick Sign in, Sign up or Account under Shortcuts, and save.
  5. A reader enters an address, then the code from their inbox. The code works for ten minutes.

With your agent

In Claude, ChatGPT or your editor

Put Sign in and Account links at the end of my footer menu.

Move Sign up to the end of the main menu, after About.

Give the sign-in screens our green accent and the serif we use for headings.

The tools it calls

  • get_navigation
  • set_navigation
  • list_theme_files
  • read_theme_file
  • edit_theme_file

The switch that turns sign-in on or off is yours, in Settings › Audience. An admin's agent places the doors in your menus and dresses the sign-in screens in your theme.

For example

  • A neighbourhood paper

    A local news site keeps the theme's Sign in in the masthead. Readers sign in to comment on the council reports, and nobody makes a password.

  • A recipe site with a quiet footer

    A cook takes the doors out of the masthead and asks her agent to put Sign in and Account in the footer menu instead.

  • A portfolio with no members

    A photographer turns sign-in off. The doors leave the theme, the sign-in pages are gone, and no data is deleted.

Questions, answered

How do readers sign in to a PixelGlass site?
With a six-digit code sent to their email. They type their address, then the code. The code works for ten minutes, and five wrong tries spend it.
Do PixelGlass members need a password?
No. Signing up and signing in both use a code by email. A reader who signs up can give a name too.
What happens when I turn sign-in off?
Readers cannot sign up or sign in, and the Sign in links leave your theme. No member and no data is deleted. Turn it on again in Settings › Audience.
Do new members join my newsletter?
A reader who confirms their address joins every newsletter set to Subscribe newcomers automatically. A reader who left every list joins none.
Can the sign-in screens match my theme?
Yes. PixelGlass draws the sign-in screens in your theme's accent, fonts and corners. A theme can also bring its own stylesheet or its own templates for them.
Can a member sign in to my admin?
No. A member is a reader, never a staff account. A member's sign-in opens your site and nothing in the PixelGlass admin.

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