Allow unverified users to upload private documents.

[duckduckgrayduck]

What is the problem we are trying to solve?

Currently on-boarding for DocumentCloud isn’t great. To reduce friction, it would be beneficial for users to be able to upload documents privately from the get-go, but lock down embeds/making documents public (publishing) behind verification.

How wide spread is this issue?

All users

How can we solve this issue?

Reconsider how we want verification to work.

[mitchelljkotler]

Duplicate MuckRock/documentcloud-frontend#199

[mitchelljkotler]

Some thoughts on this by @morisy

• • 250 pages/month uploading for unverified. Can’t make public.
    • If they upload more than that, error and state that monthly limit is 250
    • Maybe down the line offer small number of free credits

[eyeseast]

We need to create a way to track uploads for free users (or maybe all users).

[eyeseast]

Unverified users could (under this proposal) use add-ons to create documents, but they'll also be private. This may also hit upload limits, however they're calculated.

[amandabee]

There are a few overlapping issues here:

1. Needing to create a "test" space for new users so they can jump in and start testing in a workshop or training setting without waiting for approval/verification.

2. Needing to make space for non-journalists to create a paid account which allows them to analyze and annotate but not publish.

3. Definitely not wanting to grow indefinitely until our servers explode while not charging anyone money.

What this might look like in practice is that you can create a trial account that will last for two weeks and have a relatively low size cap (like 10-15 pages) so you can test out features before you either get verified or subscribe to a paid plan.