I'm new at drupal but have been bravely muddling through for about a week now (working nearly around the clock). I have extensive html experience and a goodly amount of css experience, but am a novice when it comes to php and mysql. (I did try mambo and one other site before deciding drupal was the easist to use.) I have searched this site and forum extensively, I have tried various settings and modules, and I have yet to solve this issue to my satisfaction. Anyone useful feedback would be appreciated (and, since I've seen many questions about this issue on the boards, I promise to document my final solution).
Here's the scoop:
I am building a members-only site. I do not want it indexed in the search engines. I want to moderate all new memberships (meaning, I want to be able to approve members before they join). I will be inviting new members to the site and sending them a link to a sign-up page. However, I want them to be able to create their own user name and password (I don't want to have to do this manually for them).
My drupal site has been created in a subdirectory of my main domain's site, so let's refer to my drupal directory as "subdirectory". When potential new members get a link to come sign up, it should have a link to mysite.com/subdirectory (right?). When they get to that page, there should be the "register" and "sign in" and "lost password" options, and *nothing else*. When I tried to apply access blocks, there were still some features that always showed up on that page, such as the logo link in the header, the primary links, and the search bar. Even when signed out, I could access all the site content via any of those links, making the site not secure in the least. (And, yes, I have it set so that: "Visitors can create accounts but administrator approval is required.")