Building Communities, Part 3: An Admin Dashboard to Avoid Single Points of Failure

Part 3 of the Building Communities series — lessons learned running IrregularChat.

Building a Community Admin Dashboard: Reducing Single Points of Failure

Why Redundancy Matters

In any community, avoiding a single point of failure should be a top priority. Relying on one person to manage all administrative tasks can:

• Overload that individual with time-intensive responsibilities.
• Put the community at risk if that person becomes unavailable.
• Create inefficiencies when tasks are too dependent on specific technical knowledge.

By designing systems that allow multiple admins to share responsibilities, the community becomes more resilient and self-sufficient. This is particularly important for managing Identity Management (IdM) systems, such as Authentik, which can be complex for some admins.

The Admin Dashboard

To address this challenge, we developed the Chat-Based Community Dashboard:

• Repository: Chat-Based Community Dashboard
• Purpose: To streamline common admin tasks without requiring direct access to the IdM system (e.g., Authentik).
• Protection: The dashboard is protected using Cloudflare's Identity-Aware Proxy, which limits access to up to 50 users - ideal for our admin use case.

Why Use the Dashboard Instead of Direct IdM Access?

1. Simplifies Tasks: Not all admins need to understand the intricacies of Authentik or IdM systems. The dashboard abstracts complexity and provides a user-friendly interface for managing users and chats.
2. Reduces Access Risks: Granting full Authentik admin access to all admins increases the risk of accidental misconfigurations. The dashboard provides controlled, limited access for essential tasks.
3. Supports Redundancy: With multiple admins using the dashboard, tasks like onboarding, safety number verifications, and role assignments can be shared. This reduces reliance on any single admin.
4. Improves Security: By using Cloudflare Identity-Aware Proxy, we can limit dashboard access to verified users. This adds an additional layer of security and ensures only trusted admins can perform critical actions.

Key Features of the Dashboard

• User Management: Add, verify, or remove users from community chats.

• Safety Number Checks: Admins can search for a user's details, including:

  • Username
  • Introduction information
  • Who added them

  This simplifies the safety number verification process without exposing admins to the full IdM system.

• Welcome Message Generation: Admins can send a direct welcome message to a new user with a pre-created account:

  • Username
  • Temporary password

  Sending pre-created accounts has historically resulted in significantly higher engagement compared to recovery links on first login.

Future Features

The dashboard will soon include a verification workflow:

1. Admins will send a verification email directly to users.
2. The user completes the verification process through the email.
3. The admin will confirm the user in the Actions chat before they are fully onboarded.

How It Works

1. Admins access the dashboard via the Cloudflare-protected portal.
2. Tasks such as onboarding, safety number checks, and welcome message generation are completed through the simplified interface.
3. Actions integrate seamlessly with Authentik and the chat platform without exposing full IdM admin controls.

Benefits to the Community

• Increased Resilience: Multiple admins can perform tasks without depending on one person.
• Streamlined Operations: Simplified workflows improve efficiency for all admins.
• Better Security: Controlled access to IdM systems ensures fewer risks of errors or misconfigurations.
• Higher Engagement: Sending pre-created accounts improves user activation rates significantly.
• Scalability: As the community grows, tasks can be easily shared and managed using the dashboard.