开云体育

  1. GroupManagersForum
  2. Wiki
  3. Quick Start for Group Formation

Quick Start for Group Formation

This is an overview on starting a group with links to other parts of the wiki.

1. Join 开云体育

and then you can create a new group or transfer an existing group.

2. Login to?create a group

Your group can be a brand new one or one that is going to have content transferred (copied) from YahooGroups.

Do you want a basic (free) group or would you like the features that come with the premium or enterprise plan?

You can start with free and move to a paid plan later. Or if you are transferring a group from Yahoo, you must upgrade the destination group to the Premium Yearly plan (not Premium Monthly nor Premium For One Month).

3. First steps

Create a group by clicking on the link to Create A Group.

Verify that your group will comply with 开云体育's terms of service:

A group is identified by its email address. Decide on the group's email address. The address part you choose is also referred to as the name of the group. ?

  • The Group name must be 32 characters or less and cannot contain spaces, pluses, periods, or underscores.
  • The same setting also controls the group’s web address (URL). The domain name will be groups.io. {If you want to use your own domain name, you must choose the Enterprise plan.}
  • The group name also controls is the default sort order in the directory of groups, if you opt to include your group in the list of public groups.
  • You can change your group's name (email & web address) later if you must. ?But see?Renaming a Group
  • Compose a good description for your group. Be specific. This description will appear on your 开云体育 homepage. It can be edited again later.?
  • If you are listed in the public groups, only part of the home page description will show. Make it good!

Visibility - Decide on visibility.

Visibility of your group message archive - this is an important decision. You can't change your mind later. (The options disappear after you create your group. Subgroup visibility options are slightly different and refer to main group and subgroup members, as well.)?

Do you want your group's messages (archive) to be visible to search engines and the general public?

The archive of a group consists of all messages posted to the group, except messages that have been deleted. It is displayed in a chronological list by clicking on "Messages" on the group’s home page. ?

Some have public archives and some private.?

Once you make your group message archive private, you cannot later change your mind and make it public again.

Private archives means that those messages are visible only to subscribers. In stark contrast, a public archive can be read by anybody. And when I say anybody, I mean anyone in the world who finds the URL.?

For example, the archives in Group Managers Forum can be read by ANYONE. You don't need to be subscribed to GMF...you don't even need to have a groups.io account. ?Some of the posts are indexed in search engines.

Understandably, many people might be reluctant to post things to a public group, even if it doesn't involve a sensitive issue like medical privacy. That's why the privacy setting is displayed on your group's home page. And that's also why once you make your group private, you cannot make it public again. It is a breach of trust -- and may not even be legal -- to tell people that their posts will be restricted to a limited audience, only to have the group Owner later betray that trust by changing his mind.

b. Do you want your group to be listed in the list of groups?

Some groups opt not to be listed in the directory of publicly accessible groups.
You can change that later.

Be sure to Save Everything! Scroll down to the button - Update Group.

4. Settings - customizing your group

The wiki may not reflect all the customizations in Premium and?especially?Enterprise groups.

You still have important work to do!

The Settings page sets some overall limits, and the individual features have some control options as well.

Login to your group using your own email address. Your email address is used on the Log In page where some systems might use a "username" instead.

Click on the green button to create your group.

You will be able to customize your group administrative settings after you create the group.

Go to Admin > Settings in the menu on the left.

After you create your group you must wait to allow the groups.io system to approve the group before you can take certain actions. That's ok, meanwhile you can continue on to customize your group. You'll receive email notification is approved, this may take a few hours. If you opted to include your group in the directory of public groups it will take a while longer for it to appear there.

Buttons: ?1) settings, 2) default sub (subscription) settings, 3) cover photo (for your home page), 4) notices (editable invitation notice, welcome, etc.) and 5) export group data (to meet European GDPR / privacy regulations).

1) Settings buttons:

General - you can edit your group title, description, add user tips to your group home page, etc. ?If you wish to market your group through ?the list of groups (/search?p=SubsCount,,,20,2,0,0?), make sure your title and description have the appropriate keywords for retrieving your group.??

Be sure to click on Update Group after changes.

Privacy -

  • You have already decided whether or not your archive is public or private. You cannot change that. See above for details. You can change whether or not your group appears in the directory of publicly listed Groups.

  • Member directory: who can view the member directory? Additionally, each member has control over who can see their own profile in the Member Directory, through their Group Profile button of the Subscription page. The member uses the Edit Group Profile button. Additionally, a member must set their own profile to be visible to other members before they can see other members' profiles.?

  • Members visible: ?this is the Admin members' list. For more information about the Directory and Members' List, see this wiki page.

  • Hide email addresses in message archive: some groups mask members email addresses for privacy. ?Alternatives for members if you mask the email addresses: Reply online via the "Reply" link below the message, and the click the silver Private button on the right. It changes it to Reply to Sender. They can also click on Reply to Sender in their email footer.

Spam Control -

You must choose from among these four options. At least one?of these options must be set as a spam-control measure.

  • Restricted Membership - Moderators must approve any new subscribers.
  • Announcement Group - Only Owners and Moderators are allowed to post.
  • Moderated - ALL messages are held pending moderator approval before being sent to the group.
  • New Users Moderated - Messages from new subscribers are held pending moderator approval. After the set number of consecutive messages are approved, the subscriber is automatically unmoderated.

If you choose Restricted only, you do not need to moderate ANY messages, if you wish. But you will have to approve new subscribers. There is no Spam Control setting that will allow a new subscriber to join your group without approval and immediately post an unmoderated message.

Message Policies -

Allow non-members to post: ?if checked, owners and moderators can approve a post from a non-member. This is true even in a non-moderated group. Members can read the post and respond, but the non-member would not see the replies. You would need to forward them, summarize the replies and email the summary to the non-member, or invite the non-member to join.

Disable no email -?If checked, members can't set their email delivery to no email. They can set their preference as "special notices only".?

Hashtags - a few options. Hashtags are useful search and organizational tools. You can decide if required, or who can create new hashtags.??Moderators can be given permission to create and delete hashtags. More info in Help.

Disable Editing Posts -?If checked, members are not allowed to edit their own posts. Moderators can edit posts when moderating, and if given permission by the owner in their profile, they can edit archives.

Reply to - the default is Group. There are other options.

There are other choices to be made to fine-tune your and users' experience, including what to do with suspected viruses and if out of space. See?Storage limits

Reposting Policies - not available in basic. It is a Premium and Enterprise feature.

Message Formatting - HTML or not, allow attachments or not.?

Features - for all of these, you can disable the feature and decide who can use it.

Managing attachments?- files and photos

/g/GroupManagersForum/wiki/Managing-Attachments%2C-Files-and-Photos

Be sure to save (Update Group) when you are finished.

2) Default Sub Settings button:

You can set up standard?(default) subscription settings for users. Individual users can change this themselves, but if they don't, this would be their group settings. For more information, see Subscription Options.

There are 5 more choices on this button - Maximum?attachment?size that will be emailed to members, time zone, time?display (standard or "military" aka 24-hour clock), and start date for your group calendar. Attachment size options includes unlimited and 0 (no attachments).

Click on the blue button (update group) to save your choices and changes.

3) Cover Photo button:

You can add a photo for your group home page as well as a group icon for use on mobile devices.?Upload a file containing the cover photo. It will be scaled to fit within 900 x 300 pixels - 3:1 ratio.

There is also an option to create a group icon. This is displayed on the mobile home page as well as in the Feed on the webpage.

4) Member Notices button:

There are a number of notices you can create.

  • Invite notice: You will likely want to personalize the Invite notice that is emailed with an invitation to join your group.?
  • Welcome notice: Sent when someone joins your group.
  • If you wish more information about potential new members, use Pending Subscription notice. This message sent when someone applies to join your group. This is only available to Restricted Groups (see Spam Control in Settings). It is sent automatically to anyone who asks to join. It is not sent to those that you invite or "direct add".
  • And you might consider a Group Guidelines notice. The Group Guidelines notice is a unique type that provides a convenient and versatile way to communicate and maintain the group’s posting and conduct guidelines, if any.?

See this wiki page about member notices.

For more information, see the?Help pages.

5. Export Group Data button

To download your complete message archive, click on Settings under Admin in the sidebar. From there, click the Export Group Data button. You can then select which parts of your group to export.

6. Member Sync button / Service Sync

开云体育 organizations can be sync'ed with an external service. This means that members of the external service can automatically be made members of an 开云体育 organization. Automatic syncing occurs hourly. Used with Slack. This does not appear on the first button (Settings).

7. What Counts Towards the Storage Limits?

/static/pricing#what-is-counted-towards-the-storage-limits-for-my-group

8. Ready to go!

Message moderation

- in Admin, Settings

9. More help

开云体育 help -?/static/help

In the wiki -?/g/GroupManagersForum/wiki/home

Search button at the top of Messages list in GMF.?/g/GroupManagersForum/messages

?

The official 开云体育 user documentation is in the 开云体育 Help Center.