Introduction
A Group is a great way of creating separate, dedicated spaces for users to connect. These could be based on particular themes, experiences, locations or anything you like. Groups are the best way of segmenting your user base and creating smaller communities within the larger platform.
Each group has the same, set structure. The following tabs are available within the group:
Stream. Activities in a group, along with a post form for easy engagement
Events. Events organized in a group
Topics. Topics created in a group
Members. Members of a group. If you are a group manager, you can also manage the members of the group.
About. The description of the group and an opportunity to demonstrate to both new and existing members what the group is all about.
Discussions and Files & folder are also optional tabs in the group, if these features are enabled in your platform.
When Polls are enabled, they can also be added to a Group and appear on the left hand side
Group visibility
The groups are flexible and allow the group creator and/or group manager to customize the access and visibility settings to the specific group needs.
The three key options in this regard are:
- Group Visibility = Who can see that the group exists, and access the about page.
- Group Content Visibility = What are the visibility options for content/events created within the group - you can choose multiple options here
- Join Methods = How can people become group members. This can be managed by the group manager/admins, as well as the platform site & content managers
For example, the group below is Publicly visible (See for yourself), but the content can be either for the group members only or for the community, this is then decided on a per content basis. Finally, users can only join the group by invitation.
Group Types & Settings
In the taxonomy settings, you can define the different Group Types which will be available within the community.
This operates in the same way as the event or topic types. You can create the various types and then, when users are creating groups, they can choose which type of group it is from your pre-set list.
For a more complete guide on types, check out the taxonomy manual.
As a site manager, you can also configure if regular users can create groups or if this is limited to certain roles.
You can find these options on the Group settings page under the Group permissions.
Create, edit and delete groups
- You can add a group by using the ‘+’ button in the header menu.
- You can set the visibility of the group and the content of the group.
- You can choose one of the various join methods - open to join, invite-only, or request to join.
- You can add members directly in bulk.
- You can also add a group via the group overview page of your own profile.
- When a group has a physical location, it can be specified for this group as well.
- The group manager, content managers, and site managers can edit the group information, delete and manage the memberships of all groups.
- On top of that, content managers and site managers can manage the content within the group as well.
- You can only delete a group managed by you.
- A group can be deleted on the edit group page.
- Note that deleting a closed group will also delete all of the posts, events, and topics created in the closed group.
The Group Manager
When you create a group, you automatically become the group manager. You can only manage the members of a group that is managed by you.
The group managers is also show to other users, on the about page.
A group manager can:
- Add users directly their group
- Add multiple users at once by separating each user with a comma (',')
- Send invites to users to join the group
- Manage the request to join enrollment option. Approve or decline users.
- Change the role of members into a group manager, group admin or normal group member
- Remove members from a group.
- Email members
- Export the selected members
P.S.: The Group Admin role no longer exists, the Group Manager has all the same capabilities.