Administrate a Group

Have a project you want to work on with other people, publicly or privately? An organization or campaign you want to promote? Want to form a group so that you and other members of the site can work together or share information about a subject you're all interested in? Create a group. Groups have useful options you can choose to use, including a comments wall, a discussion forum, a text box where you can post things (videos, photos / slideshows, donations links, etc.), and an RSS Reader where you can display an RSS feed (from your blog, Twitter, Flickr photostream, etc.).

A group can even be used like a mailing list - you can send messages to the entire group, and you can choose whether your members can also send messages out.

When you create a group, you are given the choice to make it private or public. This can not be changed, so it's important you understand the difference before you set up your group:

• Anyone: This means anyone can join the group at any time. The group page will be visible to everyone (members of the site, and the general public. This is a useful option if you don't want to have to deal with approving new members. However, it means that anyone can join your group, so you may want to check in on the group periodically to ensure that you like how people are using it.
• Moderated Membership: This means that only the first small box at the top of your group page will be visible to those who aren't members of the group. (This small box includes your location, web address, logo, and a brief description of your group.) Once you've selected this option, you're given two more choices - which you can change later if needed:
  • Members can invite other people to join: This means that not only you, but any member of the group, can invite in other people to join - even people who are not yet members of the site or of fD. This is useful if you really want to have a large group and trust your (approved) members to make good decisions about who to let in - but it also means that you have less control over who's in the group.
  • Allow people to request membership: If you don't check this option, it means that people can't contact you to ask to join the group. This is useful if you are using the group only as a private, invitation-only organizing or project space, for a very limited group of people.

Here are some general tips to keep your group running well:

• Fill in your whole group page - a link to your site if you have one, your location, a graphic, and a description will all help people to find you and understand what you're all about. Tell people what your group goals are and how they can get involved.
• Check in on your group periodically to approve new members, add updates and other new content that your visitors will find useful, and moderate discussions to make sure your members are using the group appropriately.
• If you don't like handling group administration all by yourself, promote other people to be admins or moderators, too! They can help you approve new members, update the group page, and moderate discussions. Make sure that you promote people you trust who have a similar vision for the group, to ensure that this power-sharing meets your needs.

Contact us if you run into questions or problems.