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Groups

Open Social
Open Social Open Social • 9 December 2016

Introduction

A Group allows a set of users to share ideas and organize events with each other around one specific subject. It can be seen as smaller communities within a bigger community. You are free to choose the type of group that is suitable such as a thematic, regional, or/and organization group. 

In each group you can find:

  • Stream. Activities in a group with a post form. 

  • 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. Detailed information of a group. If you are a group manager, you can modify the information of a group.

  • Discussions and Files & folder are also options in the group if they are enabled. 

  • When Polls are enabled, they can also be added to a Group

 

The groups are flexible and allow the creator of the group to customize many group settings to their needs, including the visibility settings for the group content and the joining method. For example, only people can join by invitation and group members can see the content, as shown below. This feature provides more flexibility to your group settings.Group join method

 

Group Types

In the taxonomy settings, under group type you can define what kind of group it is. Much like the Event and Topic type, you can add a Group type field. Which allows a site manager to decide what different types of groups there are in your community. Regional, organizational, you name it, you can add it. We have made this optional by default, if you want to enable it you can find it under “Group settings” in your configurations ( as seen in the image below).

 

Group settings

Require group types

Then you can set your group type under taxonomy settings just like Topics and Event. 

Once you save them, every time you create a group, the user can add what type of group it is depending on the suggestions listed. 

Create, edit and delete

  • 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.
  • As a site manager, you’re now able to configure if regular users can create groups or if this is only your content and fellow site managers can do within your community. You can find this new checkbox on the Group settings page under the Group permissions.

Allow users to create groups

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

 

The Group Admin

The group admin has similar permissions as the group manager but does not appear in the group manager block on the about page. The group admin is automatically the user who created the group. 
Site- and content managers always have the permissions to edit groups that are not created by themselves. This is independent of the fact that they joined the group or not.

If they join a group, they are granted the role of group admin automatically. They have the rights to edit the group, but they are not perse the group manager. If they are also the group manager, this role should be granted to them. That will make them appear in the ' group managers' list, so members know who to contact for questions about the group.

 

Manage members

 

group admin