Much of the community interaction will take place in Groups. You may find the list of Groups by selecting Groups in the menu under Community:
Note that on the Groups page there are two tabs – “Groups”, and “Group Categories”:
There are three privacy levels for Groups: Open, Closed, and Secret
- Open – Anyone can join this group and participate. Non-members can see everything in the group, but they can’t post, comment, etc.
- Closed – Users need to be invited or request group membership and be accepted. Non-members can only see the group’s “about” page.
- Secret – Users need to be invited. Non-members can’t see the group at all.
Each group has a group owner. A group may also have managers and/or moderators. The rules of each group are created and enforced by the group’s owner, manager, and moderators. (The Community Guidelines still apply.)
You may create your own groups. Use the “Create Group” button at the top of the Groups page. (Please use either the Closed or Secret privacy levels.)
Two specific groups to note:
- “Announcements” – Everyone should join this group as it will be used at times to provides various important announcements and updates from the site administrators. (The ability to create posts in that group is restricted to administrators.)
- “Support” – An excellent means by which to seek help, ask questions, give suggestions and feedback, and get any other support as it relates to the use of the website.
Notifications for Group Activity
Notification options for specific groups may be set in the notification section of the user profile. They may also be set from the specific group page.
- Follow – causes all new posts to the group to show up in your recent activity stream
- Be notified – causes each new post to the group to generate a notification that shows up in the site menu
- Receive e-mails – causes each new post to generate a notification email that is delivered to your inbox