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Re: group title vs. group email address, effects of changing both?
J,
Yegads! I would have stopped you from going to all this trouble if I'dThe basic process isn't complicated, only step 4, the change itself, is actually needed. If your members are basically savvy, and can be expected to understand an cope with the change in address by themselves then 3 and 4 together, warning and change, should suffice. The rest is going "above and beyond" in mitigating the ramifications for the benefit of a membership of mixed or unknown level of understanding. It is a collection of ideas that have been discussed over the years in Y!GMF and Y!YGOG, gathered together and rewritten for Groups.io. Shal |
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Re: group title vs. group email address, effects of changing both?
J,
What are the ramifications of changing a group title and/or emailI don't believe there would be any ramifications to changing the group's Title. Since the Title is now shown in the Group Search page, if having people find and join your group via that page you may want to pick a title that goes well with the group name and the snippet of description that are shown there. That is, if the group name is short-hand for the topic of the group, you might want to spell it out in the Title. The email address though is another matter. That address is also used as the group name (shown first on the Group Search page) and as a part of the group's address (URL) on the web. So changing it can't avoid having some impact on the members. Say I had the "my_example" group and wanted to change that to "MyExample". The most obvious impact is that the address "[email protected]" is contained in all the prior messages out there (individual or digest) which a member might use to form a reply. After the change their replies would be rejected for "no such group" or some message like that. Too, members may have that old address stored in their contact lists or in the auto-complete function in their email service. The next is that the group's web address "/g/my_example" is similarly "out there" in prior messages and possibly bookmarks or browsing history; none of which will work after the change. A way to mitigate those impacts would be, after clicking the "Update Group" button on the changed email address, to immediately create a new group under the old address. Members would end up at the wrong place, but that's friendlier than an error. This also prevents any malcontents from "squatting" on your group's old name to cause trouble. My suggestion is to do the following: 1) Create the new group "my_example_temp". This will later be changed to "my_example", but it helps to get it all set up ahead of time so that there's no time pressure later. Give it the following settings: Description: Text that serves as a "We've Moved" billboard to direct members to the new MyExample email and web addresses. Website: "/g/MyExample" Announcement Group: NOT checked, and Allow Non Subscribers to Post: checked These will cause errant messages to the old address to be accepted rather than give an error message. See Moderated, below. Privacy: "Listed in directory, publicly viewable archives" This means that people searching on the exact text of the old name will still find your group, but this the "we've moved" billboard. Moderated: checked Don't approve any messages that arrive, but use the Reject feature in the pending list to inform (or remind) the member of the new group address, and ask them to repost their message to the new address. Restricted: checked Don't invite or approve anyone. This group is just the we've moved billboard. Calendar and Wiki: anything except Public can view... Most of the rest I don't think will matter. 2) Post one message in the group, using the group's Post function so that you can select the +owner address in the From field. Like the group's description this can also be in the form of a "we've moved" notice, perhaps with more detail. Give whatever explanations and directions you feel appropriate for a group member who happens to wander to the old group address. 3) Warn the group members of the upcoming change, give them a date and time for it. 4) At the announced date and time, go to my_example and change it to "MyExample". Click Update Group. 5) Immediately go to my_example_temp and change it to "my_example". Click Update Group. Doing these two changes in rapid succession helps minimize the probability that someone else will accidentally, or maliciously, grab your old group name when it is freed. You might be vague on the changeover time (or even wrong) if you fear there may be a malcontent out there eager to snag your group's name. Optionally send a welcome message to your group members at MyExample. Shal |
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Re: Closing threads
Frances,
What happens if someone has their delivery preference as first in threadI haven't actually tested this, but I think not if the message was actually added to that thread. But yes if the message was handled as a new thread start. And that's where the distinction between being a Reply or a new Post comes in, as described in my prior message. In Groups.io changing the Subject text will start a new thread, as will using Post rather than Reply (or the email equivalents). Shal |
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Re: Closing threads
Frances,
It looks like threads don't automatically close. This must mean someoneYes, but only by replying to a message in that thread. If I don't want that, I must manually close them. Right?In most cases closing the old thread won't be necessary, Groups.io will do what you want automatically. Groups.io has fairly tight requirements for adding a new message to an existing thread, this is unlike Y!Groups where a matching subject could add a new message to a thread that is years old. Closing a thread prevents new replies to the thread, but does not prevent new posts with the same subject (see below). An attempted reply to a closed thread is rejected, it does not start a new thread. Perhaps a dumb question but I assume that subject lines from closedWhether the old thread is closed or not, a new Post (not a Reply) with the subject "Malta" will start a new thread. There is one exception: if the new post has the subject "Re: Malta" and is posted within a week of a message in the thread, then it is presumed to be a reply to that thread. If the thread is not closed the new message will be added to it. For members that post by email, the distinction between a reply and a new post is, generally speaking, whether they used the "Reply" function on a message they received versus using Compose (or New Message, or whatever it is called in their email service). The technical details are in beta@ message 5772: /g/beta/message/5772 Shal |
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Closing threads
Just looking through old posts and I had a question or two about threads ? It looks like threads don't automatically close. ?This must mean someone can add to an old thread a year or two later. ?Correct? If I don't want that, I must manually close them. ?Right? Perhaps a dumb question but I assume that subject lines from closed threads can be reused later. For example, if the subject is Malta, can someone else later start a new thread with the subject Malta?? Frances |
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case sensitivity of Group+SubGroup names on digest subject line
RichardTE wrote (6525 in beta@):
edited update: I'm on the shalstest digest, and my digest from 15/g/beta/message/6525 Interesting observation. And I think that provides the answer. I created a subgroup, /g/shalstest+camelCaseSubGroup and put you in it to receive the digest. Then posted a messsage. I'm predicting that the intercapitals will be preserved, but initial caps will be imposed in the digest Subject, as in: Shalstest+CamelCaseSubGroup Digest #1 That's based on the appearance of the breadcrumb line in the subgroup (viewing the Messages Thread View): Shalstest+CamelCaseSubGroup > Threads Shal /g/GroupManagersForum |
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Help with Easy Group Transfer
In Y!GMF message 58371 Dean wrote:
I learned in moving a couple groups now, even members who get daily (public archive, no membership needed) Do you happen to know if they're asking because they were too timid to just try it? Or did they run into some kind of snag? I know at times it useless, but I still try and in the hope if I reachI made a Wiki page on the subject, but I haven't actually transferred a group myself. So the advice there is gleaned from what I've read. If you have more advice, or detailed descriptions, or screen shots along the way, perhaps we can collaborate on improving the page. /g/GroupManagersForum/wiki/Transfer-from-Yahoo-Groups Shal |
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Re: Using IP addresses to identify malcontent members
Brenda,
Interestingly enough, My e-mail, Stephanie's E-mail, & Fizzpop's E-mailI'm not sure what you're looking at. I see a single field in each of those. X-Originating-IP: 255.255.255.255(number altered for no particularly good reason) Is the other one you're looking at in a Received: field? However, you don't have two IP addresses viewable in the header in thatA difference is that I almost always post by email, not from the site. Your three examples were all posted on site. Are you able to hide your IP address?Yes and no. As a Gmail user, were I to post from Gmail's web interface then my home IP address would not be revealed by Gmail. All the IP addresses in the inbound portion of the header would belong to Google. That's another limitation of using IP addresses to track malcontent members: not all email services will reveal the user's IP address to you. And another is that the malcontent can use a proxy server, if they're concerned about it and a bit technical. However, posting from Eudora on my PC, my home IP address is shown in the bottommost Received: field, on a line that shows my computer's name as well as my ISP. If you're looking in your email, the incoming Received: fields were re-written as X-Received: Shal |
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Re: Using IP addresses to identify malcontent members
Shal,
Interestingly enough, My e-mail, Stephanie's E-mail, & Fizzpop's E-mail all have a double IP Address. They have the one that is from Mark's site, (I'm presuming), and then they have their own below that. However, you don't have two IP addresses viewable in the header in that manner. Are you able to hide your IP address? Learning something new every day... Brenda |
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Using IP addresses to identify malcontent members
In beta@ message 6229: Brenda wrote:
I learned to read the IP addresses to know and identify them./g/beta/message/6229 IP addresses have two shortcomings: the same person may use multiple IP addresses, and multiple people may use the same IP address.[1] The first can come about from the person connecting using different computers (home, work, library), or with a mobile device using different WiFi locations (Starbucks, grocery store, library, home, work). It is also possible, in most cases, for a person with a home internet connection to break that connection and be assigned a different IP address. That used to be very common with dial-up connections, but now connections (and their IP address) tend to last longer (weeks, months) and ISPs often try to give you the same one back after a disconnection, rather than drawing a fresh number from the pool. The second can come about when multiple users are behind the same router/NAT. This can be as small as a home network, or larger such a dormitory, an office, a campus, or in some parts of the world even a whole city. So using an IP address for identification isn't foolproof. But, as long as you're aware of the limitations, it isn't necessarily worthless either if you can combine it with other forms of evidence. Shal 1: At least, for the IPv4 addresses that have been most used to date (usually written as a string of four small numbers combined with decimal points). In the future, as IPv6 gains usage it isn't clear to me what will happen. Instead of somewhat less than 4 billion unique addresses, the new system has something on the order of 16 quintillion (billion billion) unique addresses (speaking in U.S. terminology, where billion = 1,000,000,000). In IPv6 every computing device could be given a permanent unique address and we wouldn't even come close to running out. |
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Re: Hashtags?
Green,
1. How do I (as a moderator) assign a hashtag to a thread in my group'sOpen the thread from the Thread View, and click the "Edit Thread" button near the upper right. Then add the hashtag(s) to the thread's subject line. Click the "Update" button. 2. How do I (as a user) get a listing of all messages with a particularGo to the messages page and click on the "#HashTags" tab. Click on the date/time stamp in the "Most Recent Message" column for the particular hashtag. Shal |
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Re: Hello I am new here.....
Jeremy,
Yahoo allows me to put a footer on the daily digest, I use it forYou may have discovered an oversight. I would have thought that the "Message Footer" text (on the Settings page) would have been applied to digests also. But I'm not seeing any examples of it happening. Similarly, I would like to add a village business directory in the dailyI would say that the message footer would be the place for that, but it is plain text so the URL you provide may or may not end up clickable. Similarly I would like photos and other file attachments to be visiblePhotos and attachments to messages in the digest are available by clicking the "View This Message" link - which takes one to the site to view the message. The only way I can think of to cause a regular such message to appear in each digest would be to set it up as a calendar event that repeats daily and has a reminder. The event description (which can be HTML formatted) could have embedded photos, but it can't (yet) carry attachments. There's a TODO item for including attachments in messages posted by web, but I don't know if that would apply to event reminders. Shal |
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Re: Creating a How-To Guide for groups.io
#howtoguide
Brenda,
In here, the topic was discussed in post #'s #209, #254 (I found myI merged several related threads into this one, but not that particular thread (because it was specific to database). But I did add the #HowToGuide hashtag to it. -- Shal |
Shal Farley
Frances
Nightowl >8#
Green Fizzpops