On Wed, Sep 25, 2019 at 02:01 PM, Gary Vaught wrote:

We have a member who isn't able to login to groups.io

- he set up two-factor authentication to groups.io
- he had his key to that 2FA in Google Authenticator, which was on his phone
- his phone got reset to factory settings and he lost access to Google Authenticator
- he also pointed out that the key for cancelling the 2FA for groups.io was also on his phone, not in the cloud.

This is one of the downsides of 2FA, and the primary reason that I have not looked into setting it up for myself.

Is there anything I can do, as group owner, to get him authenticated and active again? I'm reasonably sure he's not wanting to go to all of his groups and get signed up again.

Those with Premium groups are capable of changing the email address associated with a subscriber's account. Other than that, there is little that group owners can do to assist people with their account/login problems.

Regards,
Bruce
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On second thoughts: in my group hashtags are required, but sometimes members fail to use them correctly and moderators have to correct the subject with the correct wording after the message has been published.

Changing, even slightly, the message topic can interfere with the Mute Topic feature?

Marina

Peter,

However, when I tried to add that alternative address as an alias, I
am getting a failure message saying that the email address is already
registered.

I think you need to log in using that alternative email address one last time and then use the red "Delete My Account" button at the bottom right of its Account page.

Or, if you prefer to retain ownership of the content you posted under the alternative address you can log into it and change its Email to your primary address. That will initiate a merge of the two accounts, leaving only the primary address as an active account.

If you're logged in to your primary address you'll need to log out of that first, or use a browser that isn't logged in.

Once the alternative address has been deleted or merged you should be able to set it as an alias to your primary address.

Shal


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Mick,

What does "auto follow replies" mean?

It is one of the Message Selection options, in the Advanced Preferences section of each member's membership page (and your own Subscription page).
/static/help#subscription-options

This one means that the member will be sent messages that are in topics that this member created or replied to. It is only effective if the member has
selected "Following Only" rather than "All Messages".

It is shown as "R" next to their email type selected.

Here's a description of all of the badges:
/g/GroupManagersForum/wiki/Status-Badges-in-the-Members-List

Shal




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What does "auto follow replies" mean?
It is shown as "R" next to their email type selected.

Mick

Doranna,

Another excellent option. Sadly, most of my peeps are, er, not
friends with web interfaces and don't want to be. It's very much like
herding cats.

That's ok. If you know which members belong in which category you can set their Message Selection for them.

One hitch is that "Change Message Selection" isn't a choice in the Actions menu (at the bottom of each page of the Members list). Which means that you'd have to set them one by one, opening each member's page in turn.

Going forward you could set up the Message Selection option in the Default Sub Settings tab of your (sub)group's Settings page so that new members default to announcements only. Which I presume would be the majority case versus the few who want to participate in comments.

Another hitch in this scheme is that there isn't an easy way to prevent members from creating a new topic of their own (effectively an Announcement), and some may even do so accidentally. So you would also likely want to Moderate the group to catch that. I don't know if it was your plan to moderate the discussion subgroup, but that would be a downside of doing it all in one (sub)group instead of two if you wanted discussion to be freewheeling.

Shal


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On Wed, Sep 25, 2019 at 10:02 AM, Shal Farley wrote:

Or, you can use a hashtag in the Subject of all announcement messages,
and, in the announcement subgroup only, give that hashtag the "Locked"
checkbox. That will prevent replies to the announcement but not other
messages from members.

Well, that's an interesting thought, too.? I'll ponder it!? --D

On Tue, Sep 24, 2019 at 10:00 AM, Shal Farley wrote:

?

(The first sub-group is for announcements; the second is for discussion of those announcements.)

?

That's an interesting use case. Is it your expectation that the members of the first subgroup would choose whether to be members of the second, and that any that did could join in on the discussion?

Yes, exactly so.? And meanwhile the first group remains strictly business--a streamlined group that doesn't clutter the mailboxes of our less active members.

I have a similar use case in my PTA group, but there I'm not trying to foster discussion of the announcements among the overall unit membership, but I would like member's replies to be directed to the unit's board for consideration (the board is a subgroup, the unit membership is the primary group). What I've done instead is set Reply To in the primary group to Moderators. This makes the moderators of the primary group responsible for handling and/or forwarding the replies as necessary. A little less than ideal, but fortunately it hasn't been a big burden to the moderators.

Another good idea, and quite nearly an analogous situation.? In this case I'm afraid it would be a persistent burden, but I'll keep it in mind as an option. (I am making notes!)? Thank you!

The closest thing I can think of to your use case (if I have it right) would be for the members to use the Advanced Preferences in their Subscription page to receive the announcements (only) or the announcements and discussion as well. This does away with the need for a separate subgroup for discussion.

Another excellent option.? Sadly, most of my peeps are, er, not friends with web interfaces and don't want to be. It's very much like herding cats.

What I'm gathering from this discussion is that our best option is to make the group announcements only, anoint all of us in the position to make said announcements, and add a footer that reminds people to send responses to the second group.? We've done this before on other services--it's just so much neater when one can set the reply-to.

I appreciate the discussion.? It really helped me define our options.

?

--Doranna

开云体育

It isn't only happening to me. It has happened to EVERY member?in her group. I always check my spam folder in gmail and that mail wasn't there from her. ? When I wrote to her about?not getting her mail she said she sent it I sent them through the group email addy.? ? It is hard interpreting what she talks about but I think what she was doing was starting a new topic in the message area and that for some reason wasn't reaching the group. ? Now when?she is?sending mail?from her computer and her shares are coming to the group. ? ? ? ? ?

Leeni,

If messages sent from her phone isn't the problem, something else
is definitely going on because there aren't any
hashtags being used when she writes her email.

So... magic.

Or a sufficiently advanced technology (i.e., one that I don't understand).

Could it be an AOL issue?

Nope.

I still feel that there is some detail we've missed or have misinterpreted that would explain your observations.

For example, perhaps you looked in a Spam folder in your Incredimail application, but not the Spam folder in Gmail's web interface.

Shal


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<<Ctrl-F. I believe it's the same for most other desktop browsers...I cannot speak with authority regarding any mobile device you might be using.>>

depending on the browser you use on the ‘device’ there’s typically a ‘find in page’ in a pull-down. ?Safari is probably the LEAST friendly in that regard.?

On Wed, Sep 25, 2019 at 06:03 PM, J White wrote:

Then I immediately changed the settings so that no members could edit or delete their own posts.

I can find a setting to stop people editing their posts but not one to stop them from deleting them.

How exactly have you achieved this?

Chris

We have a member who isn't able to login to groups.io

- he set up two-factor authentication to groups.io
- he had his key to that 2FA in Google Authenticator, which was on his phone
- his phone got reset to factory settings and he lost access to Google Authenticator
- he also pointed out that the key for cancelling the 2FA for groups.io was also on his phone, not in the cloud.

Is there anything I can do, as group owner, to get him authenticated and active again? I'm reasonably sure he's not wanting to go to all of his groups and get signed up again.

开云体育

I?mentioned in the first email that I had sent that?I?was?receiving everyone else's mail without a problem including my own. How I found out her mail wasn't being delivered is I went to the message section to make sure my mail reached the group and saw a few pieces of mail from her which wasn't delivered to my inbox. ? "I am in this group and receiving all of the member's mail plus my own mail being sent to my email." ? It is only this one?person who happens to be the owner of the group isn't being delivered since she started having computer problems and was writing from her phone.? ? ? ? ?

Yes, thank you, Bruce!

I will use the browser search function. Great suggestion.
Jen

On Wed, Sep 25, 2019 at 01:20 PM, J White wrote:

I can't for the life of me find a search function for the Help files. What am I missing?

There are no help files per se...it's all on a single page. I often use my browser search function to find content on long pages such as this. In Google Chrome, you can bring up the search dialog by pressing Ctrl-F. I believe it's the same for most other desktop browsers...I cannot speak with authority regarding any mobile device you might be using.

The GMF wiki (/g/GroupManagersForum/wiki/home) is also a good first place to go look up things.?

Finally, there is a very brief FAQ section on the Pricing page at?/static/pricing

Hope this helps,
Bruce
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The system Help is your friend.??/static/help

Thank you, Bruce. I'll give it a go and will report back if I run into problems.

One other question, please... your tag line is >The system Help is your friend.??/static/help?<
but I can't for the life of me find a search function for the Help files. What am I missing?
Searching for topics or words would make using the Help pages far easier for me.
I turn to the GroupManagersForum for answers more often because there is a Search function at the top.
Sorry if it's right in front of my eyes on the Help page. I hate to take your time.
Thanks!
Jen

On Wed, Sep 25, 2019 at 12:46 PM, J White wrote:

Can I merge the accounts, as Owner? Both accounts are tagged as "Owner".

Yes. Instructions are available here:?

/g/GroupManagersForum/wiki/Profile-and-Email-Address-and-Merging-Accounts

Last I heard, it was still possible to accidentally delete the last group Owner via an account merge. So make absolutely sure that both accounts own the group before attempting this.?

I understand the general steps for merging but how does this impact each account, and is it important to merge from old to new or new to old, in order to keep the original start date and connection to the old posts?

Yes, it is important. I suggest you merge the new account into the old one. To do so, you will need to first log in under the new account and have email access to the old one.? After the merge, what you are calling your "new account" will no longer exist.

If you subsequently want to change the email address on the remaining account back to the newer one, that is easily done, using the instructions found on the "Changing your email address" section of same wiki page linked above.

In either event you should not lose any ownership of group content that you had before.

I don't want to lose my new profile information and photo -- do I have to copy those over to the old account first?

Yes. Profile information is most easily accessed from?/account?page=viewprofile

Hope this helps,
Bruce?
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The system Help is your friend.??/static/help

I recently had a new member go back and delete every message she had posted, which took every reply members wrote. It was a little shocking. I felt the threads were valuable, especially to all the new members. I contacted her privately, and she said she felt shame and feared her questions were too simple for the level of experience in the group, even though she had received many good replies. I asked her not to do that again, since her questions were undoubtedly wondered by others new to the industry, and also because many people had spent time providing helpful answers. People are not going to bother responding to questions if they are simply deleted.

Then I immediately changed the settings so that no members could edit or delete their own posts. Just too easy to do for some people!

I decided that if a group member really wants to make edits to their message, they can contact me privately and ask me, as Owner, to do it for them. They can send me what to copy/paste onto the message. I don't think it'll happen too often.

Jen